Oli came to me wanting to rebuild his confidence in his overall riding and maybe even get some air under his wheels but that wasn't of paramount importance.
The skills check revealed some great skills already present and only tweaks required. Even his set up was correct, just his mental skills needed boosting.
I began with drops and showed why Oli's natural unweight of the front wheel applied and he began landing absolutely perfectly from the very first go.
after riding all 3 drops a few times I moved us onto the skills trail and worked on pumping, Braking areas and linking sections on a trail together using the trails energy.
We linked berms, flat, off camber and switchback turns with rock gardens, drops, fly out jumps and steps.
As we worked our way down the trail methodically, Oli really began to blossom as a rider as he began to believe the truth in his skill set.
After a few fast flowy runs of the entire trail I moved onto our final application of the skills, Jumping tabletops.
In only 4 runs Oli sailed over the table top and the smile said it all. Finally, Oli looked and felt like the rider he wanted to become!
Oli called an end to the session himself as tiredness from the adrenalin of the day took its toll.
A great end to a truly great day.
"Thanks for the coaching session. i came knowing that half the problem was skills but the other half mental, and you made it very easy to get over both. I'll be sending some friends your way"
ReplyDeleteoli ford