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Adam's RCP Journal

Adam's RCP Journal

Quick preface:  This is a journal detailing my trip to the RCP and my completion of it.  I went to Jacksonville and had certain instructors.  Your mileage may vary.



I stayed at the Knights Inn in Jacksonville.  In the end, I was happy with it.  It was next door to the range as in I could look out my window and see the range and tell you who was on it and talk with them.  It had a fridge and a microwave besides the usual amenities.  It was a bad part of town, however.  Police visited the motel and the Days Inn across the street four times in the week I was there.  And it was still a drive to the classroom, which was located on a small airport in a hangar's office.  Still, the cost was $42 a night from the Knights Inn website and the microwave/fridge meant I didn't have to eat out every day.


We first met in the host school's classroom where we had a little introduction game and we met our instructors.  Our class had four instructors.  While one taught us, the others would surf the net or watch Hancock on DVD.  There were four large parts to the RCP that stretched over the week.

1.  Direct instruction
This is where we were specifically told what to do, what we did right, what we did wrong, etc.  There is a written test at the end of this segment.  No one in our class scored below a 90%.  There were two odd questions.  One is the msf website URL (www.msf-usa.org) and the other was something equally trivial.

2.  Pretending we're students
This is where the RCP Coaches run us through the BRC, showing us how it's meant to be done.  This includes the normal BRC Skills Evaluation in which you can only score 10 points and still pass.  We all passed, but I have heard of some people failing it due to mishaps that result in 15 points.

3.  Peer Teaching
This is where we are assigned certain classroom portions and exercises.  While one person (or two on the range) is teaching, the others pretend they're students.  After each segment we review ourselves, our peers review us, and the instructors review us.  This consists of talking about how and what we did openly.

4.  The Real BRC
We get a class of real students and trade off in the same order as in Peer Teaching.  We are evaluated on cards by the instructors.  The peers are given cards to evaluate as well, but it's just to keep everyone paying attention.  We were told that receiving a certain amount of Unsatisfactory marks on your exercises can result in failing the course, but someone in our class scored five "Unsats" on the range and did fine.



The best tool I was given for the RCP was the modified Rider Handbook with all the answers and questions and highlighted bits in it.  Everyone was jealous of that and it helped immensely in the classroom teaching portions.  Other things that helped in the classroom was to understand what the instructors wanted to see.  They wanted each "training aide" (not video) to be "hooked" and "unhooked".  This means that before the video, you say something intriguing about it to make the student pay attention.  (Example:  Surfaces and Cargo, "We've seen some training aides on the motorcycle itself, but this next one is going to talk about everything below and above it.")  You will then be expected to "unhook" the training aide with something like "Did any of you see any conditions we experience often here?"  Assigning of questions should be written on the board so that other peers can reference them easy.  And when you are getting answers for questions, the very best style is to remain totally quiet as they keep shouting off answers and discussing amongst themselves.  That won't happen, but it's the direction you want to steer the class towards.

On the range, the most important step is to pre-brief, both with your partner and an instructor.  This means that you talk with your partner and talk yourselves through every step of your exercise.  Where will the bikes be staged at?  Who's doing the demo?  Where will the talker be?  Will he remember to be behind the students?  Does the demo rider need hand signals from the talker or will a "1-2-3 next part" timing be enough?  How will the demo be ridden?  Where will the demo end?  Where will the demo rider park his bike?  What reversal will you use (and demo)?  What staging pattern will you use (and demo)?  What hand signals will you need to communicate with each other?  What will you do if you can't get the attention of each other?  Who will be there to catch them at staging?  After you have a plan for all of this, you pre-brief with an instructor, going over your plan with them.

During the range exercises, safety will be observed closely.  During Peer Teaching, fun will be had at your expense by trying to sneak in purposeful screw ups both with instructors and your peers.  Examples would be a helmet being worn incorrectly or unfastened, lack of safety gear, choke left on, etc.  They have a character called "Billy Bob" they threaten to use which is one of the instructors acting like an idiot.  Watch what you say to "Billy Bob" as the instructor is looking for anything to screw up on.  If you tell him to "go faster" on the quick stop, he'll fly at you at 40mph, so tell him "between 12 and 18mph" instead of faster.  If you don't make a motion to shift down to first gear, he'll just rev the bike in neutral.

The best advice for the entire class is "Choose your words few and wisely."  They are so against over-coaching and so in favor of making things learner-centered that opening your mouth unless totally necessary is going to result in advice to talk less.

A panoramic of the classroom, taken with spy cam

The TV/DVD set up for Training Aides, and some of the introduction activities on the wall

Our instructors watching Hancock

The range and the Knights Inn

The range and the Knights Inn

The range

The range, our BRC class, and the trailer where the bikes are stored

The rest area on the range

If you have a hotel room facing the range, you know when people are actually showing up without having to be leave.

What the hotel room looks like on the inside (well, after a week of shooing away maids)

You'll receive a certificate at the course, but you won't get an RCP number for another month or so.  This means you can teach classes, but not alone, because you need a number to do BRC cards and such.

Pieces of my notebook

assholes that say "not for me"
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only there can you hear the phrase "key plot point on Muppet Babies."
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of mismatched libidoes and failed sexual encounters
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rocking fortress
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"Have you checked all the toys for rattlesnakes?"
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A wife that supports me as an accountant so I can write inconsistant gibberish irregularly on a wide variety of topics at my leisure, finishing the texts in either a flash of brilliance or mid-sentence where they hang for eternity barring a revitalized interest requiring the full re-writing from start to finish.
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A new generation, born of machines with more value and worth in abstract intangibles like microcode and data than quilts and money.  A generation where the homeless carry laptops and have social networks, tracking down free wifi and open power outlets.  Where every moment of every day is broadcasted to a million possible users, to anyone that is interested in using it, where lifecasting isn't unusual, only the degrees of lifecasting are of importance.
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Police beatings are nothing like they were in the sixties and before that.  The prevalance of television cameras catching riots quickly quelled the police force's undue rage while today every person has a camera in three or more of their personal devices they carry with them.  A single beating is quickly broadcasted, reproduced without written consent, and funnelled to the necessary sources so that the officer is properly punished and god help him if his department doesn't do it.  Because if you aren't punished correctly, the internet will punish you, and god have mercy on your poor soul if that happens.