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…
Great leaders (and coaches) know that they should be thinking about their successor long before they plan to leave their role.
When the time comes to pass the torch, transitioning leadership thoughtfully can be a complex process! It can be tough for a coach who has built and grown successful teams to hand it off, and for new leadership to feel empowered and ready to jump in. There’s also a LOT that goes into coaching and planning, it can be overwhelming to think about all of the info that’s needed to pass along!
2024 dates are now available and registration is OPEN for Leaders’ Summits through December 2024. The NICA Coach Education team will offer nine full workshops covering the four core sessions of NICA’s Leaders’ Summit.
As you head into your season, please take a moment to check your NICA Pit Zone profile and make sure your NICA license status is at a minimum level 1 before you begin participating in activities with your student-athletes. If you plan to lead any athletes on-trail, ensure that you are license level 2 or 3 before hitting the singletrack.
Create some excitement around skills late in your season once trail riding has gotten a little stale. Get creative and customize your skill and activity options!
You’re riding along your favorite trail and see a group of hikers up ahead. The trail is fairly narrow with little room to pass. Do you know who yields the trail? What if these hikers were actually equestrians riding horses? Do you know what to do when you approach horseback riders? What about other mountain bikers? Who has the right of way on the trail?
Creating ride groups that match the ability, goals, and social needs of your student-athletes can be a challenge – here are some tips and strategies!
Share this template letter with your teams to ensure riders know what is expected before their first practice.