December 6, 2024 • 34 mins
"We are here to make cyclists for life, good humans for life—and we just do that through mountain biking." – Amanda Carey
Marley and Ellen sit down with Amanda Carey, National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) President, to talk about how NICA's programming builds character and community through youth mountain biking. She discusses how they're approaching issues of inclusivity, belonging, equitable access to their sport, and more in today's episode.
You can learn more and donate to NICA on their website, https://nationalmtb.org/
02:55 Coaching and Team Dynamics
07:37 Challenges and Inclusivity
13:42 Philosophy of Coaching
21:23 Community Involvement
26:01 How to Support NICA
30:42 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Oh, hello, Ellen.
(00:01):
Hi, Marlee.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
No.
What time is it?
It's time for the AllBodies on Bikes podcast.
What's my favorite time of day?
Mine too.
Mine too.
Good.
I'm glad.
I'm really glad we can edit thingsbecause I'm already sitting here
I don't know what to say next.
Let's just bring our guest on.
Today we are talking with Amanda Carey,who is the national NICA president.
(00:21):
So let me tell you all about her and thenwe will have an awesome conversation.
So Amanda Carey has been the NICApresident since November 2021.
Amanda became involved with NICA in2015, when she was When she started
her local Teton Valley composite teamas part of the Idaho league in 2017,
Amanda joined the NICA national coacheducation team, bringing with her a
(00:42):
deep passion and commitment to NICA'score values of fun, inclusivity, equity,
respect, and to make mountain bikingaccessible to riders of all ages.
Amanda has a BA in political sciencefrom Colorado college and a master's in
sports psychology from Capella university.
My brain wants to sayacapella, but it's Capella.
(01:03):
Prior to her time at NICA, Amandaheld multiple positions in nonprofit
organizations, including time asboth the development director and
an executive director, which is.
Different cycling and trailadvocacy organizations.
Amanda also brings with her manyyears as a professional mountain
bike and cyclocross racer, having wonthe national ultra endurance series.
Breck epic Transylvania epic andIceman cometh races multiple times.
(01:28):
Amanda lives with her husband, Natein Victor, Idaho, where they love to
mountain bike, ski and adventure outin the mountains with their two dogs.
Welcome to the show, Amanda.
Oh, thank you.
And I'm really glad to be here.
It's good to see you.
Yeah.
Let's back up for a minute.
I just said I was coaching.
But what in the heck is NICA?
NICA, gosh, yeah.
It's not a household name, which iswhy I love talking about it, right?
(01:51):
NICA is the NationalInterscholastic Cycling Association.
We are a mission based nonprofit that runsinterscholastic so team based mountain
biking programs for riders in sixth and12th grade all across the country, right?
So right now we have about 25,000 riders and 15, 000 volunteer
coaches across the United States.
(02:11):
And we do this.
Through, community based, which I'm surewe're going to talk a lot about today.
Community based and wonderfulvolunteers like yourself.
It's a community driven program.
It's been around since 2009 and wehave, gosh, we've almost hit nearly
a hundred thousand riders that havegraduated from the NICA program
since we started back in the day.
Hard to believe, but yeah,that's NICA in a nutshell.
(02:32):
That's so cool.
Those numbers are so impressive.
I showed up to my first practice theother day and there was nearly 40.
Kids, 40 students.
And I was just like, holy cow.
No wonder you need more coachesbecause these students are so
enthusiastic and so excited.
And they just accepted me withopen arms and said, okay, coach
Marley, where are we riding today?
I was like, I'm not in charge.
(02:52):
I'm just sweeping.
So funny too.
And I'm sure we'll talk about this, asa coach standing in front of 40 kids,
20 kids, 100 kids saying, what are wegoing to do today can be equally parts
empowering and terrifying too, which iswhy I'm sure we'll talk about our coach
education and how we work as a community.
But yeah, that first experiencemust have been, I hope both,
equal parts oh gosh, here we go.
(03:14):
Because it's.
Yes.
And also really cool.
Like these kids and theseparents are trusting in me and
we're going to have a good time.
And we have.
So it's been awesome.
How does mountain bikingwork as a team sport?
Yeah, it's interesting.
What NICA does so well is we take kiddosat an age where being part of a team,
being with friends is so important, right?
What's unique about NICA is we haveturned any an individual sport into
(03:37):
a team based sport, which is reallywhat gets kids engaged and empowered.
And getting that team basedexperience, which sports is just
so famous for and so great for.
So in the team format, essentially.
And team practices, but reallywhere it shows up is, as it are at
our events and at our races, right?
So every rider is in their own race andthey essentially score points, right?
(03:58):
So your varsity, your JV, your freshman,middle school riders, they go out and
on the day they give it their best andthey're showing up to be their best.
And in essentially No matter how manykids are participating, everyone scores
points towards that team overall.
And I'll tell you, very few actually focuson this, but that's the whole element
of what the team base is all about.
(04:19):
You're not just riding on your own.
And I think back in the day whenNyko was founded, That was the
idea with the founders, right?
It's back in Californiawhere this started.
It actually started with the, from a ahigh school math teacher wanted to start
a road team and Matt got all the flyerstogether, invited a bunch of kids and
they all showed up and said actually,can we make this a mountain bike team?
Cause it's way cooler than road.
Essentially what they were doingwas, just trying to form a club.
(04:44):
But what they also found was that aspart of that experience, and I'm sure
a lot of kids get this, too, until theyenter NICA, is they were just showing
up at events made for adults, right?
And that's a very differentexperience, especially for a kiddo.
So I think NICA grew outof that desire, right?
It was to create an experience for kidsthat was not only unique, that was meeting
their needs at the time of adolescencewhere you just want to be with your
(05:06):
friends, you want to be doing somethingcool with great coaches, great mentors.
And so we are trying to make,mountain biking like joining the
volleyball team or the basketballteam and getting that team experience.
Also getting to show up on theday and really engage in the
individual sport, but as a team.
What drew you to NICA and whatdoes being president mean to you
both personally and professionally?
(05:27):
Gosh, so much a great question.
And I, it was funny, I wasthinking about this the other day.
Because it's coming on my thirdanniversary of being president.
And I remember having this conversationwith my dad and saying, I just don't
even understand how I ended up here.
And he just looked at me, he waslike, kiddo, your entire life.
Has led you here.
(05:47):
Are you kidding me?
And it was a little bit of this ahamoment where I've always operated this
way and my personal and professionalmeld, because it's hard for me to
do anything professionally if I'mnot personally interested in it.
Cause my whole ethos is I'm goingto work myself into the ground
for causes that I believe in.
And so I've been, this is the sixthnonprofit that I've worked for
since, I was 16, but really whatI think NICA has done for me on
(06:09):
both a personal professional level is thatI can take a ton of personal interest.
I love mountain biking.
I love the outdoors.
I love kids, even thoughwe don't have our own.
We joke when my husband and Iwere running the the team that we
started, we had 80 children, right?
But they weren't our own, right?
My involvement in NICA then and myinvolvement in NICA now is really just
this culmination of everything that I'vedone with just, it blends my leadership,
(06:32):
it blends past experience with nonprofit cycling advocacy organizations.
And it was just this, I don't know,this just beautiful moment back in
2015 when I learned about Nike, I thinkthat day I went home and maybe have
voluntold my husband we're doing this.
Not a, do you want to do this?
So we are doing this cause he's a 20year ski instructor comes from the
(06:53):
bike industry background as well, too.
Runs a, he runs it adaptive sportsorganization, a non profit himself
too, but we just synced up on this.
He was feeling burnt out on mountainbiking and so was I, but it was just
this, I think it was mostly hope, right?
It was this hope of let's work withnot only the next generation, but
let's make it into what we want itto be, what we want it to become.
And that's what I get to do aspresident every day at NICA.
(07:14):
I know that it's you know, it is justmountain biking, but I think for the 40,
000, I hope soon hundreds of thousandsof people that will find you know, the
joy and the community and the acceptanceand the welcoming of our community.
