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WELCOME TO THE TRAILHEAD

A space for NICA coaches to gather and gain knowledge, share stories, and hear the latest NICA coach news.

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COVER PHOTO BY KATIE SOX: OREGON INTERSCHOLASTIC CYCLING LEAGUE

FEATURED ARTICLE

Coaching with Games: PART 1

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!

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LATEST NEWS

The Impossible Climb

Use “The Impossible Climb” at practice after you have taught all of NICA’s 101 climbing skills, and have given your student-athletes an opportunity to attempt a challenging climb that you designed. You will want to be intentional about using the name “impossible climb.” This name gives your riders permission to […]

Middle school cross country mountain bike racer moving through race course with blurred background.

Nutrition basics for coaches

Nutrition around training can seem like a daunting, complex issue. There are recommendations everywhere saying you need “this product” or “that product”. How do coaches support student-athletes with questions around nutrition? Keep it simple, and keep it healthy.

Coeus: Connecting Training Zones & Injury Prevention

As coaches, we know crashes are inevitable. Part of our duty is to try and mitigate risk as much as possible. We can approach this by adequately teaching athletes proper skills, selecting appropriate trails for practice sessions, and educating riders on the inherent risk of the sport. While there are […]

Introducing: the Trailhead

With the launch of NICA’s new Trailhead site, we are stoked to share more stories, best practices, pro-tips, and proud moments from our NICA coach community. Share an idea today!

Building impact with the Teen Trail Corps Coach

Building Impact with a Teen Trail Corps Coach

Teen Trail Corps has proven that NICA student-athletes and coaches are out advocating for and working on their local trails. The NICA community put in a whopping 42,750 hours of service to their local trails in 2022! Most of these hours are direct “digging in the dirt” trail work, but […]

What's your NICA coach philosophy?

Crafting your Athlete-Centered Coach Philosophy

Do you remember your favorite coach? It’s amazing to think of how impactful coaches can be in our lives. Even years later (or decades, for some of us) – it’s hard to forget the impact of a truly effective coach.  The start of a new year is a natural time […]

Coach Updates for January

What’s new in the NICA-sphere in 2023? We’ve got some new Pit Zone updates and a brand-new COACH HELP DESK resource to make sure coaches are ready to roll in 2023! Pit Zone Change: Courses, Resources, & Benefits button Coaches logging into Pit Zone in 2023 will notice a small […]

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