The summer is upon us and interest in cycling is booming across the country.
This past spring Cycling BC has been delivering National Coach Certification Program (NCCP) training and iRide youth grassroots programs across the province. In total, iRide taught cycling skills and safety to 5,000 kids and created employment opportunities for 40 iRide instructors across the province. Meanwhile, our NCCP coach training program trained over 80 new community coaches and certified 13 new club coaches.
The 3-day iRide in-school program visited 39 schools across five metropolitan areas including Victoria, Vernon, Kelowna, the Fraser Valley, and Metro Vancouver. That’s an average of 800 kids per week who learned to ride the “Big Teeter Totter”, a cycling stunt used to teach bike handling skills, and experience the thrill of biking in gym class. Thanks to the support from our donors and sponsors, like Adera Development Corp., we were able to bring an extra instructor to schools in some areas this year. This really helped our instructors ensure that all of the participants received the guidance and support they needed to learn new skills and have a great time with their friends.
“iRide has been an amazing program that I have had lots of fun participating in. Having 3 people on the Kelowna team has made things much easier as a group – as we have been able to have 3 separate groups of kids, reducing our student to instructor ratio.
Another thing I have learned is that even though I have the title of “Head Instructor” I do not use that to put myself ahead of my teammates because I am still discovering myself as a leader. If one of my teammates can help me in an area of leadership, I am happy to give them the reins. This allows me to step back and note how they handled a particular situation or allow me to focus my attention on something else that needs it.” – Jacob Landry, Kelowna Head Instructor
Cycling BC would like to especially recognize both Adera and Sun Country Cycle for their contributions to the program. With their support, iRide was able to offer iRide at no cost to Ecole Porter Elementary and Queen Mary Elementary in the Lower Mainland, and Lavington Elementary in Vernon.
- Adera has been a proud supporter of iRide since its inception and a sponsor of Cycling BC for almost 2 decades. Thank you, Adera!
- Sun Country Cycle is our province’s first bike shop to sponsor an in-school iRide program. Thank you, Sun Country Cycle!
The iRide After-School program also returned this spring with programs in Abbotsford and Nanaimo, and new programs in Chase, Terrace, Quesnel, Chemainus, and Haida Gwaii. With support from viaSport’s Northern Coach Development Fund, we were able to help our Terrace group travel to Quesnel for our annual northern BC training event. In total, we trained 26 new iRide after-school instructors this spring and hosted over 150 new iRiders.
“Again I want to extend our heartfelt thank you for all the time you took to teach. Many valuable skills and games and just your teaching style is truly inspiring. That is the kind of teacher I want to be! The viaSport funding helped us make the trip possible and the backpacks and games have helped us so much.” – Nicole Pachal (Terrace Lead Instructor)
The iRide instructor training program has also been shared with other provinces in Canada through Cycling Canada’s new grassroots initiative, HopOn. In total, 25 instructors across Canada have started the process of becoming certified HopOn instructors, which includes completing the NCCP Community coach pathway. Cycling BC is proud to share the lessons learned since 2013 and hopes that other provinces will experience great success over the coming seasons. To learn more, please visit hoponcanada.ca.
To help more kids and instructors get started in cycling, Cycling BC also worked with Spirit North, a national charitable organization for Indigenous youth, to train 2 cohorts of instructors in northern British Columbia. Instructors participated in the NCCP Community coach pathway and completed the ancillary iRide instructor training. After two training sessions with Spirit North, a total of 16 instructors are now prepared to lead cycling programs in their communities.
Cycling BC’s NCCP coach development program also experienced a positive spring campaign despite the challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. Utilizing the benefits of online learning tools for the classroom component, we were able to keep things safe and maximize our time during outdoor in-person sessions.
- Ride Leader Training: 47 Trained, 37 Certified
- Community Coaches: 76 Trained
- iRide Instructors: 23 Certified
- Club Coaches: 12 Certified
Cycling BC would like to acknowledge the following coaches who have achieved NCCP Club (Comp-Intro) Certified status and who have taken a leadership role with their youth or adult clubs.
These people have also been showcased on Cycling BC’s coach database.
Cycling BC is very proud to help members pursue and achieve NCCP trained and certified status. The dedication it takes to achieve these designations is another reminder of how special our cycling community is in British Columbia.
Our next batch of NCCP programs will be offered in the autumn and possibly some events taking place over the summer. To make a special request, please contact coaching@cyclingbc.net.