That's what I get to do every day.
Yeah, I can totally relate to that.
I think that's really importantthough to like, to note that it's
like, there's a reason that you'rehere and that it's future looking is
(07:35):
the other thing that I heard and thatit's like driving so much purpose.
So can you talk a little bit aboutsome of those the key challenges
that you're facing as you try toexpand the reach and like work
with any underserved communities?
Sure, gosh, challenges are many, and Idon't mean to say Nike is unique in this
because it's the old story, not enoughresources, too much need but I do think
(07:55):
at this point, we have many challenges,but I think looking into the future,
probably our biggest challenges is goingto be places to ride and I meld that with
our efforts to be inclusive our effortsto be, to be equitable, to meet people
where they're at and invite them to ride.
Trail infrastructure and wheretrails exist is a huge part of this.
(08:15):
And I'd be remiss if I didn't note thatwe are one of the largest trail users in,
as an organized body in the United States.
And we take that really seriously, right?
We focus a lot on trail advocacyand being, polite and having
good, trail etiquette behaviorand things like that too.
But The biggest limiter to ourgrowth right now that I see is
that equitable access, right?
(08:35):
And I'm not talking about someonewho can afford a bike or not a bike.
That's, that is a separateand additional problem.
It's access.
It's a bike.
It's a place to ride.
It's parents with leisure timeto drive you to the trailhead.
They can afford a bikerack, things like that, too.
We know that those things are stackingand stacking, and the easiest thing
for us to address, quite frankly,is actually the equipment, right?
(08:55):
The equipment is funding.
The harder thing for us isgetting participation closer
to where teams exist, right?
And closer to home.
We have many teams right now that aredoing the very best with what they have,
which is not, very close access to trails.
And we have part of our 101 curriculumwhere we teach, and I don't know, Marley,
if you've hit this point in your coachtraining yet, but we actually have,
(09:17):
as part of our curriculum, we teachcoaches how to set up a mountain bike
course, but in a grass field, right?
And how to teach, we, andwe call it the short cut.
So we actually teach bikingand tons of games and we have
bike soccer and bike limo.
We've endless ways to to meet the needsof, basically setting up a practice
where you don't have trails, butthat as I see is one of the biggest
limiters and underserved communitiesare underserved in so many ways.
(09:40):
But when you see the biggestbarriers to participation right now,
that is one of the biggest ones.
And I Tell folks, what is the what'sthe holy grail of what you would have to
have unlimited participation opportunity?
And that's trails right out theback door at the school, right?
So I equate that oftentimes withThink of baseball, basketball,
(10:02):
all these other things.
You've got your public school hasbuilt the field, they maintain it, they
actually reserve it for you, right?
So if you're playing volleyball,you're not going to get 40 other
volleyball players coming in and playingvolleyball on your court too, right?
So we also have those challenges ofsharing the trails that we do have.
So it is unique, but I do thinkthat the, collectively, what we
need to do at NICA is not only bebetter advocates for our needs, but
(10:27):
it's going to get more involved.
Those places to ride need tobe in communities where we
don't already have access.
Yeah, something that is opening thedoor to more kids versus improving the
existing doors that the kids who areparticipating could already get to.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's a really interesting pointabout like, all of the other
curricular activities exist inschools in one way or the other.
(10:48):
I don't know that it feels a littlebit like, it's publicly funded.
It's acknowledged that this is away that your kid would want to
participate in a sport, participatein some kind of afterschool activity.
So therefore build it and theylike build it so they can use it.
So I think that's just such aninteresting connection to draw.
It's like bikes are something that'sgoing to be accessible to you throughout
your entire life, but they're notgiven like the access is basically
(11:10):
what you're saying is not there.
easily at such a young age.
So without like purposeful action inyour family's life or your own life
it's not something that you're goingto do without this kind of access.
That's really interesting.
What were you going to say Marley?
Oh, I was going to say, I hadn't thoughtabout it from that perspective of the
schools building the and reserving,especially that's a challenge we run
(11:31):
into in Bentonville all the time.
And I Should not be complaining at allbecause we literally do have mountain bike
trails coming out the back of schools.
It's incredible.
But we do run into the challengeof crowded trails and shared
access and making sure thatwe are riding with respect and
keeping our wheels on the ground.
Because a lot of the kids aroundhere ride every single day, even if
(11:51):
they're not it at a NICA practice.
Yeah, absolutely.
I always know when I'm out andI'm riding on a trail and I run
into a NICA kid or a NICA family.
It is so apparent to me thebehavior because I think.
Think, and it's, we don't get itall right all the time, right?
But the conscientiousness, thecourteousness, and the pulling over to
the side, looking you in the eye, smiling,and say, thank you, is way different
(12:15):
than most of the experiences that I havewith people who aren't involved in it.
How we behave on trails and howwe treat each other is one of the
biggest determinants of whetherwe continue to get access to that
trail or we get future access.
I think it's one of the most unknownthings about mountain biking in general,
but the land manager, or, anyone who ownsa private land is opening their trails to
(12:35):
users and they start getting complaints.
Gosh, it's like why would wereward bad behavior is a little
bit of a mentality that I've seen.
And so we do ourselves a service.
And quite frankly, it's morefun to smile and say, thank you.
And to be courteous and share the trail.
But that is not going togo away as part of being a
mountain biker and a trail user.
(12:57):
And being courteous and havinggood etiquette is a really big part
of what we do and what we teach.
And then those expectations ofhow we interact on the trail.
Yeah, that's been one of thebiggest surprises to me as I've
gone through the coach education isvery little, at least of the initial
curriculum I guess backing up.
So when you sign on to be a coachthere is a fully built out curriculum.
(13:18):
There's kind of three levels of coachesand ascending levels of responsibilities
and roles within the team.
that come with those additional.
learnings, but at least for the levelone very little of it is focused
on the actual on-the-bike coaching.
It's more about, whatis the purpose of NICA?
It's to build good characterthrough cycling through
(13:39):
these kids or in these kids.
And I've just beenreally impressed by that.
Can you talk a little bit about thephilosophy behind NICA and the coaching?
And yeah, why do you guysdo it the way you do it?
It's funny.
I feel like that's the way it should be inall youth coaching right and I think if I
can encapsulate how we recruit and retaincoaches, I often try and remind folks
(14:04):
that to be a great mountain biking coach,
let's just take out the mountain biking.
Let's just talk about whatit means to be a good coach.
And I think a lot of educators know this.
But it's, are you kind?
Are you fun?
Are you patient?
Are you a good listener?
Are you going to show up and be ableto put whatever it is going on in your
life aside, or your workout, or yourride, or whatever it is, and show up
(14:25):
for these kids in a way on a daily basisthat they need you to show up, right?
And most of that is just being agreat person to hang out with, right?
And being a good mentor.
And again I'm glossing over thefact that Yes, character development
is at the core of what we do.
It's the most important thing that we do.
And, we mostly describeourselves, I think, as a youth
(14:46):
development organization.
We're not a youth mountainbiking organization, right?
We just so happen to think that, at leastI think, the mountain bike is the best
tool possible to teach, to teach characterdevelopment and to do youth development.
And so our coaching philosophy reallyis grounded in Human first, right?
We are here to make cyclists forlife, good humans for life, and we
(15:06):
just do that through mountain biking.
And yeah, the progression of ourcoach education is so squarely focused
on what is your coach philosophy?
We make it easy.
We don't even make you comeup with your own core values.
Our values are fun, inclusive,equitable, respect, and community, right?
And having core values at thecenter of coach ed, everything
comes out from there, right?
(15:27):
So we don't need to actually bethat prescriptive with until later
on in your coaching journey with,here are your practice plans and
here's how you teach level pedalsand here's how manage a group of 10.
It's about how you approach it.
Cause at the end of theday, kids remember you.
How you treated them.
Not exactly what you said, right?
That old saying is you remember howpeople made you feel not what you said.
