Doubling Down: Texas Training Results in New LCIs AND Coaches

It’s been one week since the League hosted the first coach training in Houston and there’s a buzz of camaraderie is alive and strong. Six coach candidates came to Texas to spend four days learning, teaching and breathing bike education.

After months of training, this weekend was their opportunity to turn their lessons into action and facilitate a League Cycling Instructor (LCI) Seminar.

There are some 3,700 LCIs that administer bicycle education around the country. That’s where the coaches come in: They are the small but growing number of bike instruction experts who lead LCI seminars.

This diverse group of coach candidates traveled from five states and three coasts (Texas counts, right?), bringing with them a variety of biking backgrounds and experience as educators and group ride leaders. Jennifer Laurita, Jim Nicholson, and Preston Tyree were the backbones of the training: They designed the content for webinars, role played through countless emails, and served as mentors to candidates.

“Our coaches adroitly handled numerous situations thrown at them, ranging from pre-seminar fictional LCI candidates with extremely varying abilities to real candidates interspersed among the ‘ringers,'” Jim said in an email to me after the training.  “They had strong support from a group of three coach-mentors for both the pre-seminar activities and the LCI weekend seminar itself.”

In the midst of 12-hour days on just a few hours of sleep, the candidates still found the time to give high-fives, share words of encouragement, ask for feedback, and successfully certify a group of new LCIs. While the candidates still have another seminar to assist, I’m excited to welcome these individuals to the elite group of League coaches. Their fresh perspective and passion for bike education will only boost our current program.

Are you interested in becoming a coach? We’ll be scheduling another training later this year, so stay tuned!