On and off the bikes games are great! Especially if you play the right game at the right time. The athletes will be engaged, they will have fun, and they will learn something. If we play a game before our athletes have the social and MTB skills necessary to play the game, the game can be frustrating, no fun, and potentially dangerous. Great coaches and teams understand when to play games and how to adapt them to the athletes in front of them.
As NICA coaches, it’s part of our job to create welcoming and inclusive spaces on our teams, but it can be hard to try to explain every aspect of riding to someone who has never heard of mountain biking before. It can be an intimidating space to be a beginner, whether you’re a parent of a rider, a new athlete, or even a new coach. A half-day or two-hour “try-it-out” event is the perfect intro to MTB for many beginners!
This familiar playground game gets a twist when you add bikes and balance!
While sport should be a safe place for athletes to grow and thrive, the devastating reality is that there are times when that’s not true. That is why it’s so important for the many adults who surround young athletes to understand what qualifies as misconduct, intervene when necessary, and report information to authorities.
Welcome to our 3-part Coaching with Games series! We’ll highlight skills, methods, and best practices for using games with your teams.
As NICA coaches, we know that fun is an essential part of learning and whole-athlete development. Here’s how you can become a pro at COACHING WITH GAMES!
As 2023 comes to an end, the Coach Education team would like to thank over 14,000 registered NICA coaches across the country for their dedication to creating life-changing experiences through youth mountain bike programming.
During our first year of hosting content at The Trailhead, we’ve created a growing library of updates, resources, featured articles, and coach community highlights! We’re excited to keep adding relevant, timely content for our coaches in 2024.
Here are some highlights of what we published for coaches in 2023. In addition, we encourage coaches to access several new permanent resources/references linked through our coach resource library. Coaches can find these resources within the NICA Education Center.
We hope our coaches can continue to refer back to these articles and resources again and again for use on their teams and within their own personal coaching practice!
We’re stoked for 2024 and can’t wait to see all the amazing things our coaches accomplish.
How can we help you reach your goals? Connect with us and share what you’d like to see at The Trailhead in the upcoming year!
Have you ever…wanted to build more community within your team? Then this game is for you! Laugh your way through a series of questions and find out what you have in common with your fellow teammates and coaches…
Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day and NICA are a natural fit. NICA’s vision is that every youth is empowered to be part of a thriving and engaged cycling community and Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day seeks to introduce the joy of mountain biking to the next generation.
As the days get shorter, and the weather turns colder (in many of our leagues, at least!) we’re looking forward to cozying up on the couch next to our trail dogs with a cup of tea and a good book. For coaches who are just finishing their time with their teams, the off-season is an excellent time to reflect through reading! For our spring coaches who are starting to plan and ramp up their season, it’s the perfect moment to be inspired by a good book!
As coaches, we know that people learn in different ways. For those visual learners among us, we want to highlight two key illustrations that have been foundational in the way we teach athlete-centered coaching at NICA.