While you’re always alone on your bike, cycling is considered a great team sport — here’s how to make cycling a team sport for everyone!
When you look at cycling from an integral perspective, it becomes clear: It’s never just about mindfulness, it’s never just about individual flow — we humans thrive in collectives, we need team experiences to keep us motivated to ride in the long run. We can strengthen each other to achieve our purpose of cycling.
Unfortunately, too many cyclists still sit rigidly behind the handlebars.
The thing is that they never experienced the power of peer coaching.
Peer coaching has long been established in team sports such as soccer. Just to name a few reasons why elite sports colleges have it in their curriculum:
- Becoming more connected to lifestyle and team spirit
- Feeling your sport beyond the athletic experience
- Enhancing your skills with supportive people
- Developing interpersonal communication skills.
No worries, every cyclist can get this team experience of cycling, too.
You may follow these steps to try it out:
Step 1: Get in touch with like-minded people
The first steps is to find other cyclists who are supportive of your development.
You can find this in sports clubs — yet, there often training and competition play a role. You may have a friendly group of riders already — you may suggest the idea of peer coaching to them. Or you may join a training cohort that meets online. We’re currently launching the Integral Cycling team on Facebook — you can you can have a free sneak peek at the moment!
Step 2: Share your personal WHY
Peer coaching starts with yourself — opening up on your intrinsic motivations and the obstacles you experience in your cycling practice.
It requires and trains psychological safety which in addition to opening up for personal stories requires the willingness to listen from the other participants. That makes it a deep and powerful approach. You could try the case clinic format, for example. It works on a bike ride in pairs — and it works even easier in a Zoom call.
Step 3: Take action
From peer coaching, you will pull a lot of motivation and encouragement for your next steps.
It’s also a great approach for knowing your mates better. Sharing your personal WHY will automatically lead to a team purpose become present. Thus, cycling can trigger a real movement! You want to be part of it? Let me know via Twitter or Whatsapp and you’ll get the chance to join in!