(15:48):
And to be a great coach.
That's really what's fundamental.
And I don't know if I don't thinkMarley, when you were at our national
conference, you had the opportunityto listen to John O'Sullivan
speak, but I would, I didn't know.
Yeah, I would put him on anyone's radar.
He is our, he's our, grandmaster of allthings, character development, and he
always puts us through this exercise.
We do it through a lot of coacheducation workshops as well, too, where
(16:09):
we have people write down the fivebest qualities of the best coach or
the best teacher you ever had, right?
And so you write down all thesequalities and you stick them on the
wall and you see the difference in it.
About 90 percent of thestuff, usually, is character.
They were fun.
They held me accountable.
They were compassionate.
they were great leaders.
And very little of it actually is thetechnical and the tactical, right?
(16:32):
They, taught me how to shoot a foul shot.
Okay, that's important too, right?
But that really is at the core ofwhat we're trying to do, right?
It's great humans for life and everythingin our coach education is based in
that approach to youth development, butthen I think it's also self sustaining
and the culture that we createand the expectations that we have.
And I think when we get the random coachor the random parent here or there that
(16:56):
is not coaching to our core values,they stick out like a sore thumb.
It's pretty apparent.
They also get the opportunity, whichis one of the most undersold parts
of NICA, I think, is that we do justas much, if not more, for the adults
that participate in our programs thanwe do the kids, believe it or not.
And I've seen that.
Cause again, I was a level three coachand I was a head coach for many years.
(17:18):
Again, my background is incoach Ed and sports psych.
And I think that the, this ideathat you're showing up in service
of kids, you end up showingup in the service of yourself.
And then it just becomes this, I don'tknow, Marla, you're probably just
starting it, but just this super cool.
It's like a co learningopportunity, right?
And it becomes, it just becomesthis thing where you're working
on yourself just alongside.
(17:40):
As much as the kids are alongside them and
I got to it's got to like, provide thisopportunity for self reflection, right?
Of like catching yourself when you areabout to be mean instead of kind when
you're about to say if you're about tocoach in a way that's in anger, and that's
not part of the core, it's that gut checkis a big part of changing your behavior.
So it's really cool.
It's like Ted lasso for kids on bikes.
(18:01):
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The podcast on that, I hope, whatwe teach coaches to model just as
much to their student athletes forthemselves is that failure is expected.
It's okay.
Because if you hit a rock andyou fall over you just got to get
back up and keep trying, right?
And I think that's just thebeauty of mountain biking is
it's such a quick, rapid sport.
(18:22):
And I always tell kids, it'severy single pedal stroke is a new
opportunity for you to do somethingnew and better and different.
And coaches, gosh, I don't want tosay I used to crash all the time,
but When I crash in front of the kidsor fall over, it's yeah I'm human.
Not only human too.
I'm learning alongside with you.
Like I didn't know how to doa wheelie or a track stand
before I started coaching Nika.
Kids taught me how to do it.
It's this whole philosophy that weare all working on our character
(18:46):
together and we're all working on beingbetter mountain bikers in general.
There's no end point there.
I think in a way that is anuntold story and I got for sure.
I like that so much.
And I think it's just something that is.
It's creating a foundation for thesekids in a lot of different ways.
It sounds like the surface levelthat you might think of with NICA is
that it's about bikes, but the deeperlevel is actually that it's about
building the character and how areyou building so many other strengths.
(19:10):
It just so happens that themedium is mountain biking.
And how do you think that this isalso helping you develop physically
or even mental health, mentally wise?
Yes.
Yeah.
Gosh.
Kids need movement period.
I'm not saying mountainbiking has a monopoly on this,
they need fun.
They need so many things that abike can provide to them depending
on their development stage.
(19:31):
And I think I've already explainedbefore what I think it does really
well at that 6th to 12th gradeage is, we put them together with
their friends and their team.
But the thing, remember what a bike was.
For all of us who rode bikes askids, bike was your freedom, right?
And it's, and again, it's that toolthat you can use no matter what
for the, for what goal you have.
And I think for kids, especiallyit's teaching them yeah.
(19:53):
That they can, what I've seen at least,that they can do hard things, right?
And that is such an invaluable lesson,especially, I think, especially for young
girls at the age that we get them inNygaard but teaching them that mountain
biking is not easy, and that's okay.
It's the pursuit of something hardand something difficult, and even
teaching them through for that, forthe mental health connection, but all
The physical connection is teachingthem really that they have the
(20:16):
power to shape their own experience.
And that's often new for kids, right?
You can teach themthrough the bike, right?
It's it's raining.
Okay.
You could say it's just water, right?
You're just going to get wet oryou can just be so upset about it.
About it.
So in, in teaching them that theyhave a choice and they can make that
choice about whether what they areexperiencing is going to be positive
(20:37):
or it's going to be negative.
And we don't get itall right all the time.
A number of kiddos I've seen throwtheir bike over and frustration.
Adults to see that often, not so muchin NICA, but in my pro racing career.
It just, I think for kids, especially,it's that it's all of those things
together, but at every developmentalstage that they can understand spatial
(20:57):
awareness relationship to their body.
They're learning.
I think the most important thing for kidsis learning about what their body can do.
It's just not what it looks like andthat's a, that's also a big thing for
kids and especially for our young girls.
It's no.
It's how hard you pedal.
It's how hard you try.
It's effort that you put in.
There's no better sport or machine thana bicycle that's going to give you that
immediate input back of you did it rightor you have something to improve on there.
(21:22):
Yeah, definitely.
So NICA doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Obviously, it exists withincommunities and within schools.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow NICA works with schools or like
local bike shops or other orgs to tocreate cycling programs that are both
sustainable and community driven?
Can you talk about thatcommunity aspect a little bit?
Sure.
Yeah.
I often describe NICA as it's likethese little ecosystems and it's
(21:46):
all centered on the NICA team.
And so I think what NICA does really wellis that we empower amazing volunteers
like you, Marlee, or these supervolunteers that are our head coaches.
And these little ecosystemsare based around teams, right?
So the team, they need a localbike shop, to help them, cause
not all coaches are mechanics.
(22:06):
So they need that local bike shop tohelp them with purchases, with equipment,
with fixing, with asking questions,and they need parent volunteers to
shuttle kids back and forth to practiceor to volunteer at races or to,
create the meals or all those things.
So the community process, everythingin NICA is really set up to empower it.
that local team.
People think, I got to coach and Idon't have time for coaching, right?
(22:28):
There's a lot ofdifferent ways to support.
And there's a lot of differentways that teams need support to
be the self sustaining community.
With local bike shops, with parentvolunteers, with anybody, there
is a place and there is a role.
That's really important that everyonekind of pulls, pull some weight
within that community as well, too.
We are setting up really just amazingvolunteers with the tools to do
(22:54):
something and easier level, right?
So we take care of the education,the insurance, the places to ride,
the structure and all those things.
And what we try to do is leteverybody focus on and I'm saying
it's easy, but everyone focuson just that team experience,
the practice experience, right?
Too.
So with the community based in makingsure that it's sustainable, every single
team is run a little bit differently.
(23:15):
And that's for good reason.
We have really two types of teams in NICA.
We have a school based teamand we have a composite team.
So school based is, you have allthe student athletes that are
participating from just the same school,
and then the composite teams are Kindof a hodgepodge mix of it could be
private schools, homeschool, publicschool, middle school and high school.
The composite team I used to runwith my husband, we had private,
(23:37):
public, and homeschool kids from sevendifferent locations and counties.
Wow.
So really we try to do is set the model upto be really flexible, but then supportive
of what that local community needs.
And so it's community driven andsustainable in the sense where We're
strict with what we need to be certain.
It's usually risk management, coach ed,and things like that too, but mostly
we're trying to support the very best ofwhat we can, these little tiny ecosystems
(24:01):
that pop up in these communities inwhich everyone needs to play a role.
What sets NICA apart with parentinvolvement is that parents are not
on the sidelines of our organization.
