How to Teach a Patient With a Prosthetic Leg to Ride a Bike Using External Focus

Having a prosthetic leg does not mean that your student is unable to enjoy sports such as biking. However, some adjustments might be necessary for her to become a successful rider. Using external focus may enable a prospective biker with a prosthetic leg to increase her biking skill more quickly. External focus, when used in sports-related activities, refers to concentrating on what is happening outside of the body, or the movement effects, whereas internal focus is monitoring body movements themselves.

Instructions

    • 1

      Provide positive feedback. Using external motivation techniques such as positive feedback will encourage your prosthetic limb patient to become a more effective bike rider. Give the patient specific feedback on his foot, hand and body positions when he is performing correctly to assist him in developing biking skills. Extrinsic motivators such as positive feedback provide external motivation to your student to help him achieve his biking goals.

    • 2

      Set up obstacles for your prosthetic limb student to assist her in learning how to navigate a bike successfully. Since external focus concentrates on outside body movements, a bike rider will learn how her specific movements and related reactions will affect her riding. In addition, giving her practice on an obstacle course will increase her agility when biking.

    • 3

      Practice one-legged cycling on a stationary bike. Have your student put one leg on a chair and the other on the bike pedal. Have him pedal in increments of a few minutes on each leg to develop coordination separately and give him a feel for the pedal circuit. Have the student externally focus on the movement of the pedal to develop smoother pedal strokes.

    • 4

      Set a goal to increase distance or speed over time. Because a person with a prosthetic leg may tire easily when first trying to ride a bike, have her set goals to increase a half block or more per biking session. Use external focus by finding a focal point and use that in order to reach the session goal.