By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas

At the Indoor Cycling Group, we believe that teaching with video will be the next wave to influence Indoor Cycling, differentiate in the eyes of customers, and keep instructors from being seen as a commodity by the big-box clubs.

Media consoles like Myride®+ will enable instructors to work with cycling videos more easily than ever before.

  •  It takes only seconds to create a video playlist of any length and any profile from the most extensive cycling-video library in the world.
  • One touch moves the video forward or back seamlessly from one point in the video to another.
  • Organizing the video library by terrain type (flat, mixed, climb, descent) gives instant access to any type of terrain with just a touch.
  • Cutting-edge technology enables any video to fit any piece of music, and vice versa.

The strategy here is simple.  Movies are slick, impact our physical sensations and drive emotion.  ICG® is speculating that, once club operators see the quality of our video and its ease of use, they’ll want to offer it and get an edge on their competition.  We wouldn’t be doing this if people weren’t already asking for it.

Now it comes down to us, the instructors.  To differentiate ourselves and go beyond being a commodity — one that club operators see in blanket terms regardless of how much we invest in our education or how high the quality of our classes is — we have to be ready and able to teach with video.

We’re guessing that this transition will be hard for many instructors.  Anytime change feels intimidating, we tend to dodge it.  At ICG®, we don’t see that as good for the industry, or for us.

When the change feels too big, we’ve got to shrink it to make it more manageable.

[!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']

“Shrink the Change” has gotten a lot of press lately.  Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the bestsellers Made to Stick and Switch, have discovered that the rational mind and the emotional mind are two different systems.  The rational mind wants to change something; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort.  If it’s overcome, though, change can come quickly.

We believe that the Myride®+ technology, along with our latest online tutorial will shrink this change and make it easy and fun for everyone to use video in their classes.  For instance, with just a touch of the screen, you can display a forward-moving flat road — indefinitely.  You can do the same with a climb.  Or just use beautiful scenery without forward motion.  You can pause and start, prepare fully, partially, or not at all.  BTW, the online tutorial is free for everyone.

Three videos follow that demonstrate how incredible it is.  These videos have been selected from over 30 that make up our online tutorial.  Each one is a gem and shows you another cool way to use Myride®+ and/or teach with video.

NOTE: These are massive HD Video files - click play and then stop... and wait for the video to buffer before clicking play again if you have a slow Internet connection.

Teaching with Video Introduction 
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Teaching with Video Road Ride
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Teaching with Video Trail Ride
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We’re launching Myride®+ at the IHRSA 2012 trade show on March 15-16 in Los Angeles at Booth 1201A.  I hope you can come by and join Team ICG® for one of the 20 Myride®+ demo rides we’ll lead over the two days.

Will we see you there?[/!private]

Originally posted 2012-03-12 17:13:49.

Jim Karanas
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