Saturday, 25 June 2011

4. Pre Learners Day 1

Today, I did day 1 of the Pre Learners course and it was one the more horrible days I've had (and I pre warn that this is going to be a rather long post).

I got to the rider training centre fairly early and waited around until the other learners streamed in. We all had a bit of a chat and learnt a little about each other before being split into two classes. I ended up with a guy instructor. Unfortunately, I don't recall his name... I don't actually know if he even introduced himself.

He was a fairly new instructor and was teaching the course as per the booklet he was given. At the start, I fell twice while my buddy was pushing the motorcycle (only to find out much later it was because it was in the wrong gear hence the fall).

After an uneventful start, I was doing a little better and was riding fairly well in a straight line and turning left. However, my downfall was turning right. After two laps, the instructor came up to me and told me this lap was my last go and if I got it wrong, I was out of class. He did not bother explaining how I should get it right either. At this point, I was quite flustered and asked if he could position me at the back of the class and his response was again "No. Go now. This is your last shot!".

His other words during the day were: "this is a structured class and there is not enough time to help people who can't follow."

Well, no surprise, I got kicked out of day 1. I felt incredibly humiliated (I did hold back my tears and got through the rest of the day standing and following him while the class continued).

I thought the point of the pre learners was to learn. I learnt nothing today except lose my confidence. At the end of the day, I asked again what I did wrong and what I could do to improve and his response was: "You did everything wrong. This is all too much information for you. Just go to remedial and you will be ok."

As I walked out of the centre, I started crying. I felt HORRIBLE! All I wanted to do was learn to ride a motorcycle... ... ...

No comments:

Post a Comment