Again, I'm not a parent, butI've seen, it's almost 80 percent
of our coaches are parents.
So then becomes this unique thing whereparents and kids are doing this together.
And they're not only doing ittogether, parents are invited into
(24:23):
our community in a different way thatthey are not in other sports, right?
I'm picturing the coach withthe, you know, shorts and the
whistle and the clipboard.
My husband was a t ball coach.
He bought himself a whistle.
don't need a whistle.
I just yell but Very much theparents are on the sidelines, right?
It's the we don't need you and butwhat we need you to do is I don't know
bring some orange slices after practiceand that's when your place and we not
(24:45):
only invite parents and we need parentsfor volunteer spots To, help at races,
to be course marshals, to be, parkingattendants and things like that too.
And so I think this whole idea ofbeing community driven and sustainable
is that intentional invitation.
It's no we need you here.
Please come in.
You're not on the sidelines.
And so in terms of sustainability,I think that's one of the best parts
(25:07):
of our program is that you don't haveparents or anyone tiptoeing around.
Everyone is all in hands on deck, willingand willing to help because I think
it is that difference of invitation.
If you ever go to a Nike race,you'll see it takes usually a solid
day or two to set up a course.
Sometimes it takes.
(25:27):
A half an hour to break it down becausewhat you will see is when the varsity
or whatever the last race of the dayis you just get hundreds of kids and
parents just descending on the courseof everything and ripping it all down
and packaging it up because again,it's that invitation and I think it's
sustainable in that way because everyoneplays a role and they want to help.
(25:47):
Yeah.
I wrote that down.
I wrote intentional invitation downbecause that's, I think, important
in all of this community building.
Yeah.
And I think that tees us upnicely for our last question.
This time absolutely flew by but I'mhoping you, you take it and run with it.
But how can listeners support NICA'smission and get involved in youth cycling?
So many ways.
If anything that you've heardtoday is that there is a a
(26:10):
lot of different ways to help.
But number one, I'll tell you, and I thinkwe opened with this is spread the word.
I think there, I think thatobservation is not a lot of folks
know about NICA and I've seen that.
And there's a I don't know if you're acyclist you probably are aware and if
you're a mountain biker you're definitelyaware but outside of our little bubble
That's what I want people to know ofright is we are okay I'll say I think
(26:33):
we're better but that's just my job tosay that we're better But I do you can
say it I could say there's There's a storyto be told about NICA outside of NICA
that I don't think is being told, whichis we're changing youth sports, and we're
changing youth sports for the better.
And we are our inclusive nature,there's no cuts, there's no bench,
there's no tryouts, parents areinvited in, coaches are volunteers,
(26:54):
focus on character development.
The way that NICA is doing youth sports,I think, is what I want the world to hear.
That's why I think wehave the goal in 10 years.
We're hoping to be 100, 000student athletes across,
across the world, hopefully.
But I think that's the firstmost important thing is that it's
not just about mountain biking.
It's how we do youth sports.
And I've had so many parents over theyears say, no knock on soccer, but Gosh,
(27:19):
I don't get to go camping for the weekendand ride my bike and sit around campfires
and feel invited and watch my kid thrivein a way that I do in NICA, right?
The youth sports model in the UnitedStates the older you get in the United
States, the better you are expected tobe at the sport to get the right to play.
And I've said this a milliontimes where kids should just get
to play because they want to.
(27:40):
That's it.
Full stop.
It's challenging, but I think whatour model shows that others can do is
that is the value in and of itself.
The kid wants to play, they get to play.
If they want to race, they can.
If they don't want torace, they don't have to.
And putting that emphasis on participationand effort, not outcomes and race results.
And, we have no competitiveaspirations or elite development.
(28:04):
Amen.
In our organization, but so manykids get there, but it's because
we're focusing on the right thing.
It's, we're including them for longer.
So that's the first most important.
Yeah.
Then there's also,volunteering at a local race.
We are always seeking donations.
I always tell folks that Nike ismore, we are significantly fundraiser.
It's really important to us becausemountain biking is a more expensive sport
(28:24):
for all the reasons we've talked about.
There's equipment, there's trail access.
There's all these things.
We really rely ondonations and partnerships.
Especially from the cycling industryto keep the cost of registration,
the cost of doing business low.
But, volunteer as a coach, check it out.
There's so many different ways,but I would say if you want to
learn more about NICA, we've gota great website, it's nationalmtb.
org.
There's lots of differentways, but mostly, just ask.
(28:47):
There's going to be a role for you.
Trust me.
If you want to get involved in thisawesome organization again, like I
said, we've got 15, 000 coaches, 25, 000student athletes, so you can do the math.
That's almost a two to one ratio.
Because as Marlee said, wealways need more coaches.
And if you don't think you can bea coach, You probably definitely
can be a coach because then you'redoing that introspection that
(29:07):
I think is expected of a coach.
I won't lie.
It's intimidating to go out there andknow that some of the students on my
team are much better riders than I am.
Thankfully, like we split upinto groups and I usually go with
the mild or the medium group.
We have mild, medium andspicy is how we split it up.
It's really fun.
And I usually get to go with a mild groupand it works out great, but yeah, if
you're hesitant, that's a sign to do it.
(29:30):
I think so.
I think you're askingyourself the right question.
And again, tells you anything.
I used to be a pro mountain bikeracer and a skills instructor and
I showed up and it's intimidatingto have 40 kids look at you.
But I think in this at the sametime, going into any kind of
coaching, knowing that you'relearning alongside with the kids.
Is I think that's thebest mentality to go into.
(29:51):
And I always give coaches to thebest advice is that, this is not
my quote, stealing it probablyfrom John O'Sullivan, but you might
not be the coach for everybody,but you're the coach for somebody.
Man, when you connect with a kiddothere, there really is nothing
like it because they're notgoing to connect with everybody.
But you absolutely couldbe the coach for somebody.
When you described all kinds of waysthat you're going to Coach the coaches
(30:12):
as much like to be a coach as muchas you'll coach the coaches to ride
bikes and support kids on bikes.
So I think it sounds like you've got sucha strong setup here at NICA to really
set this foundation for kids, coaches,everybody who is interested and who
wants to come along like I think I wastrying to count the ways to like have
this really smart wrap up of all the waysthat you've mentioned that NICA supports
(30:32):
kids and I basically, I lost count.
I think you had to have easily namedtwo dozen ways that you are thoughtfully
taking on this role in kids lives andit just happens to be through bikes.
I appreciate that you were here.
Thanks, Amanda.
Yeah.
Thanks for having me.
And again, I'd encourage anyonewho wants to learn more, check
us out and just thank you.
Cause I, and we didn't, I didn'teven get to ask you any questions.
(30:52):
You had me do it all.
But if Nike ever starts a podcast, maybeyou'll be my first my first introduction.
Cause I will tell you, Martywas a guest speaker at our
national conference this year.
And gave a keynote that I think in thesurveys that we get was one of the highest
ranked keynotes that we've ever had.
I feel like we'refinally getting traction.
This traction of inclusivityis not simple, right?
(31:13):
Inclusivity takes time and constanteffort and constant re imagining and
re questioning of the way and how weare doing things so that we can do
things better, to be more inclusive.
And it's not just, can you include,the kid that doesn't want to race.
It's much, much bigger than that.
And I think that the message that you gaveour folks, it was not only a slam dunk.
(31:37):
You had everyone in that roomthinking about inclusivity in a way
that we've not thought about it.
. Cause again, inclusivityHas a I struggle with it.
Sometimes it is a privateorganization we have our core
values and they're our core values.
So we get to define them.
And we get to say whatinclusivity means to us.
But I also think that if wearen't constantly asking other
(32:00):
people, do you feel included, thenwe're not doing the right work.
And I think when we came it's notabout how we think we are doing.
It's the impact that weare having on others.
And if we don't constantly ask, andif we don't constantly question,
we're never going to get it right.
