The purpose of an EAP is to help coaches identify, mitigate and manage the risk concerns of each practice venue. Assessing each venue with a systematic risk management lens can be eye-opening. Completing a thorough EAP may even lead you to reconsider routes or change how you use your trail systems.
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 many factors that contribute to a crash, there’s one common theme across the research: fatigue. When athletes are fatigued they are much more likely to make mistakes that lead to injuries. Learn how to prevent injury with the use of training zones in your practice.