Our club ethos is about helping young riders to get the most out of cycling. That means having fun, learning new skills and getting the support they need to get into cycling of any sort, from mountain biking and cyclocross to track and road. We are always looking for trainee coaches or assistants, as well as non-cycling volunteers to help us with this. We have a range of roles to suit different skills and availabilities and hope that parents will commit to at least 8 hours of volunteering a year to support the club. This might be helping out at one or two specific events, coming along on Saturday morning rides as a coach-helper or getting involved behind the scenes, in a time that suits you. We’re also happy to welcome non-parent volunteers, who want to develop their skills, either as a cycling coach or in a non-cycling role. Contact: volunteer@glasgowriderz.co.uk
Thinking about volunteering as a coach?
Getting started…
You don’t need to be an expert at all types of cycling or racing or have any experience with coaching. If you’re interested in getting involved, get in touch and we’ll arrange for you to come and shadow some of the other coaches and act as a coach assistant. We need coaches / assistants and ride leaders on Saturday mornings at Bellahouston Park (10-12) as well as on Thursday nights (when we coach cyclocross at Pollok or crit racing outside of the velodrome, depending on the time of year). In the winter, we do indoor sessions on rollers on Monday nights.
Developing your skills…
Once you’ve had a bit of experience with the club and decided it’s for you, we will match you up with a coach mentor and have a look at how you can develop your coaching skills. A first step might be the L1 Cycle Coaching course through Scottish Cycling, which teaches you some of the technical coaching skills you need as well as how to plan and run a session for kids that is both safe and fun. This could progress onto learning from British Cycling coaches at Regional Schools of Racing, doing road, track or mountain-bike specific coaching courses or learning more generally about health, nutrition, sports psychology and physiology. We also organise first aid training, which you need to do before registering for a coaching course.
All coaches need a PVG check* and have to commit to coaching at least six additional sessions (after your qualification) should the club pay for you to do any of these courses.
*PVG stands for protection of vulnerable groups – we’ll sort this out for you and you don’t need to pay anything – talk to the club welfare officers, who need to see your photo ID and will give you a form
There are loads of reasons for wanting to coach, whether it’s about putting something back into your sport, getting more kids into cycling or learning new skills and making friends. Have a read at the coach profiles below to see what they each get out of it. Most would agree that coaching has improved their own skills and confidence as a rider and a racer. And we also get some pretty funky waterproof jackets!
What other volunteering jobs are there?
A full list of volunteer roles are below. These are hugely important to the smooth and safe running of the club. If you think you can spare a bit of time to help with these we’d really appreciate you getting involved.
Organising jobs
- Kit orders and distribution
- Sign-on desk from 9.30am on a Saturday morning
- Helping with the Riderz website, facebook page or writing a blog post
- Putting some info up on the BC website at the start of every block
- Bike maintenance – taking care of the bikes the club owns
- Looking for funding or sponsorship
- Volunteer coordinator – helping with recruiting, supporting and celebrating the club’s volunteers
Time commitment for most of these roles is flexible so just let us know how you might like to get involved.
Race organisation
The club several events each year. Join the organising team to help with planning events, talking to park or venue authorities, course planning, signage, equipment and promotion.
Or help out on the day as a marshall, setting up the course, acting as the First Aid contact or helping on registration or the cake stall. Or bake cakes to raise funds for the club!
We have a track omnium taking place all day on 7th May, dirt crits on Wednesday evenings at Pollok park during the Spring and a cyclocross event in January.
Committee roles
- Chair – manages the committee and AGM, thinks about the future planning and direction for the club
- Head Coach – plans how riders progress through the groups in the club, helps identify appropriate races for riders to target
- Secretary- organises committee meetings, club membership, working with Scottish Cycling, Glasgow Life and park authorities/ other coaching venues
- Treasurer – looks after club funds and purchasing equipment
- Welfare Officer: offer support / advice on welfare issues in line with British Cycling’s ‘Safeguarding and Protecting Children Policy’. Organises PVG process for volunteers. Works with secretary on consent forms and policies. Welfare Officers attend the scUK workshop on ‘Good practice and Child Protection’.
- New roles include Social Convenor, Parent and Youth member.
We welcome anyone who wants to get involved and can organise shadowing of roles so that you can understand how they work before committing to anything. If you’d like to find out more about what these roles involve, contact Elizabeth, our volunteer coordinator.
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