Are you ready for BMX?

You might have heard that BMX is an awesome, family focused sport? I think that is totally true, and of my family of six, I am the only one that doesn’t live and breathe BMX from April to October.

It is also one of the few sports you can start from two – yes, two years old! It is obviously a bike based sport, so there are a few things to consider regarding your child’s familiarity with a bike before launching them down the track.

But first, are you ready? The younger children (Mini wheelers) ride balance bikes and guess what – they need a parent to chase them around the track! A little bit of basic fitness is required, and you might like to consider wearing a sports bra if you get movement in that area with running. If you really can’t run, there are usually people to help out, but it can be a little chaotic so it’s nice to have someone for each child at least the first few times.

Once your child is riding pedals, things change. You aren’t allowed on the track at all. So if there is a crash involving your child, you need to be able to let the first aid crew handle it in the first instance. And pretty well every child is going to crash, you’ll need to be ready with bandaids and cuddles.

There is also a reasonable time commitment, with training once a week and racing on Friday nights. Little ones can be very tired by this time, so a good rest on Friday afternoon is a great idea. All families that ride at Hedland BMX also need to do four volunteering sessions per year for your rider to be eligible for a trophy. This is capped at six per family though, so even if you have three children racing, it’s not too much of a burden (and can even be fun).

Beginning with walking the bike at 20 months, to running and beginning to glide down slopes at about 2 and a half.

Your two year old will be riding a balance bike – no pedals. They don’t have to wear a full face helmet, but I have seen enough teeth through lips to suggest it is a good idea. Practice wearing a helmet of some sort every time they ride their bike, so when they come to race this isn’t a big deal to them. Spend plenty of time practicing running and gliding on their bikes, and practicing turning. It is a really good idea to get your child familiar with riding up and down slopes. In Hedland, the Port Skate Park or the little track at Shay Gap park are good for this. Mini wheelers can usually have a staggered start, so you don’t need to worry too much about riding around other people.

Once your child can ride a bike with pedals, they can start thinking about transitioning to Sprockets, as long as they are over three. Our kids all had a short time period with trainer wheels on their every day bikes while they still rode Mini wheelers at BMX. This was to help them consolidate the skills of pedaling and using the brakes. The only problem with brakes is that BMX bikes use a hand operated brake and most little kid pedal bikes have back brakes, so they will probably need to practice riding their BMX bike on flat ground to master turning and braking before hitting the track. They need to be able to ride pretty straight as well, as when they are all coming down the start hill together, there can be carnage if someone rides across in front of other riders. If they have already been doing Mini wheelers, this usually isn’t a problem.

Training wheels and working out flat pedals at around 3, whilst riding mini wheelers independently, then practicing with pedals on the track - and very pleased about it!

When they are getting around the track well on pedals, they also need to practice standing with flat pedals. BMX riders never sit down when they are riding, the seats just seem to be for looking cool whilst sitting on your bike between races. Encourage them to do this when you are going for rides so they can incorporate this with their other skills on the track. It usually only takes a couple of weeks for the new Sprockets to be able to ride up all the hills, and the track officials will give them a push if they get stuck when they are first starting out.

The other thing that can be hard with moving up to Sprockets is that children need to wait in the staging area and listen out for their names. Parents can support them with this, and our stagers are good at looking out for little ones – especially those that don’t know numbers yet! Each rider is given a numbered lane that they will race in, and they have to remember that as they are moving up to the gate. One of the reasons I love BMX for little kids is that it gives them practice of so many other skills apart from riding. At the end of each race, encourage kids to high 5 or fist bump the other race competitors and cheer for other kids. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t, and for the younger age groups, there are actually no places recorded. Everyone is there to have fun.

Into sprockets just before her fourth birthday, but still can’t stand. around six is able to be off the seat for the whole track, and how it’s going at nine.

And that really is the thing that is most important – as much as you might like your child to race BMX, unless they are ready to spend time learning how to ride, they probably aren’t going to have much fun on the track.

However, you might feel an odd calling to put on a helmet and jump on a bike…

See you at the track soon.