Coach Education Courses
Certification and Continuing Education Courses
Certify and Maintain with USA Cycling

Cutting-Edge Courses on Training, Physiology, Business & Marketing
Featured New CEU Courses from USA Cycling
The coach-athlete relationship is one of the most crucial and rewarding in sports. And it hinges on great communication.
In this online course from USA Cycling and Fast Talk Labs, experts show coaches how to upgrade their communication skills for greater success.
This course dives deeper into effective communication, deep listening, thoughtful questioning, and empathy, including:
the roles and responsibilities of the coach-athlete relationship
ways to listen and respond to athletes
approaches to common situations (like the post-race debrief)
and the art of motivation
This Coach-Athlete Communication course draws from The Craft of Coaching with Joe Friel plus new material to create a helpful guide focused on communication basics and specific tactics that coaches can put into practice immediately.
While some may be born communicators, others struggle to build a rapport with their athletes. In either case, there is much to be gained from improving your skill at communication.
📍 Platform: USA Cycling Learning Management System (LMS)
📖 CEUs: 4 CEUs
✅ Completion Requirement: All course modules must be completed
CEUs will automatically apply to your account upon completion. If they do not appear, ensure all module settings are completed in the LMS.
Enroll today and enhance your ability to communicate effectively as a coach!
Effective goal setting is the foundation of athlete development and long-term success. The Goal Setting for Coaches and Athletes course provides practical strategies to help coaches guide their athletes in setting realistic, measurable, and achievable goals.
By understanding the psychology behind goal setting, you’ll be able to create a structured approach to motivation, progress tracking, and performance improvement.
In this course, you will learn:
The fundamentals of short-term and long-term goal setting
How to develop SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)
Techniques to help athletes stay motivated and accountable
Strategies for adjusting goals based on progress and performance
The role of mental skills and mindset in achieving success
This course is designed for coaches at all levels who want to help their athletes maximize their potential through structured and effective goal setting.
📍 Platform: USA Cycling Learning Management System (LMS)
📖 CEUs: 1
✅ Completion Requirement: All course modules must be completed
Start setting goals that lead to real results—enroll today!
In the CEU course from USA Cycling and Fast Talk Labs, “The Art and Science of Training Plan Creation,” coaches explore:
The basics of building a training plan
Best practices in onboarding new athletes
Pre-season preparation
Building the annual training plan and base season schedules
Advanced methods to execute a training plan with an athlete
While any certified coach can write a solid training plan, this online course drawing from The Craft of Coaching with Joe Friel explores the time-tested approaches of master coaches who have decades of experience: Joe Friel, Dean Golich, Jim Miller, Houshang Amiri, Trevor Connor, Adam Pulford, Ryan Kohler, and Dave Schell.
Duration: Self-paced
CEUs: 4 CEUs
Access: Available under the "Courses in Progress" section of your account
Endurance athletes are highly motivated and sometimes they push too hard. When athletes overdo it too often, they can harm their health or go so far that they prematurely end their endurance sports careers.
This course on Overreaching, Overtraining, and Burnout will explore these conditions, their differences, causes, prevention, symptoms, treatments, and recovery.
As a coach, the first step to managing your athletes’ workload and motivation is recognizing the symptoms of these conditions, which can easily by confused with everyday fatigue, underfueling, and other issues.
You will learn how to manage training loads, recognize the early signs of overtraining, and how to implement effective recovery strategies to help bring athletes back from the brink.
Covered in this course:
Functional overreaching
Nonfunctional overreaching
Overtraining Syndrome (OTS)
Burnout
This is a dark side of endurance sports. See how to help your athletes stay on a healthy path.
📍 Platform:USA Cycling Learning Management System (LMS)
📖 CEUs: 2 CEUs
✅ Completion Requirement: All course modules must be completed
This course from Fast Talk Laboratories and USA Cycling will take your coaching business to a new level of professionalism. Take this course to discover ways to become a more financially successful, efficient, and savvy business owner.
One of the most under-appreciated aspects of a coaching career is the business skill it takes to earn a living and, if desired, grow that business successfully and sustainably.
This course provides a thorough introduction to the business of coaching and features numerous master coaches who have successfully grown coaching businesses with staying power. Featured coaches and successful business owners include Joe Friel, Philip Hatzis, Gordo Byrn, Frank Overton, and Mike Ricci.
