THE MEETING OF TWO DIFFERENT MTB WORLDS

I remember reading in dirt magazine donkey's years ago about Chris Kovarik's blistering run in Fort William, when he completely destroyed the field in the UCI DH World Cup race, in 2003. It was one thing for my buddy to beat me on a track by 14 seconds, or another thing for some pro rider to completely annihilate my times, but for a top world cup racer to win by a margin that big over his fellow racers (including the likes of Peaty, Gracia, Rennie and Minnaar), was simply mind boggling. Think about it for a second... the speed these guys ride at is pretty damn fast so in terms of distance between riders, 14 seconds equates to a bloody long gap! Imagine someone riding world cup pace and passing a tree. Now count 14 seconds and imagine this; how far away now os the rider from said tree?! Because of this, I often think next to winning times the winning distances should be posted, just to give people a visual idea of how big the gaps are in metres, say, between riders as they cross the finish line. Anyways, I digress...

To this day, this world cup winning margin record is yet to be broken and because of this legendary win, Chris Kovarik has been somewhat of an MTB idol of mine ever since. So how did I feel then when little old me, running my instructor training company in B.C., came across an email from Mrs Kovarik asking if they could both attend the PMBI (Professional Mountain Bike Instructor) Courses this summer? The first thought, I have to admit, that passed through my mind was, "Sweet, I get to ride with Chris Kovarik and Claire Buchar!'. The second thought was, why are these guys wanting to train as an MTB instructor, with me?!

Well, it turned out Chris and Claire had just set up their own coaching company, Kovarik Racing, and they wanted to get certified to teach biking; not just to be certified to "have the piece of paper" but more importantly, as Claire explained, they wanted to make sure that when they were coaching, they were teaching people the right things and teaching as well as they could.

This resonated with me straight away. I've been teaching mountain biking since 1998 and since then have pretty much done most things when it comes to teaching the sport and training instructors; developed teaching programs, operating mtb schools, rental fleets, mechanics, trail building, training instructors... you name it, I've loved doing it and trying to help grow the sport along the way. I've raced for fun, but that's never been my thing with biking. I'm not the fastest or flashiest rider out there... I just try to ride smooth, have fun and get down in one piece so I can do it all again tomorrow.




Having taught mountain biking and mountain bike instructors for over 10 years now, one of the common things we see in successful instructors is the understanding that good riders do not automatically make for good instructors. In other words, teaching is a skill to be learnt just as much as riding is a skill to be learnt. For this reason alone, it was great to see the modesty and self-awareness from Chris and Claire, that despite their highly successful professional racing careers, they still felt they had more to learn.

This is may favourite quality in any coach... to know you can always learn more. The fact that I've been teaching this sport for so long and still learn new things every season, is exactly why I keep going. People ask me often, "What are you going to do when you're older?'. I always say back to them, "Same thing, just a little slower but with more style and less crashing!". I truly believe with the right equipment, technique and mind set, mountain biking can be just as safe as shopping in Wal-Mart (assuming you don't buy food from Wal-Mart), and so anyone can do it. That's why so many different people ride bikes.

And this is what I love about this sport... individuals coming from completely different backgrounds to share a common goal; to learn more about biking. Racer meets Instructor: racer can learn how to teach safely and effectively while instructor can learn more about racing and biking at another level. This summer, my company ZEP MTB Training will be helping Chris and Claire develop their coaching skills to help make their coaching careers as solid and successful as there racing careers. Based out of Whistler in the Canadian summers and out of the Gold Coast for the Australian summers, they'll be a coaching force to be reckoned with. Why? Well, all of the above for sure, but mainly because they're decent, humble people who have a passion for coaching and an awareness that they have some things to learn when it comes to perfecting the art of teaching vs. perfecting the art of riding.


Kovarik Racing Private Clinics in Whistler are available through ZEP MTB Training at www.zeptechniques.com