Near our house is the Visalia Sports park which has tons of events and things for the kids to do. They have five huge playgrounds, 6 or more soccer fields, a water park in the summer time and they just completed a new phase with 6 baseball fields and a huge BMX track. a few weeks ago I took the kids and their best friends Lauren and Maddie out to the BMX bike track to watch.
I met the owner of the BMX track, Ron, and he introduced all of the bike equipment to the kids and showed them the basics of how to ride the track. Ron had bikes, helmets and gloves available for all of the kids to use until we decide that they are gonna stick with the sport.
I learned that you can’t just use any bike to ride the tracks. Most bikes are way too heavy to ride over the hills and jumps. They have special bikes, “BMX bikes” that are especially made for the sport. I just always assumed that BMX bikes were just a style of bike! I guess it goes to say, “Ya learn somethin’ new everyday!”
Josh and
Christopher were “gung -ho” to start riding, while the girls stood and watched for awhile. Then Allie saw other little girls “rockin’ the track” so she wanted to be cool and try too! Lauren followed suit while little Maddie girl still stood on the sidelines and watched. After much coaxing, I got Maddie to try. It took the BMX coach Ron, and another parent of a BMX kid to help get her lined up straight and balanced on the starting gate so she wouldn’t fall when the gate dropped! She took off with a shaky start, fell off of the bike on one of the last hills, but then came back totally psyched! By the end of the day I had to practically pry Maddie girl off of the bike!
Allie girl did so well, and she too, had to be practically dragged off of the track. Josh is an absolute natural and he kept winning first place in all of the races! I can tell that he is gonna take this sport all of the way and end up in the Olympics or as some extreme sports guy! One of the girls on the BMX team here in Visalia just got accepted to compete in the next olympic season - She’s sixteen!! Christopher also loves this sport and spends hours on the track. Even our little neighbor friend, Lauren, loved riding and took to it very well!
The kids have been coming to the track
regularly now, and they have started training at BMX practice on Monday evenings. I love sitting out there in the bleachers and watching their little faces light up on that track, enjoying this new found love of BMX riding! I’ll keep y’all updated as to their progress, and prayerfully with no major "spills" to report about!