This course explores different methods for navigating the challenges of establishing a business, becoming profitable, marketing for growth, negotiating contracts, setting fair prices, and building up a team of coaches.
📍 Platform: USA Cycling LMS
📖 CEUs: 4 CEUs
✅ Completion Requirement: All course modules must be completed
Learn how to effectively market your coaching business, attract new clients, and grow your brand recognition—with clear steps and practical tools.
Our course, “A Coach’s Promotional Toolkit,” teaches you how to build a smart, structured marketing strategy (just like a well-planned training program) and focus your efforts where they matter most. You’ll learn how to:
Use Google Business Profile and Google Sites to improve your visibility and create a simple, effective website.
Build partnerships with local clubs, shops, and events to expand your reach and grow your client base.
Leverage insights from Dave Trendler, who has helped over 150 endurance sports coaches promote their businesses, including renowned experts like Joe Friel, Matt Fitzgerald, Matt Dixon, and Gale Bernhardt.
Apply short-term, actionable strategies—the “workouts” of marketing—that help you make progress now and avoid common marketing pitfalls.
Whether you’re a social coach who thrives on events or a data-driven strategist who prefers behind-the-scenes tools, this course will show you to leverage the promotional approach that best fits your style – and avoid those that are least likely to pay off for your business. You’ll learn to treat marketing like a workout: stay consistent, focus on what works, and watch your coaching business grow.
As coaches, we are focused on the performance of our athletes. Yet how can we be sure we are improving our performance as coaches? In Mastering Coaching Skills 201, you will take your coaching expertise to the next level by developing your core coaching skills: communication, decision-making, emotional IQ.
Successful coaches know that athlete performance is more than the sum of the workouts. Coaching is an art as well as a craft, and your intuition and intention can draw the highest performance from your athletes.
Expert coaches Joe Friel, Jim Rutberg, and Melissa Mantak will help you better support your athletes.
In this course, you will learn:
Advanced communication and athlete engagement strategies
Decision-making models for high-pressure coaching scenarios
Techniques for fostering motivation, accountability, and resilience
How to create adaptable training plans tailored to individual athletes
Best practices for long-term athlete development and retention
Sometimes, we focus too much on workouts, physiology, and training approaches. By investing in the coach-athlete relationship, you can get more enjoyment from this rewarding career.
Platform: USA Cycling Learning Management System (LMS)
CEUs: 3 CEUs
Completion Requirement: All course modules must be completed
Upon completion, your 3 CEUs will automatically apply to your account. If they do not appear, ensure all module settings are completed in the LMS.
Enroll today and elevate your coaching impact!
The Fundamentals of Physiology 101 will provide you with a strong foundational understanding of how the human body responds to training. This course covers exercise physiology, energy systems, and training adaptations. By understanding how the body works and how its key movement systems work together, you can make better decisions to help manage your athletes’ training and development.
The Fundamentals of Physiology 101 explores:
the relationship between performance level and training stress
the adaptive process
the importance of recovery
the complimentary relationship between high and low-intensity training
the cross-training effect
basic fueling principles
This course provides a thorough introduction to these concepts, and details why they are important for every coach to know.
📍 Platform: USA Cycling Learning Management System (LMS)
📖 CEUs: 4 CEUs
✅ Completion Requirement: All course modules must be completed
Upon completion, your 4 CEUs will automatically apply to your account. If they do not appear, ensure all module settings are completed in the LMS.
Take the next step in your Physiology of Training Specialization—enroll today!
Course Title: Anti-Doping & Doping Control
CEUs: 1
Specialization Track: Athlete Management & Development
Course Description:
Learn how to navigate anti-doping rules, and to protect your athlete’s integrity.
Our course, “Anti-Doping and Doping Control,” provides a clear roadmap for you to understand prohibited substances, manage in and out-of-competition testing, and ensure your athletes make compliant choices. You’ll learn how to:
Master the selection process for athlete testing, including USADA’s RTP and CAP procedures to help your athletes stay compliant with whereabouts requirements.
Effectively guide athletes through the TUE application and submission process and determine when they are needed.
Use tools like the USADA Drug Reference and Global DRO to verify that your athletes’ supplements, medications, and treatments are legal.
Recognize risks like hidden dangers in supplements and unlisted ingredients, so you can take proactive steps to avoid violations.
This course equips you with actionable steps to safeguard your athletes’ careers, ensure compliance, and avoid unwanted doping violations. Become a trusted resource and uphold the integrity of competition, whether you’re guiding a junior racer through their first TUE application or supporting seasoned athletes with RTP compliance.
Data can reveal powerful truths about your athletes—but only if you know how to read it. Our new online course, “Interpreting Athlete Data,” teaches you how to translate heart rate, power files, and subjective feedback into smarter, more personalized coaching decisions. You’ll gain the skills to analyze performance trends, identify weaknesses, and know when to trust the numbers—or set them aside. Whether you're coaching data-driven road racers or time-crunched beginners, this course helps you determine what matters and make better calls, every time. You’ll master how to:
- Interpret fitness and fatigue trends using metrics like TSS, CTL, and heart rate-to-power ratios.
- Pinpoint weaknesses through 5-second to 20-minute power tests—and tailor training to improve them.
- Monitor training with what Dr. Stephen Seiler calls the “Holy Trinity”—external load, internal load, and perception—to track progress while keeping your athlete’s unique physiology and feedback front and center.
- Avoid what Neal Henderson considers common data traps, like overestimating FTP, relying too much on peak numbers, or mistaking fatigue for fitness—and know when to toss a bad test.
Not sure if your athlete is underperforming or just fatigued? Lost in charts, graphs, and data? This course shows you what matters to make smarter coaching decisions. Don’t just crunch the numbers—coach the athlete.
Take the next step in your Programming and Training Design Specialization —enroll today!
Coaching juniors isn’t just about podiums—it’s about preparing athletes for long-term success in sport and life. Our new course, “Coaching Junior Athletes,” teaches you how to develop strong parent partnerships, apply Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) principles, and coach with a long view in mind. Featuring insights from Boulder Junior Cycling’s Pete Webber and WorldTour physiologist Dr. Iñigo San Millán, this course combines science and real-world strategies to help you shape motivated, resilient young athletes. You’ll master how to:
- Set clear boundaries and build trust with parents by leading pre-season meetings, explaining the coach-parent-athlete roles, and teaching parents how to support (not coach) from the sidelines
- Apply LTAD frameworks to guide age-appropriate training and long-term performance.
- Recognize the physical, emotional, and motivational factors that truly shape elite-level potential.
- Use practical tools—like baseline aerobic testing, developmental benchmarks, and day-to-day behavior cues—to guide progression.
This course teaches you the tools needed to coach junior athletes with clarity and confidence so you can foster long-term development, prevent burnout, and help young athletes thrive. Create confident, capable juniors, on and off the bike. Coach for the long game. Develop athletes who love the ride.
Take the next step in your Athlete Management & Development Specialization —enroll today!
Many coaches seeking to grow a profitable and effective coaching business are now offering a broad range of athlete services as a key way to differentiate their business. Our new online course, “Scaling Your Coaching Business,” gives you practical strategies to retain athletes longer, improve performance outcomes, and help your business stand out in a crowded market. You’ll learn how to:
- Build and leverage a referral network of experts to expand your offerings like metabolic testing, strength training, and nutrition planning.
- Follow Coach Julie Young’s system for creating bundled offerings—like preseason athlete consults, monthly check-ins, and performance testing—that increase value and retention.
- Collaborate with nutritionists using screening templates, fueling plan tools, and messaging tips that align with your coaching values and support athlete health, performance, and habit change.
Whether you’re a coach with 5 or 50 athletes, this course gives you the tools to turn your coaching into a full-service, athlete-centered experience. Walk away with proven systems, expert-backed strategies, and service models that not only elevate your athletes—but drive long-term growth, retention, and revenue for your business.
Take the next step in your Business Skills Specialization—enroll today!
Helping athletes stay competitive and fulfilled as they age requires more than adapting workouts—it demands a deeper understanding of physiology, motivation, and mindset.
Our new course, “Coaching Masters Athletes,” shows even veteran coaches the best ways to adjust training for masters athletes. This course details how to adjust training plans, workout intensity and recovery timing, how to help aging athletes stay healthy, and other considerations of their athletic journey.
Featuring science-backed insights and real-world stories from legends like Joe Friel and Cathy Utzschneider, this course will show how to coach masters athletes with clarity and confidence. You’ll master how to:
- Adapt training to age-related changes in VO2max, muscle mass, and recovery needs while maintaining high performance.
