By: Stevie Emmons

If I could turn back time, I would have picked up the sport of cycling much earlier in life. I rode my bike as a child (around the neighborhood with friends, or to and from school), but never could have dreamt it would be a main pillar of my life as an adult. What is found in Bike School Bentonville is something I wish was available to me as a child.

Kyla Templeton and Nat Ross created Bike School Bentonville, whose mission is to create progressive, year-round bike skills programs for kids that are centered on long-term wellness and development. Bike School Bentonville’s Trail Kids, a 10-week program, aims to help youth ages 7-13 to excel at mountain biking while learning lifelong skills, and to inspire ongoing confidence in these young riders.

“The focus of the mountain bike program is to have fun, meet new friends, and build confidence riding single-track,” Templeton said.

The spring 2022 Trail Kids program will run March 14-May 25. Students will meet twice per week to ride the Slaughter Pen trails and learn mountain biking skills such as positioning, bike/body separation, cornering, handing obstacles and rocky terrain, and many more.

If a 10-week commitment is not feasible for any reason, excellent alternatives for your student include any of the five Trail Kids Pop Up Camps taking place between March-May. These three-hour sessions are a great way for kids to spend time progressing their mountain bike skills. Three riding levels are available: green, blue, and black. More information and camp dates can be found here.

“We are so excited to bring an excellent group of coaches together to help more people connect with biking and our community,” Templeton and Ross said. “We have loved interacting with people from across the community and the country to build skills and capability on the mountain bike.”

If you’d like more information or are interested in enrolling your student, email info@bikeschoolbentonville.com or visit this page.