Friday with Richard.

Due to the weather during the week this session was looking like it may not go ahead. But friday the snow had thawed enough for the coaching session to begin.Richard said he wanted to get more confident on drops but on seeing him through my skills health check, I could see the skills needed were not present so I set about correcting that.
We worked on his footwork and his looking along the trail and straight away we could see improvements.
Richard also tended to roll to his toes on steep roll downs, so I corrected that in him.

The day ended with us flowing down the red/black trail ending and Richard said he felt controlled and confident and faster than before!
Job done!

Snowy day with Kit.

The day didn't go as hoped, the snow hadn't cleared so we had to stay on the lower levels.I worked on his pumping and drop technique and we worked on getting him to look right along the trail.

Here is Kit mid section looking at a corner that comes next after the drop.
This, Kit informed me was the 2nd time he had ridden the drop section!
We played with cornering grip and I played with counter steer but the slush eventually gave way on me :)
All in all, a very enjoyable day.

A group session at Glentress

When George contacted me asking if I could coach him and three friends I explained how i would structure the day and how re-active it would be. We began with a skills health check and then after applying the missing skills to the initial climb we began the technique of pumping the trail and experimenting with unweighting the front/rear of the bike.

This led us nicely into the drop technique.
Now, George had issues he said in the past with rocky roll downs and ups so we worked on those techniques and he was suprised how easy it was and him and everyone grew in confidence and commitment.
We then linked the drop section to the next corner section and identified braking zones and soon everyone was appling their new skill set to that trail.
We then rode a natural trail and everyone was beginning to become automatic with their footwork and looking down and along the trail.
We ended the day as I usually do with clients and thats' by the buddy method. We all took turns to be in the front on the long descent back to the bottom and everyone knew they were faster but also more controlled than before.
The day ended as it began,with blue skies and the weather changed as we all left. Another great days riding.

Neill's glentress session

Neill contacted me and wanted a one to one session. as with all my one to one clients I asked for pictures or video's if possible to tailor the day and to see what areas i can focus on. Neill's was obvious, so I began working on it as soon as we started. On the climb to the skills area we worked on the looking along the trail.
After some time spent on the mechanics of pumping I went on to show how it applies to the drop technique.
Neill then applied it to a natural drop section too.
We then worked on Neills' cornering technique and things went from strength to strength.
We then went on to a natural trail and stitched all the new techniques together and was flowing nicely. We ended the session as always with a free session of riding and neill was getting tired but still hooning down the trails over cooking on one corner but he instantly told me where/why it had gone wrong so we carried on down th atrail and ended with coffee and grub at the hub.

Graham became a mountain biker!

Now let me explain, graham contacted me and described himself as an off road roadie. What he meant was that he didn't posses the mental skills required to perform the techniques he needed on HIS trails. After the skills health check, I discovered that he actually was proficient at the physical skills but lacked confidence and concentration, and that meant he couldn't commit himself to riding technical trails. 1st we worked on the pumping technique and led into the unweighting of the front and rear of the bike.
The thought of rolling down steep stuff was something that bothered graham. so we worked on that and soon his confidence grew, as did his commitment.
His cornering was controlled and smooth after a few body and set up tweaks.
Actually dropping the wheel down stuff at slow speed was something he struggled with on his own trails and he said that he always felt like he was going to go over the bars, so i worked on why this is, and worked on head positioning and footwork.
By the end of the session, Graham was showing the understanding of all the days teachings and was flowing smoothly down and up the trails.
Thank you for what turned out to be an amazing day on many levels.

Tony

Ian's day of progression

Ian contacted me and told me of his background of trail centre rides and that he has entered the mega-avalanche. I explained the back to foundations approach I use for 1st time clients and after the skills health check we moved on to the skills themselves.

I demonstrated how the skills combine in all techniques and Ian got to grips with pumping and then onto un-weighting the front and rear of the bike.
I showed how that technique leads onto the drop technique.
We then worked on the skills required for off camber sections and after sliding out using his normal technique he was stunned at the ease of the section using his new skill set.
Cornering was worked on and how linking sections together developed the flow of the trail.

I then showed how the pumping technique leads not only to drops, but also the jump technique and Ian took to the air.

The day ended with Ian demonstrating the understanding of trail energy and how each section is just another section. His mental skills developed massively over the days riding and it was evident by the picture above.



We ended the day at the pub and chatted about the success of the day over a drink and chips!

Intermediate session round up

Sue, Jane, Sophie and Matt joined the intermediate session and after the skills health check we got stuck into pumping. After a few bike set up suggestions all riders were demonstrating the pump technique to me and I got them to experiment with how weight placement affects the front and rear of the bike.
We moved onto how the unweighting of the front wheel becomes the drop technique. Sue was loving it.
Sophie developed her missing skills and was flowing nicely through sections.
Sue really got her looking and footwork sorted for corners.
Jane gained confidence and showed commitment on all sections.



All were using the trails energy and flowing through sections by the end of the day, as Matt shows in the video clip.
thanks for another great day people!

Elliot and Jez Kidd's day

When Jez contatced me to buy a gift voucher for his brother's birthday he gave me his and Elliot's background of racing.
After the skills health check i made a few set up suggestions and set to work showing the technique of pumping.

Elliot wanted to work on his cornering so we spent a while focusing on that.

They both found drop's a scary word but after a short while they saw them as just a "section" and they became confident and committed .

Jez has always wanted to learn to jump so how could I not teach him. It took 3 runs before he was airbourne, so we worked on the table top too and they both picked it up quickly.

Thanks for your patience and learning guys, it was my pleasure to help your riding.

Huw and Sarah's coaching day.

After several forced cancellations due to recovering from injury we finally got our day underway. I knew from the background they sent me that they both had confidence and commitment issues , as well as feeling held back technically. This was brought home to them when they visited Chamonix, France. So after the skills health check I showed them how and why to pump.
We worked on unweighting both front and rear of the bike and how it forms other techniques.
Cornering was something they said they definately needed to work on .
I showed how the skill set is present in all techniques like jumping and drops and they took to them eagerly!
Sarah's confidence grew, as did her smile .


Another amazing day. thank you Sarah and Huw.

A day with Travis and friends

Now when this group contacted me they said they want to work on cornering and also some of them had confidence problems on certain obstacles on trails, so I had an idea of where the group was as a whole. We worked on pumping then I demonstrated it's application to jumping.
The group took to it like a bird to the air.

We then moevd to a trail and broke it into 3 sections. here's Travis on a section.We worked on stitching the flow of the trail together and dealing with the sections with commitmnet and confidence. Jason showed how to deal with the drop section.
The day continued on to various other trails and the crew all showed a new skill set and it was smiles all round!
Thanks to the uk-mtb crew for their patience and hard work today.