Beta test of our first online MTB Practice Jam
Good stuff. Improvement needed. More jams planned
A dozen subscribers joined a month-long beta test of our first MTB online Practice Jam, which started on November 12 and ended on December 11.
This small community of riders generated 90+ posts with hundreds of comments. Participants practiced various riding skills, but I didn't do any skills coaching. The focus was on learning how to practice better, using the Elements of MTB Practice.
MTB Practice Jam History
Ryan Leech, the founder of RLC, has done on-site practice jams for years (Sedona MTB Festival example here). As an RLC coach, I led an online practice jam for trackstands and jumping in 2018. In 2019, I led another jam for the Baseline Balance Skills course (track stands, hopping, and rocking). And in 2021, the entire RLC coaching team hosted a 5-week Bunny Hop Challenge.
Last August, a few weeks after I launched the MTB Practice Lab, I started a discussion titled, Let's experiment with an online MTB practice jam. Here's a draft of the idea for your feedback. And in early November, I invited participants to Join our first online MTB Practice Jam: You'll be part of a month-long small group to improve your riding and practice skills.
Jam Feedback
At the end of the jam, I asked participants to complete an anonymous survey about their experience. Among the comments:
Rate your level of satisfaction with the quality of the Jam's structure and content
There are many videos about what skills to practice, but very few about learning how to practice. The material put forward was different and relevant
Was some great food for thought and some good mental and physical tools to use going forward
I thought that the inclusion of not a skill but an aspect of the theory and process of practicing at the beginning of each week was great and very YOU!
A focused learning skill per week may be a useful addition
Rate your level of satisfaction with the interactions you had with other Jam participants
All were receptive to observations and suggestions and engaged.
Everyone was practicing a different skill. However, comments and answers were relevant to the process of how to learn and did not drift into the mechanics of the particular skill.
Very positive and thoughtful group. Quite enjoyable to read other people’s feedback!
The community is great. We all learned, I think.
It was a good mixed cohort with a variety of skills & opinions
Rate your level of satisfaction with the interactions you had with Jam leader Griff Wigley
Griff was engaged throughout the Jam, pushing challenging questions and making focused observations. Griff stayed focused on the learning process rather than digging into the weeds of the skill being practiced
Both group and individual interactions were all on point. Griff also showed his success and failures. Many coaches only show the best attempts
Griff’s a gift to the biking community! Always good feedback and advice to implement and contemplate the why and how.
Griff is committed to the art of learning, and it shows in his direction of the participants.
You commented on almost every post made - I'd almost dial it back a bit next time to limit the load on yourself. And I thoroughly enjoyed our zoom catchup.
See one of my practice jam activity reports
I practiced with everyone else during the Jam, and that included filing weekly plans and weekly session activity reports.
I’ve published my week 2 session #2 activity report to the web-only MTB Practice Jam Substack because it shows a practice regimen progression (not a riding skill progression) from a post I published in early November. Click here to see my report:
