Riding a bike with training wheels or any aid is not riding
a bike. If a child is really riding a bike on his/her own it
means only the child and his/her bike are involved in the
activity.
Regardless of
a beginner's age or interest, there is a simple Joules
test for checking if a beginner has
the physical coordination and quickness necessary to keep
a bicycle in balance.
The physical forces of bicycle balancing guarantee (click
for more info) that a beginner with quick enough reflex and
sufficient muscle strength will be able to ride a bike.
Pedal Magic arms you with the ability to teach any such
person to ride easily and safely in minutes.
Joules test for bike riding
coordination
This test is not an element of the Pedal
Magic method but is still capable of assessing a child's
general physical readiness and ability to propel and
balance a bicycle. Pedal Magic will tell you exactly
within minutes when your child has been made safe and ready
for launch.
- Stand about a yard away facing your child.
- Toss a ball to either side of your child, far enough
away so that she has to move her upper body to reach
for the ball. Do this several times to see how well
she does.
- If your child reacts in less than a second to catch
the ball, she may have the right reaction time
and coordination to be able to balance a bike.
Note: She does not have to catch the ball, only
come close enough to catching, indicating that she has
the ability to react quickly, mentally and physically,
to motion stimuli.
Do not put your child on a bike unless she passes the
coordination test and has the strength and ability
to handle a bike on her own. She should have the
potential to handle the bike without any aid -- either
from you or from any supporting hardware or device.
Bike handling potential
Your child should be able to propel a bike by pedaling,
as well as paddling on the ground with both feet.
Do not remove pedals. In the early stages, after the
launch by the parent and riding on their own,
children will be paddling to launch themselves.
Everything in Pedal Magic strikes right at the heart of
bicycle balancing without any aids, eliminating all
unnecessary effort and diversions for both child and
parent.
Note: Some non-Pedal-Magic parents teach their
kids to launch by pushing down on pedals positioned at a
certain point. But getting a bike moving this way from a
point of rest requires more muscle strength. It also introduces balancing risks
in the critical early stage. Positioning pedals at a
certain point before pushing off, etc. are
time-consuming and frustrating for children who have
already mastered balancing in just minutes with Pedal
Magic. Muscle strength
- Propelling by pedaling requires muscle strength. If
your child is very young or small, you may want to
check if she has the muscle strength to pedal while
you hold the bike up.
- Do not run or let your child fall, etc. when you do
this. You just want to check if she has enough muscle
strength to move the bike a little.
- If you use a bike with training wheels while
checking muscle strength make sure neither training
wheel is touching the ground. Training wheels cause
drag, distorting test
results. It requires less
muscle strength to propel a bike without training
wheels. You do not want to conclude your child does
not have enough muscle strength when s/ he actually does
have enough strength to ride a bike.
Tricyle vs quadcycle
- If a child does not pass the coordination, pedaling
and paddling tests to advance from tricycle to
bicycle, do not force her to retreat to a quadcycle
(bicycle with training wheels).
- Odds are 1 out of 3 that quadcycles delay learning,
and 1 out of 9 that they will program a child with
training wheels dependencies that are hard to break
without effective intervention.
- Tricycle is the best device for teaching your child
to pedal and brake at an early age. The kid next door
may have a quadcycle, but she may be struggling to
learn to ride a bike several years from now because of
it.
With smaller and smaller quadcycles appearing on retail
shelves, cultural programming of parents to put children
on training wheels at the earliest possible age is very
subliminal and immensely powerful.
If your child passes all three tests, but has training
wheels dependencies, Pedal Magic has a remedial process
for extinguishing training wheels conditioning and
starting over with the right conditioning required to
balance a bicycle. |
