Learning to Ride a Bike, as an Adult

Swindon Cycle Campaign delivered two days of free ‘Family Learn to Ride’ and ‘Cycle Confidence’ events in early April giving people of all ages a chance to get active on two (and even three) wheels.

Over 50 children and adults developed the confidence to cycle independently at the County Ground athletics track, with valuable support from qualified cycle trainers. Our volunteers were delighted to receive fantastic feedback and to see so many people develop cycle skills for life.

Pat Choi, one of the many adults to attend, learned to cycle for the first time. Pat had tried to learn in the past but, despite many attempts, she just couldn’t grasp the centre back. The manager picks the team so therefore Morris can’t escape the blame on that front.

Under Scott Lindsey, STFC were unremarkable but solid defensively and took pride in a clean sheet. But here’s the difference, Scott Lindsey benefitted from experienced players and a transfer window, Morris has had neither.

Arguably, Morris took over an already sinking ship with the January departures of the experienced Ben Gladwin, Louis Reed and Angus MacDonald. Swindon’s policy of ‘moneyball’ is a widely successful recruitment model in football. However, it can only be successful when younger players are integrated amongst experienced professionals. Unfortunately for Swindon, technical director Sandro

Di Michele decided that the services of his longest serving players were no longer required. This left Morris with an unbalanced youthful squad which would never have the knowledge to secure promotion. It’s laughable that someone at Swindon believed that a bunch of kids, no matter their talent, could get out of League 2. It’s no coincidence that Town have lost so many points when leading, and seen an array of red cards, when there is little guidance from seasoned professionals. But it’s hard to place the blame on just one person. The results under Morris have been awful, but it’s hard to blame him when experienced players had been shipped out in January. Whatever the answer it’s a shame that the excellent progress off the pitch has not been met on the pitch.