EUC Safety Training (concept needs improvement)

[Tilmann]

Dear EUC Pioneers,

Nothing spoils the joy of EUC riding more than a painful accident. For pure luck, I was spared any serious injuries so far, but when I'm honest to myself, that's way more due to luck than skill. Any fall at higher speed and I am way out of my league to cope with that. Most likely, I end up flat on my face, ruining arms and knees on the way down. 

Inside our Berlin riding group, we got such a wake up call lately, when one of the members shattered his forearm just days after receiving his shiny new high performance wheel.

That got us thinking.

As we don't know about any established EUC safety training, we attempt to invent our own. Here you will find a first concept along with the friendly request to contribute your ideas and feedback. Of course all of you are more than welcome to copy, use and improve all or part of it - it's positively Public Domain!

  

Status: First Draft, June 4, 2017 by Tilmann

Exercises

 

Mounting / Starting:

1. Training Goal: Mount and start from flat ground without assistance without leaving a narrow track (approx. 1 foot wide)
   Activity: Mark a narrow track on the ground with tape and start trying...

2. Training Goal: Max. accellaration w/o ‘overlean’, i.e. achieve the fastest possible acceleration without overstressing the wheels power.
   Activity: Force an ‘overlean’ at safe speed and ‘run-off’ (should not be difficult with a weak 350W motor). Repeat the exercise to find the best leaning angle that just works.

Braking:

1. Training Goal: Break to a stop in minimum distance (from a straight path).
   Activity: At very low riding speed, lean back violently to force a motor cut-out. Repeat the exercise to find the angle with best braking action.

2. Training Goal: Break to a stop in minimum distance (from a turn).
   Activity: No idea, we just have to try...

Riding / Stabilizing:

1. Training Goal: Master uneven ground (tree roots, potholes, street curbs, speed bumpers, etc.).
   Activity: depends on what the respective playground has to offer. Ideally, include some round rods that roll away when you ride over them.

2. Training Goal: Circumvent static obstacles (like the ever so popular bicycle barriers). Include ducking under higher obstacles like branches and gates (“ewheel limbo”).
   Activity: Various obstacles will be simulated with tape. Supporters to hold the tape in mid air for the ducking exercises.

3. Training Goal: Master dynamic obstacles (something/somebody surprisingly runs in your path).
   Activity: A wider track (approx. 3 feet) is marked on the gound. While the trainee rides on the track at safe speed, a supporter on the ground is challenged to get the rider off the wheel by throwing a soft inflatable ball from a distance at the rider or in his way.

4. Training Goal: Master inclines and down hill.
   Activity: Using the weak 350W training wheel, we excercise riding up and down the steepest incline we can find. Ideally, the incline is steep enough to overstress the wheel to cut-out at safe speed. The training ground needs to provide a safe “landing zone” for the rider and the wheel as provoked dismounts on the incline are part of the training.

5. Training Goal: Change foot position while riding.
   Activity: Train to ride with just one foot on the pedal. Begin with placing the strong leg on the wheel and use the weaker leg for “skateboarding” the wheel in a straight line. Exercise, until you master several feet riding on one leg without touching the ground with the other. Gradually increase difficulty with  switching legs, increasing distance and speed and including turns. Once you can lift a foot while riding, changing foot position on the pedal is a piece of cake.
   Variation: Include exercises to sit down on the wheel and stand up again while riding. This will also build up balancing and stability.
   Check training effect by mounting and starting with choosing a wrong foot position on purpose, then correct it when in motion.

6. Training Goal: Minimum speed riding.
   Activity: Mark a narrow track on the ground with tape. Mark a start and a finish line. Train to ride the track as slow as possible without leaving the track, putting a foot down or reversing. Have a supporter take the actual riding time.

7. Training Goal: Look behind while riding.
   Activity: Mark like 3 cardboards with letter easily readable from a distance. Mark a narrow track on the ground with tape. After the rider passed a supporter on the side, the helper holds up a card board and calls the rider. The trainee then tries to look backwards and call out the respective letter without driving off track in the process. Gradually increase the difficulty by moving the supporter closer to the track until he is placed straight behind the driver. Also gradually increase riding speed.

8. Training Goal: Pass others on a narrow track.
   Activity: We mark a narrow track on the ground with tape (approx. 2 feet wide). Two trainees try passing each other either by overtaking or by riding the track in opposite direction without crossing the track borders.

9. Training Goal: Master wind gusts.
   Unfortunately, I have no idea how to produce strong enough wind gusts without a helluva effort or random help from mother nature.

10. EDIT: Added after suggestion from @Dingfelder:
    Training Goal: Improve balance and confidence when turning.
    Activity: Set up a slalom course using little traffic cones (cheap from amazon, ebay, etc.). Master such training courses with gradually increased difficulty and speed.

11. EDIT: Added after suggestion from @Mono:
    Training Goal: Understand the importance to always ride with "soft knees" to be prepared for the unforeseen.
    Activity: Very, very cautious and slow ride over a prepared obstacle with completely straight legs ("locked knees"). Start with really small obstacles as the risk of injury is high. Stop the exercise when you got an impression, how fast balance is lost when riding with locked knees.

