Richard nodded. "That's why it's a graduation exercise of sorts. It is difficult. Not something for the average broom rider. Would you have made the house team if you were just average? You've a century and a half of brooms and riding tricks looking like a big hill to climb. Climb that hill one step at a time. If you get discouraged, you can always stop for a while, catch your breath, look behind you and see how far you've gone."
"There were a few different clubs at school, lessons as part of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Still stay in practice. Thing is, once you've done it for real, you have trouble ever seeing it as a sport again. Same with the wizarding sword - Mother had me taking fencing lessons before I started school. Never could put the things down."
He nodded again. "That broom you're on handles much like any other responsive broom you've ever flown most of the time. Then you push it a little and it will surprise you."
Richard watched and thought while Arcturus practiced. "Well done, young sir. You have the technique, if not the speed yet. Not bad progress at all seeing as how you'd never seen that trick before, or even thought it possible. Which brings up something I was thinking about while watching you fly. A hundred and fifty years. So many flying innovations in the last ten years alone. Things that seem easy to me because I helped develop them; things you've never seen before. Do you think it would be easier if I showed you the basic elements of modern advanced flight techniques, let you practice them as separate parts, before we start putting them together in more complex stunts? Different people learn better in different ways, and you know yourself best."