Swatch Bikepark Kids Freeride Team
The Swatch Bikepark Livigno is the initiator of a special program that can act as a youth support role model for bike parks worldwide: The Mottolino Kids Freeride Team. Local children between 8 and 17 years can receive an all-round support to get into the bike sport and form their social skills at the same time.
The Mottolino Kids Freeride Team program combines sports equipment support and guided riding twice a week. Mottolino has one main aim, like Mottolino’s director Marco Rocca explains: “Our most important goal is the fun, to create a good group and good friendships among the kids. They should learn through the sport to help each other, to respect the other kids and the instructor, as well as to respect some rules and the nature. Mottolino believes a lot in the sport’s power for the growth and development of the kids. The kids can try a new and fascinating sport and their family is getting more involved in freeriding, too. That fact is also important for us, because we want to show that gravity riding is not only a sport for freaks, but for everybody, also kids and women. The Mottolino Kids Team does a lot for a positive image of freeriding here in Livigno.”
The support details sound like a carefree package for the young and uprising talents. The bikepark Mottolino, on of the few Kona Groove Approved bikeparks, provides to the team of young talents a free rental bike of the Kona “out of bounds” youth bike in the first year and all the protection gear they need. The Sport Adventure shops helps finding the right bikes and gear, while the Madness Bike school is helping out with guides for intermediate training rides twice a week. To secure the kids good sessions, three different groups are set up, so the group members have an equal riding level and can develop their personal skills all together.
The support program was established in 2007 and the size of the Mottolino Kids Freeride Team has been rising continuously since then. In the season 2009, the team counted 19 kids, boys and girls. In the meanwhile most of the ones, who joined the team early, have their own equipment, so they are able to tune their bikes the way they want. But it doesn’t matter which equipment they ride – the common time they spend, the fun they have and the vibe they share are the essence of the team. It’s obvious, that the kids love to ride.
More detailed information about the Mottolino Kids Freeride team can be found on http://www.mottolino.com/en/summer/bikepark/kids-freeride-team.html.
Photo courtesy of Ronnie Grammatica / Rasoulution
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