And NICA has a long way to gowith truly being inclusive.
But you put us on a really strongpath for learning even more about it.
Oh they'll be happy to hear that.
(32:20):
I'm now a coach.
Thank you.
And thanks for being on the show today.
Yeah, it was really fun.
Let's do it again sometime.
Agreed.
Bye.
Thanks, Amanda.
Oh, hello, Ellen.
(00:01):
Hi, Marlee.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
No.
What time is it?
It's time for the AllBodies on Bikes podcast.
What's my favorite time of day?
Mine too.
Mine too.
Good.
I'm glad.
I'm really glad we can edit thingsbecause I'm already sitting here
I don't know what to say next.
Let's just bring our guest on.
Today we are talking with Amanda Carey,who is the national NICA president.
(00:21):
So let me tell you all about her and thenwe will have an awesome conversation.
So Amanda Carey has been the NICApresident since November 2021.
Amanda became involved with NICA in2015, when she was When she started
her local Teton Valley composite teamas part of the Idaho league in 2017,
Amanda joined the NICA national coacheducation team, bringing with her a
(00:42):
deep passion and commitment to NICA'score values of fun, inclusivity, equity,
respect, and to make mountain bikingaccessible to riders of all ages.
Amanda has a BA in political sciencefrom Colorado college and a master's in
sports psychology from Capella university.
My brain wants to sayacapella, but it's Capella.
(01:03):
Prior to her time at NICA, Amandaheld multiple positions in nonprofit
organizations, including time asboth the development director and
an executive director, which is.
Different cycling and trailadvocacy organizations.
Amanda also brings with her manyyears as a professional mountain
bike and cyclocross racer, having wonthe national ultra endurance series.
Breck epic Transylvania epic andIceman cometh races multiple times.
(01:28):
Amanda lives with her husband, Natein Victor, Idaho, where they love to
mountain bike, ski and adventure outin the mountains with their two dogs.
Welcome to the show, Amanda.
Oh, thank you.
And I'm really glad to be here.
It's good to see you.
Yeah.
Let's back up for a minute.
I just said I was coaching.
But what in the heck is NICA?
NICA, gosh, yeah.
It's not a household name, which iswhy I love talking about it, right?
(01:51):
NICA is the NationalInterscholastic Cycling Association.
We are a mission based nonprofit that runsinterscholastic so team based mountain
biking programs for riders in sixth and12th grade all across the country, right?
So right now we have about 25,000 riders and 15, 000 volunteer
coaches across the United States.
(02:11):
And we do this.
Through, community based, which I'm surewe're going to talk a lot about today.
Community based and wonderfulvolunteers like yourself.
It's a community driven program.
It's been around since 2009 and wehave, gosh, we've almost hit nearly
a hundred thousand riders that havegraduated from the NICA program
since we started back in the day.
Hard to believe, but yeah,that's NICA in a nutshell.
(02:32):
That's so cool.
Those numbers are so impressive.
I showed up to my first practice theother day and there was nearly 40.
Kids, 40 students.
And I was just like, holy cow.
No wonder you need more coachesbecause these students are so
enthusiastic and so excited.
And they just accepted me withopen arms and said, okay, coach
Marley, where are we riding today?
I was like, I'm not in charge.
(02:52):
I'm just sweeping.
So funny too.
And I'm sure we'll talk about this, asa coach standing in front of 40 kids,
20 kids, 100 kids saying, what are wegoing to do today can be equally parts
empowering and terrifying too, which iswhy I'm sure we'll talk about our coach
education and how we work as a community.
But yeah, that first experiencemust have been, I hope both,
equal parts oh gosh, here we go.
(03:14):
Because it's.
Yes.
And also really cool.
Like these kids and theseparents are trusting in me and
we're going to have a good time.
And we have.
So it's been awesome.
How does mountain bikingwork as a team sport?
Yeah, it's interesting.
What NICA does so well is we take kiddosat an age where being part of a team,
being with friends is so important, right?
What's unique about NICA is we haveturned any an individual sport into
(03:37):
a team based sport, which is reallywhat gets kids engaged and empowered.
And getting that team basedexperience, which sports is just
so famous for and so great for.
So in the team format, essentially.
And team practices, but reallywhere it shows up is, as it are at
our events and at our races, right?
So every rider is in their own race andthey essentially score points, right?
(03:58):
So your varsity, your JV, your freshman,middle school riders, they go out and
on the day they give it their best andthey're showing up to be their best.
And in essentially No matter how manykids are participating, everyone scores
points towards that team overall.
And I'll tell you, very few actually focuson this, but that's the whole element
of what the team base is all about.
(04:19):
You're not just riding on your own.
And I think back in the day whenNyko was founded, That was the
idea with the founders, right?
It's back in Californiawhere this started.
It actually started with the, from a ahigh school math teacher wanted to start
a road team and Matt got all the flyerstogether, invited a bunch of kids and
they all showed up and said actually,can we make this a mountain bike team?
Cause it's way cooler than road.
Essentially what they were doingwas, just trying to form a club.
(04:44):
But what they also found was that aspart of that experience, and I'm sure
a lot of kids get this, too, until theyenter NICA, is they were just showing
up at events made for adults, right?
And that's a very differentexperience, especially for a kiddo.
So I think NICA grew outof that desire, right?
It was to create an experience for kidsthat was not only unique, that was meeting
their needs at the time of adolescencewhere you just want to be with your
(05:06):
friends, you want to be doing somethingcool with great coaches, great mentors.
And so we are trying to make,mountain biking like joining the
volleyball team or the basketballteam and getting that team experience.
Also getting to show up on theday and really engage in the
individual sport, but as a team.
What drew you to NICA and whatdoes being president mean to you
both personally and professionally?
(05:27):
Gosh, so much a great question.
And I, it was funny, I wasthinking about this the other day.
Because it's coming on my thirdanniversary of being president.
And I remember having this conversationwith my dad and saying, I just don't
even understand how I ended up here.
And he just looked at me, he waslike, kiddo, your entire life.
Has led you here.
(05:47):
Are you kidding me?
And it was a little bit of this ahamoment where I've always operated this
way and my personal and professionalmeld, because it's hard for me to
do anything professionally if I'mnot personally interested in it.
Cause my whole ethos is I'm goingto work myself into the ground
for causes that I believe in.
And so I've been, this is the sixthnonprofit that I've worked for
since, I was 16, but really whatI think NICA has done for me on
(06:09):
both a personal professional level is thatI can take a ton of personal interest.
I love mountain biking.
I love the outdoors.
I love kids, even thoughwe don't have our own.
We joke when my husband and Iwere running the the team that we
started, we had 80 children, right?
But they weren't our own, right?
My involvement in NICA then and myinvolvement in NICA now is really just
this culmination of everything that I'vedone with just, it blends my leadership,
(06:32):
it blends past experience with nonprofit cycling advocacy organizations.
And it was just this, I don't know,this just beautiful moment back in
2015 when I learned about Nike, I thinkthat day I went home and maybe have
voluntold my husband we're doing this.
Not a, do you want to do this?
So we are doing this cause he's a 20year ski instructor comes from the
(06:53):
bike industry background as well, too.
Runs a, he runs it adaptive sportsorganization, a non profit himself
too, but we just synced up on this.
He was feeling burnt out on mountainbiking and so was I, but it was just
this, I think it was mostly hope, right?
It was this hope of let's work withnot only the next generation, but
let's make it into what we want itto be, what we want it to become.
And that's what I get to do aspresident every day at NICA.
(07:14):
I know that it's you know, it is justmountain biking, but I think for the 40,
000, I hope soon hundreds of thousandsof people that will find you know, the
joy and the community and the acceptanceand the welcoming of our community.
That's what I get to do every day.
Yeah, I can totally relate to that.
I think that's really importantthough to like, to note that it's
like, there's a reason that you'rehere and that it's future looking is
(07:35):
the other thing that I heard and thatit's like driving so much purpose.
