Magic Coaching Minute

Welcome to the Magic Coaching Minute, a new segment on ICA. We will bring you a coaching suggestion via video once or twice a month. Some of your Ask the Expert questions may even be better answered via video; whenever possible I’ll try to do that.

The first Magic Coaching Minute (or in this case, 4 minutes!) is with Gene Nacey of Cycling Fusion, and was filmed and produced at the Cycling Fusion Headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA. In this video, we analyze a rider’s poor technique as demonstrated by Gene, and try to assess the best way to correct his form. The issue is a very jerky pedal stroke while climbing out of the saddle. The rider often looks like he’s on a pogo stick; both the shoulders and the hips move up and down erratically. But rather than trying to fix it by telling the student to quiet the shoulders and/or hips, I challenge you to look for the source of the problem, and not just put a Band-Aid on it.

21 Comments

  1. excellent, exactly what I need to know to explain :)… thanks and please more cuing about this will be perfect 🙂

  2. This is great Jennifer… keep them coming, please and thank you!

  3. Jennifer, I missed this when I was out of the country. I am so glad I found it when I came back and went back on my ICA to catch up on all the great information. I LOVE THIS IDEA!!! I think this is similar to what I call ‘bottoming out’ where the rider hits hard on the 6 o’clock area of the pedal stroke and has strong up and down body posture. I try to cue them to ‘sweep’ the pedals past 6 o’clock and focus on the weight shift flowing left to right, not up and down. Now I will also be on the look out for the full/hyperextention of the leg. Excellent idea and I look forward to all the other coaching tweeks to help us coach more effectively.

  4. Thank you so much! What a great idea for a segment, and immediately applicable.

  5. I just wanted to echo the other comments and say I think this is excellent and presented in a terrific way. I would love to see more of these !

  6. Keep doing these–great to have the visual and the explanation done in a video format. Kudos, Jennifer.

  7. Jennifer! Terrific addition to ICA. I love the brevity of the instruction and the visual of before/after…Please continue to make this segment a regular offering!

  8. Great teaching moment! Would like to see more of these!!

  9. I LOVE the visual magic coaching minute! Makes it so much easier to understand what you are talking about. More please!! Thank you!

  10. Loving the new magic coaching minute, awesome.

  11. This visual is excellent! I see this so much and students are trying to ride with me but they can’t quite improve the pedal stroke. This is a perfect coaching video! Many thanks for your great content. At WSSC yesterday, I was surprised to see many riders with this jerky pedal stroke. It was a pleasure to watch the presenters with their flawless form.

  12. GREAT tip Jennifer! Love the Magic Coaching Minute. Keep up the good work! THANKS

  13. Thanks Jennifer and ‘student’ Genee. I’m also a visual learner and seeing the problem dissected was great. Even after many years of teaching, you can ALWAYS learn.

    Thank you, again.

  14. Great idea, very helpful…thanks!

  15. That was great, i try so hard to get one lady inparticular to keep her knee soft and not to hyperextend, I really think it comes from having weaker quads, its easier to use the whole leg rather than using strength in your quads, hamstring and glutes.

    I have another problem with one of my riders , she has a very jerky pedal stroke when in a seated climb ?
    maybe you could help on that one.

  16. love the magic minute. a great idea adding a visual with the coaching and as said above, keep em coming!

  17. great! I am a visual learner and these videos are perfect. keep em coming!

  18. Awesome! Thanks Jennifer and Gene!

  19. Amazing. Love the video. There are so many students that do this. I had one last night! I tried all sorts of fixes to no avail. Now I know the source of the problem:-) Can’t wait to fix this issue again.

  20. OMG!! I was trying so hard to figure that out last night. Kept coaching about softening upper body, staying over the crank, having enough resistance on and still one fellow was jerky. Now I know, thank you, once again.

  21. Love the Magic Minute idea, Jennifer! Great coaching tip!

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