Health - What's been happening in 2023?

Trail Therapy is our programme that looks to use mountain biking, to support those experiencing mental ill health. Independently evaluated we know it can be truly transformational for folk who come to us, and folk come to us through the NHS, by self-referrals or through third sector organisations.

We are delighted to now have two Trail Therapy 'hubs' in Scotland. One at Comrie Croft with the support of the amazing Emily and the other up near Aviemore through Cairngorm Confidence Outdoors, delivered by the wonderful Sarah. This is in addition to the programmes being delivered by our Trail Therapy Lead Paul, based in Perthshire (night rides) and in Dundee led by our experienced Trail Therapy volunteer Joe.

So how did these hubs come about? We realised early on that Trail Therapy would need to be supported through Hubs, able to manage the programme in-house, independent to us raising funding.

We would like to thank Trek Bicycles for their sponsorship of Trail Therapy which helps with core funding and marketing.

All programmes are delivered using money you donate through the Scottish MTB Health Fund or from external funding – we really couldn’t do it without your support! Thank you!

2023 has been the year to test the hub model, starting with the development of the DMBinS MTB Trail Therapy Practitioner Course. The course is rigorous. Held over 4 days it consists of a blend of classroom learning, practical outdoor lessons, and a final assessment where participants deliver an MTB Trail Therapy session using the FLOW™ Therapy System.

Participants come from a diverse range of backgrounds including professional MTB coaches and guides, teachers, Mental Health Nurses, and Wellbeing Champions.

They all must be qualified mountain bike leaders, some will be coaches too, all will have shadowed Trail Therapy sessions, be qualified physical and mental health first aiders (or will evidence appropriate prior learning), and will have gone through the Child Wellbeing and Protection Training.

The course itself has been evaluated by those working within the mental health industry and feedback has been extremely positive.

Importantly, the DMBinS MTB Trail Therapy Lead, Paul McFarlane, will continue to support and mentor the newly qualified Practitioners as MTB Trail Therapy is expanded across Scotland. If you are interested in becoming a practitioner and/or a hub, please send an expression of interest to our Christine and we will keep you up to date with up coming course dates in 2024.

Research by Edinburgh Napier University demonstrates the positive benefits of using mountain biking as a way to connect with nature and improve mental health.

The results from this qualitative evaluation provide important insights into the impact of Trail Therapy through interviews with participants and mountain bike leaders involved in delivering the programme.

The emergent themes and categories identified within the research show the unique combination of physical, psychological, social, and natural challenges that are inherent within an MTB therapy approach. These interrelated challenges shape the riders’ experiences on the programme and sit at the centre of what makes it effective.

For further detail of the evaluation read our blog and / or listen to our podcast with Dr Lesley Ingram-Sills below.

This year we welcomed a new Tutor into our Tutor MTB Delivery team – Aneela McKenna - Diversity Dynamo, Chair of British Cycling's D&I Advisory Group, Partner & MTB guide & coach of @gowherescotlandmtb, and Founder of Mòr Diversity! This brings the number of qualified women Tutors in Scotland to just 2. We know that there is still along way to go in terms of representation for those under-represented within our Tutor pool, but every time we introduce a new Tutor we create space for others to be inspired.

2023 also saw us deliver the first in what we hope will be a more regular course that looks to raise awareness and confidence in leaders and tutors when working with those who are physically disabled.

For way too long this community has not had the support it should when it comes to mountain biking and with the help of those with lived experience, Craig from Experience Community and Neil from the Adaptive Riders Collective, we hope to help more folk get into mountain biking through CPD opportunities for leaders and Tutors led by those with the greatest experience and knowledge. Please watch our short film below for more details on this.

With a new Coaching framework, refreshed leadership principles across all awards and the support of the most amazing community 2024 could well be the most exciting year ever and we look forward to you joining us! Bring it on!

When it comes to supporting more people to get on their bikes and give it a try, or even to develop skills to enable them to go further and experience wilder places safely we have an amazing network of mountain bike leaders in Scotland.

These leaders are trained and assessed by our fabulous Tutors, a small number of highly trained individuals who deliver our Leadership Awards from the Fundamentals of Mountain Bike Leadership through to Level 2 and the Level 3 Leadership Awards.

DMBinS, Scottish Cycling and British Cycling work in partnership to create and continue to develop new mountain bike leadership awards and to respond to the changing outdoor educational landscape to ensure the British Cycling Awards reflect the best of adventure leadership teachings. A refreshed take on leadership across all of the British Cycling Leadership Awards started with the introduction of the Fundamentals of Mountain Bike leadership with its principles coming from Transformational Leadership Theory, made easily accessible the Vision, Support Challenge Model. We are now looking to expand this model at Level 2 and Level 3 supporting deeper reflection on the influences on leadership and leadership behaviours ensuring that transformational Leadership is the Golden Thread front and foremost across all of our awards. Not only that, but this is a model being used across many other outdoor adventure sport awards so we are now all talking the same language!

It's super exciting, supporting those folk who aspire to become mountain bike leaders and role models, working as we do with British Cycling and our network of Tutors who, in training new leaders directly support others to get out into nature, get (more) active, explore more, adventure more, get social and have fun in a safe way! Through some bespoke training and mentoring, we have also encouraged more women into mountain bike leadership through the Rider2Leader programme. With the support of Emma from Glenmore Lodge, Emily from Comrie Croft and Aneela of Mor Diversity we have delivered some amazing weekends looking to encourage more women into mountain bike leadership, building confidence and upping the level of technical skill (when needed) to ensure more women engage with the mountain bike leadership programme.

So, if you have ever had an inkling that mountain bike leadership could be for you, maybe you want to help those making their first foray into mountain biking, or maybe supporting those with a desire to upskill and explore, to leave their comfort zone in a safe, supportive and fun way, or even if you would like to enable more folk from within your community, a community you feel is underrepresented but could benefit so much from what mountain biking can offer, then check out the two levels you can get started in your leadership journey below, or you can either go directly to our Tutors, or simply get in touch with us with any questions. We’d love to hear from you!

FunMBL Fundamentals of MTB Leadership (britishcycling.org.uk)

Level 2 Level 2 Mountain Bike Leadership Award (britishcycling.org.uk)

And for those of you intrigued by the Rider2Leader programme, check out our socials in the new year as we look to put in place a brand new programme, with a great new format!