So can you talk a little bit aboutsome of those the key challenges
that you're facing as you try toexpand the reach and like work
with any underserved communities?
Sure, gosh, challenges are many, and Idon't mean to say Nike is unique in this
because it's the old story, not enoughresources, too much need but I do think
(07:55):
at this point, we have many challenges,but I think looking into the future,
probably our biggest challenges is goingto be places to ride and I meld that with
our efforts to be inclusive our effortsto be, to be equitable, to meet people
where they're at and invite them to ride.
Trail infrastructure and wheretrails exist is a huge part of this.
(08:15):
And I'd be remiss if I didn't note thatwe are one of the largest trail users in,
as an organized body in the United States.
And we take that really seriously, right?
We focus a lot on trail advocacyand being, polite and having
good, trail etiquette behaviorand things like that too.
But The biggest limiter to ourgrowth right now that I see is
that equitable access, right?
(08:35):
And I'm not talking about someonewho can afford a bike or not a bike.
That's, that is a separateand additional problem.
It's access.
It's a bike.
It's a place to ride.
It's parents with leisure timeto drive you to the trailhead.
They can afford a bikerack, things like that, too.
We know that those things are stackingand stacking, and the easiest thing
for us to address, quite frankly,is actually the equipment, right?
(08:55):
The equipment is funding.
The harder thing for us isgetting participation closer
to where teams exist, right?
And closer to home.
We have many teams right now that aredoing the very best with what they have,
which is not, very close access to trails.
And we have part of our 101 curriculumwhere we teach, and I don't know, Marley,
if you've hit this point in your coachtraining yet, but we actually have,
(09:17):
as part of our curriculum, we teachcoaches how to set up a mountain bike
course, but in a grass field, right?
And how to teach, we, andwe call it the short cut.
So we actually teach bikingand tons of games and we have
bike soccer and bike limo.
We've endless ways to to meet the needsof, basically setting up a practice
where you don't have trails, butthat as I see is one of the biggest
limiters and underserved communitiesare underserved in so many ways.
(09:40):
But when you see the biggestbarriers to participation right now,
that is one of the biggest ones.
And I Tell folks, what is the what'sthe holy grail of what you would have to
have unlimited participation opportunity?
And that's trails right out theback door at the school, right?
So I equate that oftentimes withThink of baseball, basketball,
(10:02):
all these other things.
You've got your public school hasbuilt the field, they maintain it, they
actually reserve it for you, right?
So if you're playing volleyball,you're not going to get 40 other
volleyball players coming in and playingvolleyball on your court too, right?
So we also have those challenges ofsharing the trails that we do have.
So it is unique, but I do thinkthat the, collectively, what we
need to do at NICA is not only bebetter advocates for our needs, but
(10:27):
it's going to get more involved.
Those places to ride need tobe in communities where we
don't already have access.
Yeah, something that is opening thedoor to more kids versus improving the
existing doors that the kids who areparticipating could already get to.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's a really interesting pointabout like, all of the other
curricular activities exist inschools in one way or the other.
(10:48):
I don't know that it feels a littlebit like, it's publicly funded.
It's acknowledged that this is away that your kid would want to
participate in a sport, participatein some kind of afterschool activity.
So therefore build it and theylike build it so they can use it.
So I think that's just such aninteresting connection to draw.
It's like bikes are something that'sgoing to be accessible to you throughout
your entire life, but they're notgiven like the access is basically
(11:10):
what you're saying is not there.
easily at such a young age.
So without like purposeful action inyour family's life or your own life
it's not something that you're goingto do without this kind of access.
That's really interesting.
What were you going to say Marley?
Oh, I was going to say, I hadn't thoughtabout it from that perspective of the
schools building the and reserving,especially that's a challenge we run
(11:31):
into in Bentonville all the time.
And I Should not be complaining at allbecause we literally do have mountain bike
trails coming out the back of schools.
It's incredible.
But we do run into the challengeof crowded trails and shared
access and making sure thatwe are riding with respect and
keeping our wheels on the ground.
Because a lot of the kids aroundhere ride every single day, even if
(11:51):
they're not it at a NICA practice.
Yeah, absolutely.
I always know when I'm out andI'm riding on a trail and I run
into a NICA kid or a NICA family.
It is so apparent to me thebehavior because I think.
Think, and it's, we don't get itall right all the time, right?
But the conscientiousness, thecourteousness, and the pulling over to
the side, looking you in the eye, smiling,and say, thank you, is way different
(12:15):
than most of the experiences that I havewith people who aren't involved in it.
How we behave on trails and howwe treat each other is one of the
biggest determinants of whetherwe continue to get access to that
trail or we get future access.
I think it's one of the most unknownthings about mountain biking in general,
but the land manager, or, anyone who ownsa private land is opening their trails to
(12:35):
users and they start getting complaints.
Gosh, it's like why would wereward bad behavior is a little
bit of a mentality that I've seen.
And so we do ourselves a service.
And quite frankly, it's morefun to smile and say, thank you.
And to be courteous and share the trail.
But that is not going togo away as part of being a
mountain biker and a trail user.
(12:57):
And being courteous and havinggood etiquette is a really big part
of what we do and what we teach.
And then those expectations ofhow we interact on the trail.
Yeah, that's been one of thebiggest surprises to me as I've
gone through the coach education isvery little, at least of the initial
curriculum I guess backing up.
So when you sign on to be a coachthere is a fully built out curriculum.
(13:18):
There's kind of three levels of coachesand ascending levels of responsibilities
and roles within the team.
that come with those additional.
learnings, but at least for the levelone very little of it is focused
on the actual on-the-bike coaching.
It's more about, whatis the purpose of NICA?
It's to build good characterthrough cycling through
(13:39):
these kids or in these kids.
And I've just beenreally impressed by that.
Can you talk a little bit about thephilosophy behind NICA and the coaching?
And yeah, why do you guysdo it the way you do it?
It's funny.
I feel like that's the way it should be inall youth coaching right and I think if I
can encapsulate how we recruit and retaincoaches, I often try and remind folks
(14:04):
that to be a great mountain biking coach,
let's just take out the mountain biking.
Let's just talk about whatit means to be a good coach.
And I think a lot of educators know this.
But it's, are you kind?
Are you fun?
Are you patient?
Are you a good listener?
Are you going to show up and be ableto put whatever it is going on in your
life aside, or your workout, or yourride, or whatever it is, and show up
(14:25):
for these kids in a way on a daily basisthat they need you to show up, right?
And most of that is just being agreat person to hang out with, right?
And being a good mentor.
And again I'm glossing over thefact that Yes, character development
is at the core of what we do.
It's the most important thing that we do.
And, we mostly describeourselves, I think, as a youth
(14:46):
development organization.
We're not a youth mountainbiking organization, right?
We just so happen to think that, at leastI think, the mountain bike is the best
tool possible to teach, to teach characterdevelopment and to do youth development.
And so our coaching philosophy reallyis grounded in Human first, right?
We are here to make cyclists forlife, good humans for life, and we
(15:06):
just do that through mountain biking.
And yeah, the progression of ourcoach education is so squarely focused
on what is your coach philosophy?
We make it easy.
We don't even make you comeup with your own core values.
Our values are fun, inclusive,equitable, respect, and community, right?
And having core values at thecenter of coach ed, everything
comes out from there, right?
(15:27):
So we don't need to actually bethat prescriptive with until later
on in your coaching journey with,here are your practice plans and
here's how you teach level pedalsand here's how manage a group of 10.
It's about how you approach it.
Cause at the end of theday, kids remember you.
How you treated them.
Not exactly what you said, right?
That old saying is you remember howpeople made you feel not what you said.
(15:48):
And to be a great coach.
That's really what's fundamental.
And I don't know if I don't thinkMarley, when you were at our national
conference, you had the opportunityto listen to John O'Sullivan
speak, but I would, I didn't know.
Yeah, I would put him on anyone's radar.
He is our, he's our, grandmaster of allthings, character development, and he
always puts us through this exercise.