- Implement smart, sustainable strategies—including strength training, intensity, and recovery blocks—that prevent decline and support long-term athletic goals.
- Recognize and respond to shifts in motivation, helping athletes redefine performance, stay consistent, and find personal meaning in their goals.
- Use practical coaching tactics—from setting meaningful, value-based goals to navigating setbacks and reinvention—to keep masters athletes engaged and progressing.
This course teaches you the tools and strategies to help athletes in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond stay competitive, healthy, and inspired. Coach for longevity. Support reinvention. Help athletes love the ride—at every age.
Take the next step in your Athlete Management & Development Specialization —enroll today!
Coaching athletes with disabilities not only requires the same skill, strategy, and support as coaching any cyclist, but also calls for a deeper understanding of adaptive needs and inclusive practices. In our new online course, “Coaching Para-Cycling Athletes,” you’ll master modifying bikes for different impairments, guiding athletes through classification, and integrating para-athletes into group rides and races with confidence. You’ll learn how to:
Understand how equipment adaptations—like handcycles, prosthetics, and modified brake/shifter setups—support performance and safety.
Navigate the para-cycling classification system, adapt equipment, and promote skill development, safety, and inclusion both in training and at races.
Guide athletes through domestic and international classification processes to ensure fair and appropriate competition.
Evaluate support systems and recommend resources, training pathways, and development opportunities for athletes with disabilities.
Integrate para-athletes into local clubs, group rides, and race events—promoting inclusion and growing your impact as a coach.
If you’ve ever hesitated to coach an athlete with a disability, or felt unsure how to advocate for their opportunities, this course will give you the clarity, tools, and confidence to coach inclusively. Become a trusted leader in guiding para-cyclists to achieving their goals. Expand your coaching to empower every athlete.
As a coach, your athletes trust you to protect both their performance — and their long-term health. Our new course, “Concussion Awareness for Cycling Coaches,” equips you to recognize concussion symptoms, respond after crashes, and guide athletes safely back to sport. Featuring insights from experts like Dr. Steven Broglio and Dr. Anna Abramson, you’ll get the latest in concussion science and practical tools tailored to cycling. Walk away with clear strategies to assess symptoms, build a team-wide protocol, and support recovery—without rushing the process. You’ll master how to:
Recognize concussion symptoms, risks, and red flags unique to cycling crashes and high-speed impacts.
Build a concussion management plan using tools like baseline testing (e.g., SCAT2, ImPACT) and digital platforms such as HEADCHECK Health.
Respond appropriately to post-crash scenarios—conducting on-the-spot assessments and knowing when emergency care is warranted.
Support athletes through a structured return-to-sport protocol, while understanding risks like Second Impact Syndrome and post-concussion syndrome.
Concussions are one of the most critical and complex health concerns in cycling. If you’ve ever felt uncertain about how to respond after a crash, or how long to hold an athlete out of training, this course will give you the clarity and confidence to make the right call. Keep your athletes safe. Keep their season on track. Be the coach who knows when to push—and when to pause.
Your role as a coach extends far beyond designing workouts and providing technical guidance. The course Creating a Performance Enhancement Team shows how to build a network of trusted experts—from sports scientists to medical staff and pharmacists—to help your athletes train smarter, recover faster, and perform at their best. You’ll master how to:
Identify and collaborate with key service providers including healthcare professionals, nutritionists, sports scientists, and legal or medical specialists.
Understand the unique role each expert plays in contributing to holistic athlete development and performance.
Develop strong partnerships with team members while maintaining your leadership role as the coach.
Integrate expert input into training plans in a way that aligns with your coaching philosophy and the athlete’s goals.
This course teaches you how to build and lead a team of specialists with confidence—so your athletes receive the comprehensive support they need to reach their full potential. Build the right team. Make better decisions. Help your athletes go farther.
Our course "Fundamentals of Sports Nutrition" will show coaches exactly how to guide athletes through every stage of fueling—from daily training to race day—with confidence, clarity, and purpose.
