Lesson didnt go too well :(

Had my second 'assessment/lesson' at the training centre yesterday.

As you can tell from my previous postings I was really looking forward to it. The first lesson had gone so well, even the instructor said so - but as the person who was also training with me fell of her bike, we ran out of time so they offered to give me another free lesson before putting me in for my CBT. The idea is they like to assess how good you are rather than booking you straight onto CBT like some test centres do .

Anyway - turned up and the lesson was with 1 moped rider, another newbie lady biker. Both of which werent too bad, however the instructor was different to the one i had last time, and having looked at my notes, i think he assumed i knew exactly what i was doing re:gears etc etc.

Now the first lesson i had was only 1 hour, so it made me feel a bit nervous being seen as the one who had a bit more experience than the others - especially as the first lesson had gone so so well.

We covered U-Turns, slow control, figures of 8, and by the end of it i was a complete nervous wreck. Whilst the instructor had a sense of humour and was quite bubbly, he really really knocked my confidence - so much so that im not sure if i will continue with riding. i am sure i will bounce back as i really really want to learn - its just that i am now dreading going back.

The instructor said not to worry as it sometimes happens when someone turns up and is excellent on their first lesson and then really awful on their second as they have left their brains at home, therefore he would not be recommending that i do my CBT and would need more lessons.

He also said i was too rigid in my wrists and arms in the figure of 8 and looked too robotic. He was saying this as i was trying to do the manouevure which really really knocked me as i was really trying to do what i was told. He then wondered why i struggled to find 1st and park the bike. i was almost shaking as it was about 1 and 1/2 hours worth of criticism. WHilst i TOTALLY appreciate criticism/comments from the instructor, as i know he is the one who knows what he is talking about, i felt really low from the whole experience, and pretty humiliated as we had an audience of about 8 ppl watching our lesson (god knows where they were from) and it was also in front of the other students.

feel really low about the whole experience - am i being too sensitive?

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by magical_mover

feel really low about the whole experience - am i being too sensitive?

Possibly, from what you've posted before I think you make it worse in your head by worrying about stuff, its almost like you talk yourself out of doing it, rather than having a positive attitude towards riding.

But... your instructor shouldnt be making you nervous or knocking your confidence, any half decent instructor would have picked up on your nerves and done something to re-assure you, he might well have been trying to do this but you'd got so down on yourself then nothing he was going to say was going to help.

Sometimes you just get days where it doesnt click, I remember on my training I had one morning where I coudlnt get anything right, so did my brother. We sat very despondant with a cup of tea at the lunch break, and we were both hating it.

We had a chat, got our heads sorted out, and decided we'd ride a bit slower and give ourselves more time to do all the stuff we needed to do, and then in the afternoon, whoah everything clicked and we got on much better, when we got back to the training school, we both got told "If you ride like you have this afternoon you'll pass your tests no problem"

TBH why dont you try another training school, the lot your with dont sound very organised and if they arent helping your confidence you'll never get yourself sorted out.

It really is about staying relaxed, remembering to breathe, keep your head up and look where you want the bike to go, and having a positive mental attitude, dont say "I cant do this", say to yourself out loud ( nobody will hear you over the bike ) "I can nail this U turn / emergency stop / junction" or whatever you're doing at the time. It'll help trust me.

Ok, you had a bad day. But there are some things for you to ponder on! Did you gain anything from the lesson? There's always something to be learnt. We all have bad days, I remmber when i had lessons for driving, some days i would be good and the next lesson I would be crap!

It would certainly help having a constant instructor - why dont you ask the school if you can have the same instructor all the time? That way, he/she will pick up on what your good at, and what your not, and concentrate on the things you need to get better at. Also, they'll learn a bit about you as a person, and work out the best way to teach you.

Anyway, don't give up. Think about the things you need to improve on, be proud of the things you know your good at. One thing you can do well is one less thing to think about!

Matt

[yorkie_chris]

My first lesson was much the same, was pretty much constant rollockings for riding like I do off-road, just couldn't chill out and by the end of it was thinking maybe I'm not cut out for road riding.
But stick at it, maybe change instructors, perhaps a friend can lend you a bike to have a play on in a car park or something to get the control so it feels natural, then you can concentrate on the theory of things rather than worrying about what the bikes doing.
It'll come to you, the army a while back did a study and it showed that people who took a while to pick something up did it just as well as someone who got it straight away.

