Who my Cycling Lessons are for

A Rider-Lead Approach

My lessons are always rider lead – that means whoever it is I am teaching, well, they lead the lesson and I try to guide them, the best I can, to achieve their goals. Private lessons are a great way to maximise this possibility, as all of the focus can be on the person I am teaching, and we can pace things exactly how they need to be paced and to set our goals accordingly. Lessons can be all fun and games or more serious – or a mixture of all above!

The lessons I offer in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Amersfoort, Hilversum – and beyond!) for people of all ages and abilities. Please see below to see how credentials in this regard and how I adapt my sessions to suit the rider

Children’s Lessons

Much of my day-to-day was spent teaching in schools and in the community across London and Birmingham, in the UK, on the government’s Bikeability programme. We’d typically teach from the age 4 or 5 up 16 – going on the road from around age 9. From teaching kids how to ride an all they way up to teaching them how to handle complex on-road situations I honed, over the past 9 years, the delicate skill of making lessons really fun whilst also making sure they are risk-managed and well managed/ disciplined.

Safeguarding is extremely important in this regard and there is a great deal of responsibility that comes with teaching kids this important life-skill. Lessons can involve lots of fun and games – but they can also be super serious: it all depends on who is being taught. I have always practiced a rider-lead approach to teaching, as what works for one person will not work so easily for another.

I offer 3 basic levels to my training – check them out, below:

Adults Lessons

Over the years I have worked with many adults to help them doing everything from learn how to ride (it’s never too late!) to helping them gain the confidence they need to commute to work (or wherever they might want to go…). When I lived in London there was funding available for free cycling lessons across the entire city – and given that London is in the middle of a veritable cycling boom (doubling its cycling journey share in ten years or so!) many people wanted, understandably, to jump (back) on the bike and to give it a go.

Sometimes it is a matter of helping a parent improve their skills a bit so they can ride with their kids – but het maakt niet uit – whatever your goal is, we can work on a plan and appropriate structure that helps us achieve our goals, whilst also having a bunch of fun!

I offer 3 basic levels to my training – check them out, below:

Lessons for Vulnerable Adults and Kids

I worked, during my time in the UK, with a charity called Midland Mencap – a disability charity who have a cycling project targeted at helping those who a more tailored approach, with adapted cycles and lower numbers per lesson. Whatever level of Special Education Need (SEN) or physical need it was great to learn how to adapt my sessions to empower people to grow in confidence and to find the joy of cycling.

And whilst working in school and with my private clients I’d commonly work with kids with autism and ADHD, amongst a range of other needs. You can see some of the testimonials from parents in my testimonials section, but, quite simply, it was so much fun to work with the creativity that kids with SEN can bring – yes, there can be elements of vulnerability that come along, too, but we all have elements of vulnerability within us!

I found that my students could teach me so much about how to teach lessons, as they’d always have new ways to approach to do things – and since my teaching style is rider-lead, it was great to be lead and to be shown how to do my job 🙂 My teaching style always aims to give space to the student, to allow them to dictate the pace of lessons and I always seek agreement on where we head next. In that way they are empowering.

I offer 3 basic levels to my training – and all of these can be adapted to suit the needs of the rider: