What you can expect at the Indoor Cycling Association the first year

Unsure about whether to join the Indoor Cycling Association? Take a look at this long list of topics that will be covered this year!What You Can Expect at the Indoor Cycling Associations in the next year

First I want to say that I am very grateful for everyone who visits this site, for everyone who has joined ICA and for all the incredible support I received since I had to move on from my last project. I have to tell you that I can hardly contain my excitement for what I have planned for the coming year. I’ve been adding to my list of articles, blogs, ebooks, workshops and just plain getting the word out to help all indoor cycling instructors for the past 22 months, so you can be sure there is no end of material to provide you all.

Free Blog!
My blog, Sage Cycling, will always be free and available to anyone. In it I will give tips and advice for instructors, chat about my students and classes and the issues I encounter while teaching, my own training, nutrition, outdoor cycling, and I’ll share articles I find that will be helpful to you and your students or for your own training. (I might even talk about some unrelated stuff just for fun!) I will have some assistance in writing the blog from other avid indoor cycling instructors, so you’ll get additional enjoyable perspectives as well.

Free Articles
There is a department called Free Articles that is available to everyone. There are just some subjects on improving indoor cycling that I want EVERY instructor to know about, member or not. Some will be excerpts of longer articles available to members, and some will be expanded topics touched upon in the blog. But the purpose is to enlighten and educate every instructor out there, member or not. If it inspires you to join ICA because you realize the power of this kind of advice, well then great! If not, that is fine too – my hope is to positively empower every instructor who visits this site. If I can help just one instructor change for the better, or to inspire them to teach their students in a more effective way, then I am happy!

Membership has its benefits
However, the bulk of the advice on how to be a better instructor will be in the form of articles, interviews, profiles, audios or videos that will be available only to ICA members. Members of ICA can look forward to the following topics in the coming year (and many more):

• Which profile to teach as your first class after becoming certified
• Teaching your 1,000th class – staying motivated and excited about what you do
• Audition tips
• Subbing tips
• How to keep your students coming back again and again
• Using music to your advantage
• The best music resources
• Keeping it Real when no one else at your club does
• Goal setting for you and your students
• How to use your voice effectively
• Presentation skills
• Non-verbal cueing
• Understanding the various learning styles in order to reach everyone in your class
• Conflict resolution: how to handle conflicts that arise in your classes
• Conflict resolution: how to know when to back down, and when to stand your ground
• Dealing with students who will not listen to you
• When students talk too much in class
• Getting and maintaining support from management
• Remembering students’ names
• Ways to connect with your students
• The mental side of training
• Mind-body techniques
• Motivational training
• The power of silence
• Bike set-up: how to set your students up (video) – with an introduction to a great product to help you set up your students properly and quickly
• Pedal-stroke drills (audio and/or video)
• Cadence drills (audio and/or video)
• Heart rate training – using it correctly and inspiring students to wear HR monitors
• More threshold field-testing information – an updated video with two methods, one for the beginner and the more experienced student.
• RPE description and how to coach effectively with perceived exertion
• Different ways to describe resistance increases
• Teaching with Power – introducing power for the first time to your students
• Teaching with Power – drills, profiles, coaching and more
• What is cardiac drift?
• The Anatomy of the Pedal Stroke (biomechanics)
• Various topics on Physiology 101: the energy systems, the cardiovascular system, how fitness happens (from the inside out), and much more
• Working with cyclists – how to keep them engaged and coming back
• Working with non-cyclists – keeping them engaged while teaching them to understand this is still “cycling”
• Inspiring your students to transition to outdoor cycling
• Periodization: what is it, and why do it?
• Triple Threat – 3 types of HIT intervals (the why, when and how)
• How to raise Lactate Threshold
• Anaerobic conditioning
• Aerobic base building (why, when and how)
• Race Day! Tips on coaching a Time Trial
• Coaching epic climbs
• Coaching extended classes of over 90-minutes
• Coaching endurance classes
• Teaching your students about recovery
• Programming – putting together a program for profit
• Programming – putting together a fundraiser
• Programming to increase attendance
• Fusion classes: combining indoor cycling with yoga, pilates, core or strength training
• Building community within your program
• Proper nutrition for endurance activities
• Medical issues instructors should know something about
• Injury prevention (for both you and your students)
• Teaching obese and unfit students
• Preganancy and indoor cycling
• Handling an injury that happens in class
• Overtraining
• Avoiding burnout
• What to eat before and after class
• Stretching after class
• The most effective warm-ups
• You are the sales person for your own classes: how to “sell” without “selling”
• Tour de France, Tour de California, Giro d’Italia and other race profiles – how to teach the various types of stages
• An updated 2011 Tour de France video with profiles of many of this year’s stages.
• So you just got certified…now what?
• Core training for indoor cyclists
• Back pain and indoor cyclists
• Strength training for indoor cyclists
• Using virtual cycling DVDs effectively in an indoor cycling class
• Send your own profiles in for evaluation (periodic invitation announced to all members)
• Videoing yourself to improve your teaching skills
• Social media for personal trainers and instructors
• How to start your own training blog (to keep students, friends and family appraised of what you’re teaching)

And so much more! We want to cover what you want to know, so make sure to email us with your suggestions.

What else can you expect at ICA beyond profiles and educational articles on the above topics? Remember, ICA members will receive discounts on all products and trainings!

• Videos! Everything from a 1-2 minute quick-tip to more detailed video tutorials with “How to’s”, drills, coaching scenarios, exercises, stretches and more…
• Continuing Education, both online (video and handbook) and in-person. This will include some of my own sessions taught at WSSC and other conferences, but I will also be working with some very experienced Master Instructors and trainers to develop the training that indoor cycling instructors need the most (Note: members will always get discounts)
• Several upcoming eBooks for instructors (some with a planned release by the end of the summer) including a Handbook for Indoor Cycling Instructors, a compendium of Coaching and Cueing for every possible teaching situation, Heart Rate Training for Indoor Cycling Instructors, one on Conflict Resolution, and another on Climbing Strategies.
• An eBook on HR Training for the Indoor Cycling Student. This will be the companion book to the HR Training eBook for instructors, but written in layperson’s terms, for the complete novice. This will be the book for YOUR students (with an opportunity for you to make a commission by referring your students to it if desired). It will also make your life easier when trying to explain HR Training to your students – you wont have to do it!
• I will experiment with online Webinars as an inexpensive and very convenient means to educate instructors.
• In the Fall of 2011, we’ll release a complete turn-key periodization program, the 12-week Reach Your Peak™ cycling clinic. This will be a DVD with everything you need to know to set-up and coach this program on your own in full confidence! It will include 24 profiles, educational materials, coaching and cueing, suggested weekly coaching emails for participants and an FAQ so you can answer your students’ questions. It will also include tips on marketing to guarantee a very profitable program.

And finally, Road Trip!! Yes, I want to come to your club and ride with you! Contact me for information. My Master Classes include the following (I’ll soon have a list of CED workshops):

• Moving Mountains (finding Flow)
• The Tour de France and Alpe d’Huez
• Indoor Cycling as Dynamic Meditation
• Energia Magica
• Lactate Threshold Field Test (two types of tests)
• Over/Under Intervals
• Effective Intervals (The Triple Threat)
• Cause and Effect (the interplay between cadence and resistance and its effect on intensity)
• The Roller Coaster Ride (a mountain bike simulation)
• The Triple Bypass – three epics climbs
• Pedal Stroke Drills and the Anatomy of the Pedal Stroke
• Loop de Loop
• Heart Rate Pyramid
• Keep it Real – a Tempo Ride