Trials A-grader Jarrod Bowen grew up in the sport of trials, and having experienced the benefits of good coaching first hand, he’s determined to give back to the sport by sharing his experience and guidance with as many riders as possible. The nice part is, he now coaches in partnership with his former childhood coach – Lyndon Blake.
When did you start with your coaching role?
I guess coaching for me started about 2 and a half years ago, when I came back into motorcycle trials after I had a few years off. Lyndon Blake who is a Level 2 coach pushed me into it a little bit with some guidance from him. I started getting good feedback from the club members so I just kept with it. Lyndon was my coach as a kid, and is still, in a lot of different things, and these days is my best mate as well.
That’s so great that life has turned out that way, that you are able to work with someone you looked up to when you were younger.
Yes. It’s also come full circle in that he coaches me a lot in enduro and a little bit of motocross, and now I coach him in trials. It’s really come full circle.
What do you like about the coaching?
I like to help people, but there are a few little things that often pop up that make trials a lot harder than it needs to be, and if you can pick them up early on, people enjoy their riding a lot more and get a lot more out of it.
You said before that club members were responding to your coaching. What do you think it is about it that people were responding to?
With my coaching format I tend to break one major obstacle down into three or four components and then finish off the session with the major obstacle, which is usually something that the rider thought they couldn’t do at the start of the day.
Where do you generally coach?
Mainly at the moment we coach at QMP because we hold a lot of our club rounds there. It’s just a handy place and the facilities are great. Basically the toilets, showers and the café are super popular, and they make it easy for camping, because what we’ll usually do is, we’ll have coaching the day before the competition. It’s great for people not to have to drive 2-3 hours out and back both days.
And do you coach mainly new or current trials riders?
At the moment we’ve mainly just been helping the current crop of riders, but definitely the people who are able to improve as riders remain with the sport more so than riders who are just left to work it out for themselves.
How do you go with the enduro riders who want the cross-training benefits – do they come away feeling like they’ve become better enduro riders by riding trials?
Absolutely. 100% no doubt. The two main areas are clutch control and throttle control, but also it’s the body position, how to move around the bike – get forward on the bike, get back on the bike. Trials is all about moving on the bike.
Thanks for your time, Jarrod. All the best
No worries.