We do it through a lot of coacheducation workshops as well, too, where
(16:09):
we have people write down the fivebest qualities of the best coach or
the best teacher you ever had, right?
And so you write down all thesequalities and you stick them on the
wall and you see the difference in it.
About 90 percent of thestuff, usually, is character.
They were fun.
They held me accountable.
They were compassionate.
they were great leaders.
And very little of it actually is thetechnical and the tactical, right?
(16:32):
They, taught me how to shoot a foul shot.
Okay, that's important too, right?
But that really is at the core ofwhat we're trying to do, right?
It's great humans for life and everythingin our coach education is based in
that approach to youth development, butthen I think it's also self sustaining
and the culture that we createand the expectations that we have.
And I think when we get the random coachor the random parent here or there that
(16:56):
is not coaching to our core values,they stick out like a sore thumb.
It's pretty apparent.
They also get the opportunity, whichis one of the most undersold parts
of NICA, I think, is that we do justas much, if not more, for the adults
that participate in our programs thanwe do the kids, believe it or not.
And I've seen that.
Cause again, I was a level three coachand I was a head coach for many years.
(17:18):
Again, my background is incoach Ed and sports psych.
And I think that the, this ideathat you're showing up in service
of kids, you end up showingup in the service of yourself.
And then it just becomes this, I don'tknow, Marla, you're probably just
starting it, but just this super cool.
It's like a co learningopportunity, right?
And it becomes, it just becomesthis thing where you're working
on yourself just alongside.
(17:40):
As much as the kids are alongside them and
I got to it's got to like, provide thisopportunity for self reflection, right?
Of like catching yourself when you areabout to be mean instead of kind when
you're about to say if you're about tocoach in a way that's in anger, and that's
not part of the core, it's that gut checkis a big part of changing your behavior.
So it's really cool.
It's like Ted lasso for kids on bikes.
(18:01):
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The podcast on that, I hope, whatwe teach coaches to model just as
much to their student athletes forthemselves is that failure is expected.
It's okay.
Because if you hit a rock andyou fall over you just got to get
back up and keep trying, right?
And I think that's just thebeauty of mountain biking is
it's such a quick, rapid sport.
(18:22):
And I always tell kids, it'severy single pedal stroke is a new
opportunity for you to do somethingnew and better and different.
And coaches, gosh, I don't want tosay I used to crash all the time,
but When I crash in front of the kidsor fall over, it's yeah I'm human.
Not only human too.
I'm learning alongside with you.
Like I didn't know how to doa wheelie or a track stand
before I started coaching Nika.
Kids taught me how to do it.
It's this whole philosophy that weare all working on our character
(18:46):
together and we're all working on beingbetter mountain bikers in general.
There's no end point there.
I think in a way that is anuntold story and I got for sure.
I like that so much.
And I think it's just something that is.
It's creating a foundation for thesekids in a lot of different ways.
It sounds like the surface levelthat you might think of with NICA is
that it's about bikes, but the deeperlevel is actually that it's about
building the character and how areyou building so many other strengths.
(19:10):
It just so happens that themedium is mountain biking.
And how do you think that this isalso helping you develop physically
or even mental health, mentally wise?
Yes.
Yeah.
Gosh.
Kids need movement period.
I'm not saying mountainbiking has a monopoly on this,
they need fun.
They need so many things that abike can provide to them depending
on their development stage.
(19:31):
And I think I've already explainedbefore what I think it does really
well at that 6th to 12th gradeage is, we put them together with
their friends and their team.
But the thing, remember what a bike was.
For all of us who rode bikes askids, bike was your freedom, right?
And it's, and again, it's that toolthat you can use no matter what
for the, for what goal you have.
And I think for kids, especiallyit's teaching them yeah.
(19:53):
That they can, what I've seen at least,that they can do hard things, right?
And that is such an invaluable lesson,especially, I think, especially for young
girls at the age that we get them inNygaard but teaching them that mountain
biking is not easy, and that's okay.
It's the pursuit of something hardand something difficult, and even
teaching them through for that, forthe mental health connection, but all
The physical connection is teachingthem really that they have the
(20:16):
power to shape their own experience.
And that's often new for kids, right?
You can teach themthrough the bike, right?
It's it's raining.
Okay.
You could say it's just water, right?
You're just going to get wet oryou can just be so upset about it.
About it.
So in, in teaching them that theyhave a choice and they can make that
choice about whether what they areexperiencing is going to be positive
(20:37):
or it's going to be negative.
And we don't get itall right all the time.
A number of kiddos I've seen throwtheir bike over and frustration.
Adults to see that often, not so muchin NICA, but in my pro racing career.
It just, I think for kids, especially,it's that it's all of those things
together, but at every developmentalstage that they can understand spatial
(20:57):
awareness relationship to their body.
They're learning.
I think the most important thing for kidsis learning about what their body can do.
It's just not what it looks like andthat's a, that's also a big thing for
kids and especially for our young girls.
It's no.
It's how hard you pedal.
It's how hard you try.
It's effort that you put in.
There's no better sport or machine thana bicycle that's going to give you that
immediate input back of you did it rightor you have something to improve on there.
(21:22):
Yeah, definitely.
So NICA doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Obviously, it exists withincommunities and within schools.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow NICA works with schools or like
local bike shops or other orgs to tocreate cycling programs that are both
sustainable and community driven?
Can you talk about thatcommunity aspect a little bit?
Sure.
Yeah.
I often describe NICA as it's likethese little ecosystems and it's
(21:46):
all centered on the NICA team.
And so I think what NICA does really wellis that we empower amazing volunteers
like you, Marlee, or these supervolunteers that are our head coaches.
And these little ecosystemsare based around teams, right?
So the team, they need a localbike shop, to help them, cause
not all coaches are mechanics.
(22:06):
So they need that local bike shop tohelp them with purchases, with equipment,
with fixing, with asking questions,and they need parent volunteers to
shuttle kids back and forth to practiceor to volunteer at races or to,
create the meals or all those things.
So the community process, everythingin NICA is really set up to empower it.
that local team.
People think, I got to coach and Idon't have time for coaching, right?
(22:28):
There's a lot ofdifferent ways to support.
And there's a lot of differentways that teams need support to
be the self sustaining community.
With local bike shops, with parentvolunteers, with anybody, there
is a place and there is a role.
That's really important that everyonekind of pulls, pull some weight
within that community as well, too.
We are setting up really just amazingvolunteers with the tools to do
(22:54):
something and easier level, right?
So we take care of the education,the insurance, the places to ride,
the structure and all those things.
And what we try to do is leteverybody focus on and I'm saying
it's easy, but everyone focuson just that team experience,
the practice experience, right?
Too.
So with the community based in makingsure that it's sustainable, every single
team is run a little bit differently.
(23:15):
And that's for good reason.
We have really two types of teams in NICA.
We have a school based teamand we have a composite team.
So school based is, you have allthe student athletes that are
participating from just the same school,
and then the composite teams are Kindof a hodgepodge mix of it could be
private schools, homeschool, publicschool, middle school and high school.
The composite team I used to runwith my husband, we had private,
(23:37):
public, and homeschool kids from sevendifferent locations and counties.
Wow.
So really we try to do is set the model upto be really flexible, but then supportive
of what that local community needs.
And so it's community driven andsustainable in the sense where We're
strict with what we need to be certain.
It's usually risk management, coach ed,and things like that too, but mostly
we're trying to support the very best ofwhat we can, these little tiny ecosystems
(24:01):
that pop up in these communities inwhich everyone needs to play a role.
What sets NICA apart with parentinvolvement is that parents are not
on the sidelines of our organization.
Again, I'm not a parent, butI've seen, it's almost 80 percent
of our coaches are parents.
So then becomes this unique thing whereparents and kids are doing this together.
And they're not only doing ittogether, parents are invited into
(24:23):
our community in a different way thatthey are not in other sports, right?