Chris

On the day of my test, my instructor took me out for half hour before, I totally screwed it up!! When I went for the test, I passed. You'll never be perfect, even after the test, I still make mistakes, but we all learn. Hope it goes ok for you, good luck.

I changed from Bikeability in Telford to Fast Trak in Shrewsbury for almost exactly the same reasons - instructor criticised for an hour and a half, I told them to Foxtrot Oscar. New lot had a completely different approach, like Fizz has written, felt a lot more comfortable. It's worth making a few calls.

But persevere, you won't regret it.

Magic Mover,

Did you tell your instructor everything above? Did you point out to him how his lessons has come over?

Don't be afraid to do so because without this feedback he'll keep doing it thinking that everything is fine. If you let him know, if he's a good instructor, he'll take it on board and change the way he does things.

I instruct for a living (fly fishing) and I know exactly what you are talking about. I went through a very similar thing when I was heading up to my instructor exams. I met a very accomplished instructor who "volunteered" to give me some "advise" despite already being in the middle of a paid tune up lesson. After 30 minutes of his "advise" I was ready to cancel everything and get back on the plane home without taking the test.
He shattered my confidense completely.

I took the test and passed and went on to really enjoy what I do. But a few years later, I actually contacted this gentleman who dented my confidence and informed him of this. He actually had no idea that he'd done this and changed his approach so it didn't happen again.

On the day we (instructors) don't usually get feedback. I'm lucky enough to be able to read what my clients write about my lessons online so I have access to this feedback and can change things if someome found a particular part of the day needed attension.

So don't be afraid to talk to your instructor. If he's any good at what he does, he'll listen to you and take onboard your concerns.

And don't worry about your CBT The reason you were robotic is precisely becasue you *were* worried. Relax and it'll all come together.

Good luck!

Carl

Originally Posted by magical_mover

We covered U-Turns, slow control, figures of 8, and by the end of it i was a complete nervous wreck. Whilst the instructor had a sense of humour and was quite bubbly, he really really knocked my confidence - so much so that im not sure if i will continue with riding. i am sure i will bounce back as i really really want to learn - its just that i am now dreading going back.

Don't let it get you down just go for it, when I did my training had a great CBT and ride out. First day of DAS was a disaster as I had a new instructor who ran the school and he gave us such a hard time. At the end of the day on the debrief he said that it all went well, but I hated it, I felt nervous all day, unable to do anything U turns, missed instructions due to nerves and bollockings. When I was leaving the centre I met the guy who'd taken me for my CBT, he asked how it went and I told him badly! He said not too worry, the instructor just has a way of expecting really high standards, if it had been bad we'd have ended up back in the car park. Loathingly I booked the 2nd day and from then it was plain sailing, day one had made me more determined to do it.

Looking back it was the best thing that could have happended, he didn't let anything get passed him and that stood me in such good stead for the future. Best bit of advice I could give you is to remember why you are there, to learn to ride safely and not to make friends so go back and tell them you want a different instructor who you feel comfortable but rememeber you will make mistakes and they need to tell you about them if you are to pass your test, don't take it personally.

Keep at it!

My second introductory session was yesterday, I was riding with a bloke doing a DAS intro on an ER-5 and there was me on my CG125 (a brand new one they've perhaps stupidly given me to learn on) and at the end of the hour, they were like 'yeah we're going to book you another one, you need to keep your head up more and work on riding the clutch round corners' so I was a little bit like, oh, okay then. But then he said that they teach all this stuff on CBT day but if you know it before it's so much better.

So, the way I see it, is that, I've ridden for 2 hours in my life and if clutch and head position is the only problem so far, that's not too bad. Plus, it means I get another free hour after my CBT.

If you think to yourself that you know you have things to work on, it gives you targets to aim for.

Originally Posted by chakraist

'yeah we're going to book you another one, you need to keep your head up more and work on riding the clutch round corners'

Head up - fine.
But - riding the clutch round corners