When Tragedy Strikes and the Ride Must Go On
This is advice I hope you never need to use: how to deliver a class when tragedy affects your community. But with what feels like an unending string of tragedies that can make delivering a properly-pitched class a challenge, it seems...
Team Teaching
Looking for something to spice up your class? Try team teaching! If creating and delivering a class with another instructor is something you’d like to try, here are a few tips for a smooth process. First up is logistics. Ideally,...
The Art of Setting “Clear” Goals
Have you set goals for yourself as an instructor? Before you do, you might want to read “Atomic Habits” by James Clear and/or listen to Brene Brown’s interview with him on her awesome Spotify podcast called Dare to...
How to Challenge All Rider Levels
We’ve all wrestled with it: creating and delivering a class that challenges each of our riders’ different fitness levels. There’s the creation side and the delivery side. When creating your profiles, you’re...
How to Create a Ride Series
A cycling ride series is like a limited Netflix show – six or seven episodes focused on a central theme start to finish. If you have a consistent group of riders, creating a ride series is especially effective. The first ingredient is...
What’s Awesome?
Besides being my tagline, awesome is something that you get to define. Everyday. Some days, especially during this past year, awesome can be getting out of bed. Taking your dog for a walk. Doing a workout you didn’t want to do or...
Do You Coach Breath?
Heart rate. Zones. Intensity. Rate of Perceived Exertion. As cycling instructors, these words are as familiar to us as our own names. They are the foundation for ride profiles and account for much of our coaching and cuing. We can...
Yes, I Miss Teaching In-Person
I watched an interview with Jimmy Buffet the other day and the interviewer asked him if he missed performing in front of a crowd. He politely said, “Well, yes, sure I do.” They cut to a classic Parrott Head scene, thousands of Buffet...
After Your First Ride Back
What do you have planned for your riders beyond that highly anticipated, special first ride back? Have you thought about it? I have, even more than my “return ride”. I am working on creating an experience that will unfold over a...
Clarity 2020: Phone a Friend
I love the start of a new year. Everything about it (except staying up late on New Year’s Eve) aligns with my personality. I’m turned on by goal setting. I thrive on change and second chances. Completing financial spreadsheets to...
What’s Your Safety Sentence?
Do you have a safety sentence that you include in your class intro? My safety sentence is some form of: My job is to give you a great experience that’s safe and challenging and your job is to listen to your body and take on the...
Four Myths About Recovery
Have you ever taken a challenging cycle class with an instructor who didn’t build in any recovery time? I have. The instructor had a lot of positive things going for her – authentic enthusiasm, awesome music, a strong voice – but...
Mental Metal
What does it mean to have the right stuff, to have what it takes, or to be tough when the going gets tough? We’re bombarded with challenges, slogans, contents and ads that question how “tough” we are. But when it comes to indoor...
Bike Set-Up Check-Up: When and Why
When Should You Revisit Your Bike Set-Up? Often! Are you nursing an injury? Recovering from surgery? Have you lost or gained weight or mobility? Maybe you’re not making the progress you expect toward your goals. Or have you been...
Profile Symbols
Wondering what those symbols we use in the profiles mean? Download the attachment to unlock the mystery! Pam and I are Mad Dogg Spinning certified so we use these Spinning symbols as shorthand to represent standard movements. I use a...
Our Riders, Our Light
I know you can relate to this scenario: you’re tired and stressed from constantly hustling from one thing to the next and feeling on the verge of being overwhelmed by a too-long to-do list. Cycling class is two hours away and you...
Cuing Form and Posture for a Powerful Ride
Is posture different than form on the bike? Is cueing for each different? Are they both equally important for powerful, memorable rides? Yes, yes and yes. You’ve no doubt focused on how to cue proper form and alignment, but let’s...
Top Five List for Making Personal Connections with Riders
It’s on! A new year – new fitness resolutions by your steady riders and new resolutions that will bring in new riders. We see it every year – strong starts that last through spring and die by summer. So what can you do to...
What if I’m Motivated by Different Music than My Riders?
Great instructors are passionate about music. They have an ear for what works and what doesn’t. They know how to create playlists that support their profiles, appeal to the class timeslot, and most importantly, motivates them. What?...
Truth and Grace
Today someone shared this bit of wisdom with me during a discussion about the art of speaking the truth when giving feedback: You have to speak enough truth to be authentic and have enough grace to be kind; the balance between the two...
Modifying Your Profile On the Fly
Hey Five Spokes! Have you ever created a profile that looked great on paper or seemed awesome in your head, but when you actually delivered it, your primary thought was: What was I thinking?? I’ve had several instructors ask me how to...
Three Tips for Creating Focused Riders
Do you have a rider you’ve seen go from novice to really good in a matter of months? If so, chances are a key reason is that they are willingness to stay focused throughout the ride. Juxtapose that rider with the ones who don’t seem...
Progressing Your Rider’s Performance: Keep it Simple!
How do you challenge your riders to get/stay fit and ultimately perform their best on a stationary bike? It’s tempting to think we need to do something elaborate with every profile (or even think up new moves!), but the reality is that...
Home Again
As promised, here’s my blog on Mad Dogg Master Instructor Sarah Morelli’s Gravity ride from this year’s WSSC conference. The ride was held in the main ballroom with hundreds of bikes, two huge screens, a big stage and killer sound...