August Coach Newsletter

 

Upcoming Coaches Calls

August 4 – Monthly Coaches Call Race Season Prep. Covid. Volunteering

August 18 – Mandatory call for Time Trial Details and Race 1

September 1 – Monthly Coach Call

September 15 – Mandatory Call for Race 2

October 6 – Monthly Coach Call, Race 3 Info

October 20 – Race 4 Info Call

Find the agendas here

Zoom Call Log in info:

AR-NICA Coaches Call

Time: 8:00 PM Central Time, First Wed of each month 

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Petition Deadlines and Category Placements 

We will be ordering race plates in August for our Fall events. For a student athlete to get a personalized race plate in their correct category, they need to be registered in the pit zone for at least one race by August 6. (The Time Trial counts as a race).  Please submit any petitions for High School or submit for Middle School Category changes prior to the 8/6 deadline to ensure custom plates are accurate.   

For Middle School Students:

Coaches need to review their middle school athlete category placements in the pitzone and ensure they are correct prior to the league ordering number plates. The deadline to ensure your middle school athletes are correct is 8/6. Fill out the form below to move student athletes into their correct category

Middle School Category Movement Form 

For High School Students:

For High School Athletes that want to move up or down categories, we recommend they complete the form and submit to their coach prior to the 8/6 Deadline for ordering plates.   Your race plates are sequenced with your category.  Our League has a Petition Committee that will review the forms and approve or deny them and provide any feedback or recommendations.  Petition Form   

Any petitions submitted after the 8/6 deadline will have regular number plates. 

Customized Race plates being ordered

As Mentioned above, we are in the process of getting ready to order the customized plates for this race season.  Any athlete who wishes to have a customized race plate needs to be registered for an event by the 8/6 Deadline.   The GRIT Race party does not count as an event.  If you miss the registration deadline,  you will still have an awesome number plate,  it just won’t have the student’s name on them.  

Remaining diligent with COVID concerns

COVID19 is still going strong in our part of the country. We are monitoring the progress and recommendations from CDC and local Health Departments. Our priority is to put on safe events and we want to have a full season. We will work to make our events as safe as possible and expect people to manage their own risk and safety while attending events and practices.   

Recommended precautions:  (but not limited to just these).  

1.  Stay home if you are feeling sick or have a fever or think you may have been exposed. 
2.  Stay physically distanced and wear a mask when you cannot maintain 6 feet 
3.  Be self sufficient at practices and events with your own water and nutrition
4.  Ensure you are completing a sign in procedure or roll call at practices to assist with tracking if exposures are noted. 
5. Report any exposures to terry@arkansasmtb.org for tracking and reporting. 

Are your Coaches and Athletes “Practice Ready”? 

Practices are underway and everyone is excited to be riding again in groups.   It’s very important for our NICA Risk Management that ALL our Coaches and Athletes are practice ready in the Pitzone.   You can determine if a Coach is practice ready if there is a green check mark.  If there is a red exclamation mark they are not practice ready.    Student Athletes will have a “Yes” in the Practice Ready column in pitzone.   Parents and Athletes interested in NICA can only attend 1 practice on a Signed 1 day Waiver.  After that they must be registered in the pitzone to participate in future practices and events. 

Aug 29th The Prelude Time Trial event details

The Prelude Time Trial will take place on August 29th at Sager Creek in Siloam Springs.   The event is important as it will help “seed” our student athletes based on their Prelude Time Trial results to aid our call up process.   We have not had a full race in nearly 2 years so this will help us ensure we have riders correctly placed in categories and seeded for “call up” prior to Race #1.  Race details can be found here.  Prelude Race Flyer   

Head Coaches need to register for your approximate time slot by filling out this form:   Prelude Team Time Start Registration

Volunteering at Races

We are going to structure our volunteering a little differently this year than we have before: we will assign “home teams” to each race. We will depend on those teams to provide most of our volunteers for their home race, including we will need 1 course marshal for every 5 student athletes racing. Coaches, we suggest that you nominate a parent to help you manage this and get parents to sign up for volunteering at the race. 

Prelude Time Trial: Siloam Springs, Bentonville West, Grimsley, Fulbright, Tulsa

Race 1 Barling: Fort Smith, Dequeen, Bentonville High School, Conway, North Little Rock

Race 2 Mountain Home: Mountain Home, Capital City Cranks, Catholic, Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Russellville

Race 3 Camp War Eagle: Rogers, Arkansas Arts Academy, Eureka Springs, Madco, St Vincent, Thaden

Race 4 Centennial: Fayetteville, Haas Hall, Lincoln Junior High, Pea Ridge, Springdale, Washington

Recruiting AR-NICA Coach Trainers

Coach trainers are essential to the continued growth of the league and progression of our coaches. The league is actively recruiting new Coach Trainers to facilitate On The Bike Skills session in 2021 and beyond. We are scheduling an appreciation weekend for Oct 3 & 4. The weekend will include appropriate training for success as a Coach Trainer. Additionally, we plan to include a ton of fun, exclusives, and stoke. Interested coaches should reach out to Ben Tufford with any questions.

 

The Evolving Mid-season Practice Structure

It is wonderful to see teams focus on positive team culture development and skill acquisition during the early-season. This sets the tone for the team’s purpose and progress throughout the season. As the season continues, consider how alternate programming can provide opportunities for student-athletes to connect and enjoy their time together. The NICA Adventure programming may provide a stimulus. 

Grounded in experiential education, adventure programming can take on many forms and is often a missing link for many of our student-athletes to enjoy bikes for a lifetime. NICA Level 2 or 3 coaches have access to a wealth of information on Litmos. The Coaches’ Adventure Toolbox contains a thorough explanation of the purpose and benefits of this program. There are also numerous resource documents to assist you in facilitating these activities at your practices. 

After accessing the NICA PitZone, hit the ‘Access Coach Courses’ button. Litmos will open in a new tab. Once there, select the Content Library tab on the left side. Then, scroll down to the Coaches’ Adventure Toolbox. The Coaches’ Adventure Toolbox Manual will provide guidance to facilitate activities with purpose and reward. Select ‘Additional Resources’ to access a long list of documents each highlighting different activities that you can add to your practices. 

Coaches often express early discomfort as they may be unfamiliar with the activities. This is often exactly how our new student-athletes feel as they arrive at practice. With a little trial and error, we all grow together. It’s OK to struggle in front of your team. Vulnerability is a building block of trust. Give these activities a try and you may find that as your activities evolve at practice, you evolve as a coach. Be a lifelong learner and model that for your team.

Upcoming Classes