Dave, Martin and lawrence's session of discovery

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The lads turned up as arranged and after a chat over a coffee I began. I always start with the skills check and that helps me see what is an unconcious action and concious reaction in their riding. I made some set up changes and corrected the missing skills and we began with drops.
The guys had said they wanted to learn to handle air time as they ride in the surrey hills and some of the trails there have jumps.
To their amazement, the drops were easy when they used their new skill set and soon they rode all 3 drops over and over again.
They wanted a jump and drops session but I really felt they'd benefit from cornering too, so I led them to the skills trail.
I used the top half of the trail first and they linked the four corners, pump bumps and rock garden together using the identified braking areas and by the time we moved on they had taken 4 seconds off of their first runs and the segment is only 70 meters long!
We moved to the next half of the trail which speeds up dramatically. This contains fly out jumps, drops, steps and bermed and off camber turns.

I worked on line choice when linking drops into corners and the lads applied their skill set to everything simply and effectively.


It was time to link all 14 sections on the trail together and their riding was so smooth and controlled. the speed they were riding at was higher than ever but they all said it felt slower and totally in control. They ended by riding the trail in a time only 5 riders have equaled or bettered.


Lastly, I moved them onto the 6ft tabletop and showed why the skills set I teach applies to jumping them and BOOM! they flew over it and all remarked how it felt like they hadn't even left the ground. The look on their faces said it all and they began riding it over and over again.
I give riders 4 things to ask themselves when faced with a section on a trail to decide whether they can ride it and they did this for the 6ft gap jump too. Again, they all sailed over it with ease.
They rode it time and again and I could see among the adrenalin that mental fatigue was creeping in so I called an end to the session.
Superb riding guys!