With the Resolutionists descending en-mass on your club or studio, Cycling Fusion's Tom Scotto and I felt you would benefit from an Audio PROfile that would get them off on the right foot peddle for 2013.
Strong Foundation is a 30 minute class you can teach repeatedly during a weekend open house event or as a regularly scheduled introduction to Indoor Cycling!
Tom spoke very highly about Gene Nacey being the patron saint of beginner Indoor Cyclists. You can hear Gene's ideas here.
Our plan is to discuss his strategies and techniques for teaching effective Foundation Classes to the brand new to exercise participants we will all see the first week in January.
Back on May 30th of last year, this post; Correcting Student’s Form — Proper Hand Position discussed a problem that a rider in my class was experiencing. Her hands were going to sleep after riding for 30 or so minutes. I offered my suggested solution once I figured out where her problem was coming from.
This is a not uncommon problem with outdoor cyclists and it sounds like it's becoming more of a problem indoors.
I stumbled onto a post this morning on spinningfreak.com that discusses the potential for carpal tunnel injuries from improper hand positions.
His (I don't know his name) post linked to a interesting video segment;Spinning® and carpal tunnel riskfrom WABC New York and their medical advisor Dr. Jay Adlersberg. Dr. Adlersberg gives a quick explanation of what is occurring during the class that could be causing pain/numbness in the hands of your students. At the end of the report he even gives this a name; Spinner's Hands.
Regardless of what brand of Indoor Cycling you teach, the simple solution is to educate everyone on the importance of riding with a straight wrist and then cue frequent hand positions. But not just at the beginning… my experience is that most everyone has good form early in the ride. It's when everyone is getting fatigued; heads, shoulders, elbows and finally wrists are dropping, that you need to remind people of the need to straighten up.
If you're reluctant to get off of the bike, taking a quick walk through your class with an eye out for cocked wrists could be the excuse you're looking for.
As you and your class transition into February 2017, it's often beneficial to begin adding some additional time in the saddle. Longer classes should (and often need to) be at a lower intensity.
So while a longer, endurance focused class has value, getting members to accept longer, steady state classes can be a challenge.
This week we'll be focused on the concept of “selling endurance” to your class participants.
Master Instructor Tom Scotto offered his thoughts in a previous podcast from 2012. If you haven't heard it, it will be time well spent.
Suggest finding someone who looks like this to help you evaluate your online registration system – or review the one you're using now.
Prospective Indoor Cycling Studio owners have hundreds of both challenging and easy decisions to make, long before they're ready to launch. Considering that your new studio will be a real business and the purpose of your business is to make money, the registration system you choose* to collect your money is pretty darn important… in fact it's crucial IMO. With multiple solution providers of online registration systems – how do you choose?)
I'd start by answering the: how easy/intuitive are the registration and collect the money process?
In the online world, marketers describe collecting the money as a conversion – I call it making a sale. Conversion percentages = what percentage of visitors who somehow end up on your registration page actually convert? Conversions don't always equate to sales. They can also be; create a user's profile, register for a class or even just join your email list.
Any difficulty the visitor experiences during the process can reduce the number of successful conversions (you don't get the money).
Now I don't need to tell you that different people, react to online “difficulties” or “frustrations” differently. You could throw any amount of digital confusion at either of my two girls and they'd still figure out how to register for your class. But there are potential customers who aren't comfortable with online anything.
Testing the registration and collect the money process
You're probably not the right person to test and compare online registration systems. The fact that you are here reading this tells me you are comfortable using a computer and are probably routinely using it to make purchases online.
I suggest finding someone in your life who's not all that comfortable with technology and ask them to help you evaluate the various systems. For some of you it could be your Mom (hence the Mom Test), a friend or family member that's similarly technophobic.
Here's how I would structure your “Mom Test”.[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Contact each company's representative and ask for a link to the home page of an actual studio that uses their system/software.
Collect each studio's link
Sit down with your evaluator and have them go through a complete registration process: Create a user's profile and then register and pay for an actual class. Yes, this will cost you a few dollars > what you learn will be invaluable.
But please don't waste their time and ask the studio owner to refund these small purchases.
While your evaluator is going through the registration process, You Need To Sit On Your Hands and offer no direction or assistance. Just watch exactly what happens and how she/he responds.
How quick was the process?
Was there any place where they got stuck
Did anything happen/change that caused them to question anything? Am I doing this right? Why was I taken here? etc…
With any luck you'll have a fun time doing this and learn a lot about what works and what doesn't, making your final choice easier. After all, you and your successful studio is going to be married to this software for years to come 🙂
[/wlm_private]*Of course this isn't the only reason you would decide on one registration vendor over another. If you have other questions you can ask me here.
The guys at BikeFit.com do a great job using infographics to communicate the process of proper bicycle fit. Today they sent out these images and I wanted to share them with you. Each details the multiple points of adjustment that can be used to ensure a comfortable setup.
Having been through a three hour, professional fitting like what BikeFit.com offers – I have experienced how many of these adjustments are effected by others… i.e. saddle fore/aft affects height and reach to the bars, cleat position can require a change in saddle position, etc…
A comprehensive fitting is really important for someone who is riding thousands of miles a year and/or is super concerned about efficiency = getting the maximum amount of power to the road.
So how detailed should you be with a new participant? After setting up people for over 15 years, it's my view that you just need to get them close and feeling comfortable. You obviously don't have 3 hours and with the exception of the Keiser M3, the adjustments on Indoor Cycles are too coarse to really fine tune a person anyway.
