One in three Brits are scared of getting into a new sport – as they don’t want to embarrass themselves.
A poll of 2,000 adults found scuba diving, surfing and mountain biking are the extreme sports they most want to try but don’t think they’ll ever get to do it.
The research was commissioned by cyclewear brand Endura, which has launched the ‘Don’t Crash Course’ where adult beginners were taught how to mountain bike by skilled five-year-old Bo Barnes and his pro mountain biker dad, Joe.
The grown-up participants, aged 31-59, followed the confident youth through an exhilarating biking trail in the scenic Bedgebury Forest in Kent, proving that age is no barrier to trying something new.
Dr Abdi Mohamed, NHS senior psychologist, who has teamed with the cycling brand, said: “The reason trying something new can be so daunting is often rooted in social anxieties – worries about not fitting in, lacking the right gear, or feeling too old or inexperienced.”
A poll of 2,000 adults found scuba diving, surfing and mountain biking are the extreme sports they most want to try but don’t think they’ll ever get to do it.
The research was commissioned by cyclewear brand Endura, which has launched the ‘Don’t Crash Course’ where adult beginners were taught how to mountain bike by skilled five-year-old Bo Barnes and his pro mountain biker dad, Joe.
The grown-up participants, aged 31-59, followed the confident youth through an exhilarating biking trail in the scenic Bedgebury Forest in Kent, proving that age is no barrier to trying something new.
Dr Abdi Mohamed, NHS senior psychologist, who has teamed with the cycling brand, said: “The reason trying something new can be so daunting is often rooted in social anxieties – worries about not fitting in, lacking the right gear, or feeling too old or inexperienced.”
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00:00Research by Endura has shown that the older you get the more you shy away from these things
00:16and feel the pressures, social anxiety, you're going to hold the don't crash course, we've
00:20got five-year-old my son Bo. Let's go biking. I think it's just a little bit of reticence
00:33that may be breaking new ground. So we'll use Bo to help demonstrate some of the skills
00:37today and hopefully that can show you that anyone can give it a go. Okay everyone, shall
00:42we give it a try? So I'll go through a few basic tips that make getting over this obstacle
00:52a lot easier. Stand on your pedals and then you have your feet flat, ride with your arms
00:57slightly bent. Oh god, look at me, I think I'm going to start. I'm nervous. Everyone
01:07rolled through it really controlled and I think took all the tips on board so it's good
01:10to see. Push off the jump and lift off your bike. Come on guys. For me Bo is very fearless
01:26as a five-year-old. Although I've been doing it a long time myself, over 20 years, there's
01:30still things that make me anxious but I just need to remind myself, just do the don't crash
01:34course, you'll be fine. Bottom line was I just didn't think that I was going to get
01:44those handlebars through and got up there and was just like, that's not going to happen.
01:48Joe said give it another go, went back up, did it again, went through it. So okay, it
01:52wasn't 100 miles an hour but I went through it and didn't crash so it was good. I think
01:58we hold back as you get older because you worry about coming out of your comfort zone
02:02and people looking at you and thinking you're too old to do that. They came to some tricky
02:08features on the trail but together we broke down the barriers, found out how to achieve
02:12what we wanted to and everyone got down the trail safely. Being taught by Bo, five years
02:16old, he's got that fearlessness that as we said maybe we've lost as we get older and
02:21that fearlessness just inspires you to give it a shot really.