142 – Junior MTB Development And Riding in Canberra, Australia with Dynamic Motivation
Todays Guest:
Mic Longhurst – Founder and Owner of Dynamic Motivation & We Ride Mountain Bikes
On episode #142 we are chatting with Mic Longhurst the founder and owner of both Dynamic Motivation and We Ride Mountain Bikes. Mic has been riding bikes since around 1989 and has competed in just about every discipline there is, but these days he is mostly dedicated to running top notch trips, coaching junior development and riding in his home town of Canberra, Australia.
After leaving his career in I.T. Mic decided he wanted to follow his passions and do something in the mountain bike field. He already had experience coaching in the outdoor adventure world so transferring those skills to two wheels was the obvious way to go. Mic decided to set up Dynamic Motivation, a coaching and skills training centre to cater to the growing number of mountain bikers in his area. He attained the required coaching qualifications (and many more!) and has never looked back.
Mic now runs Dynamic Motivation with his wife and daughter full time, has won the 2019 Canberra Tourism Adventure Award and has been developing junior riders for over 8 years. So tune in and find out how Mic and his team are producing racers, coaches and guides of the future and why we all should be offering something similar to our mountain bike youth.
Enjoy the show!
Find Out:
- Why Mic left his career to start Dynamic Motivation
- How Mic changed his business model to suit what his customer base wanted
- What Dynamic Motivation does and why it is so successful
- The different types of courses Mic runs
- Why coaching and training his staff is so important
- Why Mic focuses on junior development coaching rather than race coaching
- How to get access the Mic’s free online skills courses
- What the We Ride Mountain Bikes Facebook group is all about
- The different types of memberships and how they work
- How the group has grown to over 21K members
- How you can get involved
- What trips the group have done over the last year
- Future trips in the planning
- How to get in contact and follow Dynamic Motivation and We Ride Mountain Bikes
When Mic and his team were looking at different ways to promote Dynamic Motivation and get more people involved, they came up with the idea of starting a Facebook group. After deciding that they wanted to build more of a community type group, get people involved and help with issues and questions you may have as a rider, ‘We Ride Mountain Bikes’ was formed (see link below). The group has gone form strength to strength and now has over 21 thousand members from all around the world. The group now offers more than just free skills videos and advice. You can join ‘The Club’, section and get access to cheap holidays and adventures aimed at deeply passionate riders who dare to dream of amazing trips and then go all out to turn those dreams into a reality. We chat about past trips and what is in the pipeline for the near future.
After certain restrictions had been lifted in Australia Mic was inundated with requests for his kids coaching lessons, well over 100 kids were wanting to attend. Mic has seen this grow over the years and has been concentrating his core coaching more and more to developing kids from age 5 to 16 through different classes and skills. This has been such a huge success for Mic that he now offers a number of different kids classes including: Junior MTB Program, Ride Like A Girl, Development Squad and School Holiday Programmes and camps. These are all run by fully qualified coaches and are normally designed to be run in small groups, around 6 or 8:1. For the less experienced young rider Mic also offers a 4:1 ratio.
Mic has also seen the growth in young adults wanting to get more involved and become coaches themselves. Dynamic Motivation offers a number of different coaching courses helping these young guys and girls get the proper qualifications they require to start a career in the coaching and guiding industry, many of whom go on to work in Whistler and many other places. Mic often starts these young guys and girls coaching when they are still at university, looking for summer work and need extra cash. This is a win win situation as it gets them that much needed experience, lets them do something they enjoy rather than working at their local burger joint, gets them extra money, and also helps Mic get the high quality of instructor he requires to run his growing business.
Put your feet up for the next hour and find out how Mic and his crew coach up their youth riders in Australia, and how you can get on that trip of a lifetime with ‘We Ride Mountain Bikes’.
Thanks for tuning in!
To Connect with Mic andDynamic Motivation & We Ride Mountain Bikes:
Dynamic Motivation Website: www.dynamicmotivation.com.au
We Ride Bikes Website: weridemountainbikes.com
Facebook: WeRideMountainBikes
YouTube: dynamicmotivationweridemountainbikes
Skills Videos Page: www.dynamicmotivation.com.au/pages/SkillsVideos
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Thanks so much to Mic for coming on the show, telling his story and filling us in on what great stuff he and his crew are doing in Canberra!
Thank You once again for tuning into the show!
Join me next week for another MTB TRIBE Podcast show.