Four IAM Observers/Instructors qualified in Turkey by IAM C.A.T.
Paolo Volpara © OMM May 2005

A stepping stone in OMM mission to Competent Riding Tuition in the Country.

It was in the middle of the 90’s when I led a small group of riders from Istanbul to Italy via northern Greece. The scene is still very much alive in my memory. Attacking the Metzovo pass after Kalambáka, when the road turns nasty, I found myself without a group. I waited at the top of the Pass enjoy fag and scenery and then I decided to descend toward Ioánnina following my friends. From the last place in the group I could see all the difficulties that my partners were facing fighting to keep the bikes in a correct, smooth and safe line. At the next stop I tried to introduce the concept of entry-apex-exit point as I learned in UK but my (maybe) confused explanation met with lack of interest. It was at that point that I decided to bring to Turkey some instructors to spread the good message of Competent Riding. While trying to reach the Ferry to Bari the words “keep going for one more mile and you’ll be there” were dancing in my helmet and the name of the club was born.

Fast forward to May 2005 and for a strange game of destiny I was not in the Country to celebrate the successful result of four Turkish Riders (Apo, Fuat, Hakan and Rahmi) in the Certified Advanced Course. From this month we have, for the first time, in Turkey four trainers qualified to conduct Road Observation: the qualification comes from the highly regarded European Institute of Advanced Motoring and the examination was conducted by Jon Taylor and Dave Bruguier following a week long session of instruction and preparation.

Jon has been the driving force behind this project: following three session conducted by Mick wheeler in 2000, Jon came to Turkey for the first time to conduct OMM – ARA 5 on April 9, 2001 and since then he directed 17 OMM – ARA Classes with the participation of over 350 riders. But Jon’s participation ahs not be limited to the time in the Classes. When in England Jon promoted strongly OMM in front of training experts and institutions obtaining for our Group the permission to translate the Police Training Manual RoadCraft, the affiliation with IAM and the support of many influential people. Seeing the need for local qualified trainers he initiated the C.A.T. project and obtained from IAM the approval to conduct the first of these courses/examinations in our Country. After the C.A.T. week he wrote:

“… The Institute has for some time, under the guise of I.A.M. Fleet Training, offered courses for instructors, the Certified Advanced Trainers (or C.A.T.) course which up until now has been for car drivers not motorcyclists. What was really needed here was something similar for Bikers. The two ideas came together recently when asked to provide something for OMM.

My ex-Met colleague Dave Bruguier has undertaken much work for I.A.M. Fleet Training and has once assisted me in delivering training in Turkey and so had witnessed the dedication of the various members of OMM, Together with the helpful assistance of Paul Thompson of Thames Valley Police Driving School, and after some weeks of work and much deliberation we had a package that we felt could be delivered to OMM that would suit their needs and perhaps be the forerunner of some high quality product that could be delivered here in the UK for I.A.M. Fleet Training.

Completing this sort of course in the UK requires a high degree of not only riding ability, but also of good interpersonal skills, good presentational skills as well as a deep understanding of Roadcraft. Now imagine doing all this in your second language! I had my doubts that this would actually be possible.

The course opened with a written test of RoadCraft that would uncover any deficiencies in understanding or knowledge. Normally in a Police course in the UK, a poor performance here would result in the participant being sent back as unsuitable to continue with the course, but having traveled all the way out to Istanbul this course of action was clearly unrealistic. However, what it did serve to do on this occasion was to underline just how much studying would be needed to be completed by the end of the course if there was any realistic prognosis for a successful outcome. The net result? Glum faces all round at lunchtime of the first day and both Dave and I seriously believed some may actually pull out…

…Following a day of very focused training theory, and some presentational practice on subjects of their choice the next day was the first of three on-road practical days of instruction. This started with Dave and myself demonstrating to ‘our’ particular two students how we felt a training session should be delivered. This was then followed by one student carrying this out on the other one and vice versa.

The second day followed in similar vein after more presentational practice and theory questions. This time though Dave and I were the ‘Students’ and accordingly the trainee instructors were faced with far more awkward students than they were ever likely to face in the real world.

On the third day and with the help of four genuine students (many thanks to Dehan, Ozden, Zafer and Naim) who had very kindly given up their Saturday in the rain (most unlike Turkey and believed to be specially imported by us for the occasion!) to help their fellow countrymen, the practical sessions continued. All this, I might remind you, was delivered in English with the occasional translation where necessary. Despite starting at nine in the morning, the training regularly went to six thirty and beyond, after which the students returned home to yet more studying, sometimes singly, sometimes paired, until nearly midnight!

The final day dawned. There were to be two written theory tests (RoadCraft and Training Techniques), a fifteen minute presentation by each student on a given subject relating to ‘The System’, an Advanced Demo Ride at a standard similar to that required on a Senior Observer Test, and finally an Instructed Session utilizing all the techniques discussed in the Training Theory section of the course. Five exams in all.

The outcome? Quite incredible. Three out of four candidates were successful with the fourth only just missing out, mainly due to translation difficulties affecting the delivery and therefore understanding of the answers. He will soon be re-sitting the areas that were not quite up to scratch and I sincerely believe with the coaching help of the successful candidates, will also be successful next time. (NoE by the time of writing the fourth riders has successfully passed the second examination conducted by Jon who returned to Turkey for this purpose at the end of May)

At the start of this course both Dave and myself were doubtful that any of the students would be capable of the level of knowledge and performance that we knew would be needed to pass this course given that this was all to be done in a second language and that much of the course was dedicated to communication techniques. We knew they were all excellent riders but that just wouldn’t be enough. The fact that they put so much effort into the course was the sole reason why there was such a high pass rate. They have both mine and Dave’s admiration for this achievement.”

So, here we have it. Five years after our original idea OMM and ARA can now use Turkish Instructor qualified in applying and teaching the System as presented in the RoadCraft Manual. This will give us the possibility to increase the number of Classes, to reduce the cost of training and to use Turkish language during the tuition. The thanks should go to the four riders that worked so hard to achieve this result.

Abdullah (Apo) Hekimhan, Professional photographer, Director of training for OMM and liaison for F.E.M.A., Secretary of the Turkish IAM group and Director of training of Turkish Motorcycle Federation (TMF).

Fuat Domanic, Music Producer, Board Member of OMM, Vice President of the Turkish Motorcyclists Federation and Training Team Board member.

Hakan Erman, Owner of a cosmetics importation and distribution company, OMM member Director of E.M.O.K. ARA Training Program, Turkish Motorcyclists Federation Training Team Board member.

Rahmi Barutcu, Partner and Head Trainer in MotorEast. OMM member and founder of the Ikiteker group.