[Tilmann]

Falling / “Run-Off”:

Generally: When falling becomes inevitable, a proper falling technique will help to reduce or completely avoid injuries. As expertly demonstrated here:

1. Training Goal: Safely ‘run-off’ a cut-out.
   Activity: We purposely provoke cut-outs by overleaning, stopping the ride by running up against a 4-by-4 or having a supporter stop the wheel by pulling on a rope connected to the wheels handle, thus forcing a dismount. Training objective is to safely “run-off” the dismount at increasing speeds.
   Variation: The rope gets attached to one pedal. The supporter pulls the rope at some stage during the ride to simulate running into an obstacle with one pedal (which is a popular accident scenario).
   Important: Trainees must wear suitable high shoes to protect their ancles as they will hit the pedals!

2. Training Goal: Learn falling forward w/o hurting yourself.
   Activity: This exercise will benefit most from a qualified trainer. All respective training videos (like the one linked) start from a squatting position first and gradually increase height and speed. I could not find videos to train falling from higher speed (like 20+ mph) and have no idea, if it can be done without risking injury. But I guess there are general rules/positions that can be trained to be prepared in the best possible way.
   Obviously, trainees want to wear all protections they can find for this one.
   EDIT: a judo or jiu-jitsu trainer could be a good choice (thanks @Dingfelder!)

3. Training Goal: Learn to fall on your back w/o hurting. Scenario: While the wheel is moving forward, a cut-out causes the rider to fall on his back. This happens when overstressing the wheel with emergency braking or  or too steep of a downhill ride.
   I am not sure, whether there are trainable techniques to avoid injuries like sprain the arms, but I would hope for advice from an expert trainer.

 

 

Required utilities: as listed above.

Participants should bring: Protective clothing (incl. shoes), own ewheel, food&drinks.

Training sessions should be recorded on video for publication (with consent of the participants).

 

Ideas for future improvements: a training ewheel with a remote kill switch would be helpful.

[Dingfelder]

4 hours ago, Tilmann said:

 

1. Training Goal: Master wind gusts.
   Unfortunately, I have no idea how to produce strong enough wind gusts without a helluva effort or random help from mother nature.

Have participants ride past a political speech?

More seriously, how about a slalom course?  I think the times must be many that a rider off-balances himself in one direction only to have to not only come back upright but tilt just as far in the opposite direction.  A slalom course would help train that.  And I believe it would instill a lot of confidence..

Additionally, it can be modified by rider's degree of skill to give a skill progression program with understandable goals and parameters.  Put, say, 12 feet between obstacles, then 8 feet, then six feet, or something like that.  People can aim for and "graduate" from different levels.

In that regard, I think traffic cones (regular ones are 18 inches high and smaller ones are 7 inches high, both available on Amazon) would work very well, but more easy to handle and lighter weight are soccer training discs, which can be stacked 50 high for carrying around and placement but still just make up a short stack.  They have a hole in the middle that custom carry rods or canvas straps can be put through, etc., and come in multiple colors, which could signify anything you like ... say, green discs for a 12 foot distance between discs on one course, yellow for an 8 footer course, and red for a six-foot course ... placed side by side on a field so everyone would know which course to go to by sight. They're really inexpensive too.  Here is an example at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/50-Pack-Kevenz-Agility-Training-Football/dp/B011DWGWX2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496631298&sr=8-1&keywords=soccer+discs

 

[Dingfelder]

Regarding falling in general, if you have a club with several contributing members, or membership dues, you could periodically hire someone who knows judo or jiu-jitsu to give an hour or two seminar on falling.  Being that that sort of training is a lot of fun and that knowing how to fall could literally mean the difference between life and death, it's hard to imagine anything more worthwhile for a rider to learn.  

On a side note in that regard, if you can reduce the number of injuries, not only will it keep the club stronger and encourage more and more participation from new members, but you will build a better reputation in the community.  A rash of injuries would be bad news when legislation comes to being considered.

When thinking on the demographics I read here -- that most adopters are men well into middle age -- I shudder to think of the potential injury rate and severity.  

[Tilmann]

6 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

Have participants ride past a political speech?

I knew, our wind problem would trigger some creative suggestions   NOOOOOO, @Hunka Hunka Burning Love, dooooon't ....

6 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

...traffic cones (regular ones are 18 inches high and smaller ones are 7 inches high, both available on Amazon) would work very well...

Geez, that's one of those "why-didn't-I-think-of-that" moments! Of course! Added:

6 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

...hire someone who knows judo or jiu-jitsu to give an hour or two seminar on falling.

 Again, thanks so much! We considered hiring a trainer and try to get access to a sports hall to start those exercises indoors with some padding on the ground, but we had no clear idea, whom to turn to for expertise. 

[Mono]

This might be worth remembering in a safety training: what kills is speed, overconfidence and complacency, not so much the lack of skills.

After that, the single most important skill is IMHO to remain soft in the knees and acquire the reflex to get even softer under any unexpected circumstance.

[Tilmann]

@Mono: I am hoping for both effects. 

It is one thing, to intellectually understand the risk that comes with speed and a completely different learning from the physical experience to go through a training fall at just 10 mph. 

We will report, once we tried that