A young man's fancy turns to thoughts
of…bikes
by Charlie Irvine
Metropolitan Police Department
London, England
On a grey, blustery, spring morn, seven
officers gathered at North Woolwich Police station to start the IPMBA Police
Cyclist Course. The instructor was Mark Cockram from the City of London Police.
After the initial form-filling and introductions, Mark let us know that for
the next four days we would be very busy and very tired. He wasn't wrong!
Most of us had been on bike patrol for a while, and were beginning to think
that the course would only cover the aspects we already knew. However, IPMBA
PCI # 665 put us in the picture. Bike parts, nutrition, tactics, slow speed
drills and anything else beginning with "Mountain" and "Bike," we learned
and learned again. "Top tube, headset, crank, chain stay…" The other
officers not on the course must have thought we were chanting some obscure
religious prayer!
The fine British springtime weather also attended the course. We had to judge
its moods with the accuracy of 15th century sailors to ensure we did not
get caught out in a squally shower of rain and/or sleet. Normally we got
caught with both!
This did not dampen our enthusiasm (pun intended!), and we were soon completing
the various turns and tackling flights of steps with juvenile vigour and
geriatric muscles!
However, this made our brake turns all the more exciting!
The classroom work was very informative and although some of it was hampered
by misspelling (tire, curb, etc.) we managed to complete our indoor stuff
and get back out on the streets!
The cone drills were the highlight of the course. We were initially quite
confident of handling the "box", but not so about five minutes later. However,
thanks to Mark's teaching ability and enthusiasm, we were soon completing
the 10 and 9ft boxes with (some) skill.
The exam was on the last day, and looking at the faces of the other guys
on the course, I was reminded of my school exams.
Grown men were sitting around a table frantically going over notes in the
hope of gleaning some last minute information! However, all of us achieved
a pass mark, some of whom with a high enough pass to be considered for the
IPMBA Instructor Course.
All of us agreed that the course was one of the best we had been on, and
we would like to thank Mark for his patience, humour and
enthusiasm.
© 2004 IPMBA. This article first appeared in the Spring 2004 issue of
IPMBA News.
Charlie can be reached at
Charles.Irvine@met.police.uk
or
charliei@fraggle136.fsnet.co.uk.
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