This is the final installment on the series by Bryon Black on Top Ten Tricks for Nailing Your Next Audition. This tip deserved its own article because of its impact. Get this one right and not only will you probably knock the socks off those in your audition, but it will establish your foundation as you progress as an indoor cycling coach. Incorporating this suggestion may change you; it will permeate how you create your profiles, how you coach your students, how you help them progress in their fitness, and how you grow as a person.Read more…

As an indoor cycling instructor, I believe your job is to lead your students to greater fitness, provide motivation and inspiration, educate them, and have fun in the process. In fulfilling these obligations, you want to have a mix of the elements listed in this article in your quiver of classes. These aren’t energy zones or specific types of profiles, rather they could be what is stated as an objective (or sub-objective) for your profile.Read more…

Here is Part 2 of Top Ten Tricks for Nailing Your Next Audition, or, as I like to subtitle it, How to Be a Really Good Instructor! Tips 4, 5 and 6 will help you look good, select an appropriate profile, and show them that you are indeed a professional indoor cycling instructor. (As we all are, even if you teach for free!)Read more…

Bryon Black has auditioned over 100 prospective new instructors as a co-director of his club’s cycling program. He brings you some valuable tips with so much meat on them that I’ve divided this into a 4-part series. The first three articles each cover three tips, and the final article is devoted to one incredible tip on its own; it’s that impactful. It will not only get you the job, but it will raise your own coaching to another level. In fact, most of these tips are excellent suggestions simply for being a better indoor cycling coach whether you are auditioning, or working at the same facility with the same students for over a decade!!Read more…

A comment on my ICA Facebook page got me thinking that perhaps the FREE articles on ICA aren’t as evident as they should be. So I would like to highlight these articles and their wide ranging topics so you can see what you might have missed. These articles and interviews are just as educational and insightful as the premium articles, and you are free to share them with all the instructors you know. And don’t forget that articles on the Sage Advice Blog are always available to anyone at anytime, many of them hitting on very important topics for indoor cycling instructors.Read more…

Tara asks, “How would you describe how you should be feeling at 75%, 80%, 85%, and 90% of maximum heart rate?” This may possibly be the best question of the year! When you can help your students hone in to what various intensities should feel like, you can help them not only understand how their bodies respond at various intensities, but also where their threshold likely lies. This article tells you how you can make sense of MHR zones, and is the beginning of another wonderfully educational series on heart rate and perceived exertion!Read more…

When someone comes in at the last minute, you do your best. You get them set up quickly, give them a couple words of encouragement, a pat on the back, and send them on their way. And you never see them again…. Does that sound familiar? Maybe if you had a new student handout to help ease their concerns and answer questions they may be too timid to ask, you’d regain that opportunity. It would also help to assert your position on a couple of things from the very beginning. Read more…

In Parts 1 and 2, we have discussed most of the necessary elements of building an engaging endurance ride, but there are two more elements, ACTION and YOU. This final edition of this series on teaching endurance or mind-body style classes helps you put it all together and understand howRead more…

Part two of this endurance coaching series focuses on using your voice and on your cueing, dialogue, and music as tools to engage your students and help facilitate their connection to their bike and to their breath. These coaching tips are not just for coaching an “endurance” ride, but anyRead more…

ICA members are in for a phenomenal coaching treat. Bryon Black is a master of an instructor (not an MI, but he should be!) who excels at endurance rides and engaging his students. He shares with you some amazing ways to keep your students focused and how to connect withRead more…