I'm picturing the coach withthe, you know, shorts and the
whistle and the clipboard.
My husband was a t ball coach.
He bought himself a whistle.
don't need a whistle.
I just yell but Very much theparents are on the sidelines, right?
It's the we don't need you and butwhat we need you to do is I don't know
bring some orange slices after practiceand that's when your place and we not
(24:45):
only invite parents and we need parentsfor volunteer spots To, help at races,
to be course marshals, to be, parkingattendants and things like that too.
And so I think this whole idea ofbeing community driven and sustainable
is that intentional invitation.
It's no we need you here.
Please come in.
You're not on the sidelines.
And so in terms of sustainability,I think that's one of the best parts
(25:07):
of our program is that you don't haveparents or anyone tiptoeing around.
Everyone is all in hands on deck, willingand willing to help because I think
it is that difference of invitation.
If you ever go to a Nike race,you'll see it takes usually a solid
day or two to set up a course.
Sometimes it takes.
(25:27):
A half an hour to break it down becausewhat you will see is when the varsity
or whatever the last race of the dayis you just get hundreds of kids and
parents just descending on the courseof everything and ripping it all down
and packaging it up because again,it's that invitation and I think it's
sustainable in that way because everyoneplays a role and they want to help.
(25:47):
Yeah.
I wrote that down.
I wrote intentional invitation downbecause that's, I think, important
in all of this community building.
Yeah.
And I think that tees us upnicely for our last question.
This time absolutely flew by but I'mhoping you, you take it and run with it.
But how can listeners support NICA'smission and get involved in youth cycling?
So many ways.
If anything that you've heardtoday is that there is a a
(26:10):
lot of different ways to help.
But number one, I'll tell you, and I thinkwe opened with this is spread the word.
I think there, I think thatobservation is not a lot of folks
know about NICA and I've seen that.
And there's a I don't know if you're acyclist you probably are aware and if
you're a mountain biker you're definitelyaware but outside of our little bubble
That's what I want people to know ofright is we are okay I'll say I think
(26:33):
we're better but that's just my job tosay that we're better But I do you can
say it I could say there's There's a storyto be told about NICA outside of NICA
that I don't think is being told, whichis we're changing youth sports, and we're
changing youth sports for the better.
And we are our inclusive nature,there's no cuts, there's no bench,
there's no tryouts, parents areinvited in, coaches are volunteers,
(26:54):
focus on character development.
The way that NICA is doing youth sports,I think, is what I want the world to hear.
That's why I think wehave the goal in 10 years.
We're hoping to be 100, 000student athletes across,
across the world, hopefully.
But I think that's the firstmost important thing is that it's
not just about mountain biking.
It's how we do youth sports.
And I've had so many parents over theyears say, no knock on soccer, but Gosh,
(27:19):
I don't get to go camping for the weekendand ride my bike and sit around campfires
and feel invited and watch my kid thrivein a way that I do in NICA, right?
The youth sports model in the UnitedStates the older you get in the United
States, the better you are expected tobe at the sport to get the right to play.
And I've said this a milliontimes where kids should just get
to play because they want to.
(27:40):
That's it.
Full stop.
It's challenging, but I think whatour model shows that others can do is
that is the value in and of itself.
The kid wants to play, they get to play.
If they want to race, they can.
If they don't want torace, they don't have to.
And putting that emphasis on participationand effort, not outcomes and race results.
And, we have no competitiveaspirations or elite development.
(28:04):
Amen.
In our organization, but so manykids get there, but it's because
we're focusing on the right thing.
It's, we're including them for longer.
So that's the first most important.
Yeah.
Then there's also,volunteering at a local race.
We are always seeking donations.
I always tell folks that Nike ismore, we are significantly fundraiser.
It's really important to us becausemountain biking is a more expensive sport
(28:24):
for all the reasons we've talked about.
There's equipment, there's trail access.
There's all these things.
We really rely ondonations and partnerships.
Especially from the cycling industryto keep the cost of registration,
the cost of doing business low.
But, volunteer as a coach, check it out.
There's so many different ways,but I would say if you want to
learn more about NICA, we've gota great website, it's nationalmtb.
org.
There's lots of differentways, but mostly, just ask.
(28:47):
There's going to be a role for you.
Trust me.
If you want to get involved in thisawesome organization again, like I
said, we've got 15, 000 coaches, 25, 000student athletes, so you can do the math.
That's almost a two to one ratio.
Because as Marlee said, wealways need more coaches.
And if you don't think you can bea coach, You probably definitely
can be a coach because then you'redoing that introspection that
(29:07):
I think is expected of a coach.
I won't lie.
It's intimidating to go out there andknow that some of the students on my
team are much better riders than I am.
Thankfully, like we split upinto groups and I usually go with
the mild or the medium group.
We have mild, medium andspicy is how we split it up.
It's really fun.
And I usually get to go with a mild groupand it works out great, but yeah, if
you're hesitant, that's a sign to do it.
(29:30):
I think so.
I think you're askingyourself the right question.
And again, tells you anything.
I used to be a pro mountain bikeracer and a skills instructor and
I showed up and it's intimidatingto have 40 kids look at you.
But I think in this at the sametime, going into any kind of
coaching, knowing that you'relearning alongside with the kids.
Is I think that's thebest mentality to go into.
(29:51):
And I always give coaches to thebest advice is that, this is not
my quote, stealing it probablyfrom John O'Sullivan, but you might
not be the coach for everybody,but you're the coach for somebody.
Man, when you connect with a kiddothere, there really is nothing
like it because they're notgoing to connect with everybody.
But you absolutely couldbe the coach for somebody.
When you described all kinds of waysthat you're going to Coach the coaches
(30:12):
as much like to be a coach as muchas you'll coach the coaches to ride
bikes and support kids on bikes.
So I think it sounds like you've got sucha strong setup here at NICA to really
set this foundation for kids, coaches,everybody who is interested and who
wants to come along like I think I wastrying to count the ways to like have
this really smart wrap up of all the waysthat you've mentioned that NICA supports
(30:32):
kids and I basically, I lost count.
I think you had to have easily namedtwo dozen ways that you are thoughtfully
taking on this role in kids lives andit just happens to be through bikes.
I appreciate that you were here.
Thanks, Amanda.
Yeah.
Thanks for having me.
And again, I'd encourage anyonewho wants to learn more, check
us out and just thank you.
Cause I, and we didn't, I didn'teven get to ask you any questions.
(30:52):
You had me do it all.
But if Nike ever starts a podcast, maybeyou'll be my first my first introduction.
Cause I will tell you, Martywas a guest speaker at our
national conference this year.
And gave a keynote that I think in thesurveys that we get was one of the highest
ranked keynotes that we've ever had.
I feel like we'refinally getting traction.
This traction of inclusivityis not simple, right?
(31:13):
Inclusivity takes time and constanteffort and constant re imagining and
re questioning of the way and how weare doing things so that we can do
things better, to be more inclusive.
And it's not just, can you include,the kid that doesn't want to race.
It's much, much bigger than that.
And I think that the message that you gaveour folks, it was not only a slam dunk.
(31:37):
You had everyone in that roomthinking about inclusivity in a way
that we've not thought about it.
. Cause again, inclusivityHas a I struggle with it.
Sometimes it is a privateorganization we have our core
values and they're our core values.
So we get to define them.
And we get to say whatinclusivity means to us.
But I also think that if wearen't constantly asking other
(32:00):
people, do you feel included, thenwe're not doing the right work.
And I think when we came it's notabout how we think we are doing.
It's the impact that weare having on others.
And if we don't constantly ask, andif we don't constantly question,
we're never going to get it right.
And NICA has a long way to gowith truly being inclusive.
But you put us on a really strongpath for learning even more about it.
Oh they'll be happy to hear that.
(32:20):
I'm now a coach.
Thank you.
And thanks for being on the show today.
Yeah, it was really fun.
Let's do it again sometime.
Agreed.
Bye.
Thanks, Amanda.
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