I have been coaching BMX for most of my life, my most recent role as High Performance BMX Head Coach for Cycling Canada. My coaching experience and proven track record as both a High Performance and development BMX Coach allows me to train and teach any athlete at any level of development. This can be attributed to my experience that has been developed since I began my coaching career in 1994. Since beginning my career as an international coach I have worked with and continue to develop both World and Olympic Champions. In my coaching career I have coached 5 UCI Elite World Champions, over 40 challenge World Champions, 5 ABA (American Bicycle Association) Pro Champions and a silver medalist at the 2012 London Olympics (Sarah Walker).
CampCools training camps began in 1994 and have continually taught camps and clinics thru the entire span of that time. Camps have been run all over Canada and the USA as well as New Zealand under the CampCools banner. During the years of 2000-2005 I lived in California USA and became the head trainer and partner of “SuperCamp” which is a USA based coaching company. The average of 300 days a year on the road doing camps and races during my time with SuperCamp allowed me to fine tune my skills of coaching and organization of camps.
The trainers that assist me on my camps all have been seasoned racers with plenty of experience to back up their knowledge and a few of them have been working with me for over 15 years. This has allowed me train the trainers on how to be great coaches, give constructive feedback and how to mentally kick start the kids. The level of coaches that my camps have produced is one of the areas I am the proudest.
ChPC – Chartered Professional Coach thru Coaches of Canada
NCCP Level 4 Coaching Certification-highest possible achievement
Health Coach – Institute of Integrative Nutrition
Camp Layout:
There is always a wide range of ages (4-65) and skill levels (beginner to Elite) that attend each camp and we make sure to cover and teach all skill sets for each level and push each individual athletes according to their own ability.
The speeches that are given on all major areas of the race track have been developed over the years to a point where the progression of the skills taught will be a reflection of the abilities of those kids in attendance. Areas that will be taught on the track are:
Gates
Pumping
Manualing (single, double, nose, multiple)
Jumping
Corners (If track has good turns)
Race lines and tactical approach
A number of subjects will also be covered off the track, which will have a psychological component to them. Areas covered are:
Self believe and Self confidence
Pre-race routine
Goal Setting
Race Day Prep
Trainers:
I will be the head trainer at every camp that is put on and will be in attendance 100% of the time. In the past I have tried to have a ratio of (1 trainer: 7 athletes) at the camps and in general this works great until a certain point. My opinion is that when there are less trainers they actually work better and are more engaged with the athletes in attendance as too many trainers sometimes takes away from the kids on the track. Thus I will be running with a smaller group of trainers on the larger camps as it has been proven to show the kids get more out of the camp.
The trainers that I use for my camps are all currently or have in the past raced at a very high level but more importantly they have the ability to share their knowledge with other rides. Just because you can ride does not necessarily mean you can help others ride and the trainers that I use as my primary assistants are great at both, especially the coaching aspect.