Helping your athletes fuel smarter isn’t just about meal plans—it’s about unlocking performance, supporting health, and ensuring they’re ready to train, race, and recover at their best. Whether you’re guiding juniors balancing school schedules, elite racers chasing peak performance, or athletes returning from the offseason, or masters athletes seeking to maintain muscle mass and endurance, knowing how to make nutrition simple, sustainable, and effective is essential.
Backed by expert insights from Dr. Louise Burke and cutting-edge research from the Australian Institute of Sport, this course gives you the science-backed strategies to fuel every phase of your athletes’ journey. Coaches will learn how to:
- Understand macronutrients and calculate daily carbohydrate, fat, and protein needs based on training load, intensity, and body size.
- Build SMART race-day fueling plans and carbohydrate-loading strategies that help athletes stay energized and avoid bonking.
- Apply nutrition periodization—so your athletes know exactly when to eat more, when to scale back, and how to adapt their fueling with each phase of training.
- Navigate tricky conversations around body composition and weight management.
- Address low energy availability or RED-S before it derails performance.
Give your athletes the advantage that comes from smarter, more individualized fueling strategies—and become the coach who not only understands the science, but also knows exactly how to put it into practice. You’ll learn to see nutrition as part of the training puzzle, integrate it seamlessly, and help your athletes show up fueled and ready—every single day.
Take the next step in your Physiology of Training Specialization—enroll today!

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Become a 3rd Party Provider
Application Process:
1. Submit all responses via formsite.
2. USA Cycling will review submissions to ensure they meet established standards with 90 days of application.
3. Approved courses will be listed as accredited CEU providers for USA Cycling coaches on the USA Cycling website.
4. Courses housed on the USAC LMS will be reported on quarterly to providers.
5. Re-application is required every 2 years.
6. Once approved an MOU with provider terms will be emailed for signature.
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Always make sure to check the USA Cycling LMS for the most up to date approved providers list before purchasing a 3rd party course.

Resource Hub
- Login your USA Cycling LMS Account or Create an account
- Visit "Available courses" and select USA Cycling Level 3 > Login and enroll in the course.
- Follow the process and instructions as outlined in the course
- This course is housed at https://learn.usacycling.org/ our Learning Management System. Please bookmark this for an easy return to login and access your course.
- All requirements for the certification are linked through the course, including the required SafeSport Training and Background Checks
Once the course is complete, please follow the closing instructions on the short wait time before being able to pay for your new coaching certification.
Beginning July 2024 all USA Cycling coaches will be required to complete Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain their coaching license.
In 2024, 6 units will be required for all coaches with an expansion in 2025.
Check back for details or email our helpdesk with questions.
Click here to renew
Click here to download renewal requirements
To sign up for insurance, click here.
One of the benefits of being a USA Cycling certified coach is the ability to take out a non-competitive event permit for group training rides or clinics, normally something that only clubs/teams can do.
A benefit of having this permit is that your riders have the benefits of the USA Cycling coverage. As a coach carrying the professional liability insurance through the USAC provider, you will need to complete this registration process and have the event sanctioned in order for the insurance policy to be valid for the camp, clinic, or training ride.
All members of the camp, clinic, or group ride must be USAC racing license holders or purchase a one-day license for each day of participation. For more information on non-competitive event permits, please contact USA Cycling Event Services at 719-434-4201.
If you are going to be a team manager, coach, mechanic, soigneur, director sportif, etc for a UCI race, you will need a UCI Support Personnel license. Whether or not you will ever be asked for one is up to the commissaires and UCI personnel at the race. You may never be asked for the license. If you do not have the UCI support personnel license, the UCI commissaire/official may not allow you in the caravan. USA Cycling cannot be expected to issue a license on short notice. Please submit the paperwork at least 4 weeks prior to the event.
If you are not involved in a UCI event in a team manager or team coach role, you would NOT need a UCI personnel license. This is not a UCI racing license. All UCI licenses expire on December 31 of the year of issuance. Individuals seeking any of the following licenses are required to complete a Background Check as well as SafeSport online training before the license can be processed:
- Managers
- Directors/Assistant Director Sportif
- Soigneurs/Trainers
- Team Doctors
- Coaches
Click here to access the LMS.
Applications open January 1, 2025
Click here to apply
Take your coaching career to the next level by participating in the USA Cycling Coach Mentorship Program! Whether you’re looking to learn from seasoned coaches or share your expertise with the next generation, this program is for you.
Sign Up Here
Click here to complete the application
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