4 riders were booked onto today's course but 3 were traveling together and they broke down so the session commenced with just Nick.
Nick has only ridden tow paths and roads before and wanted to get into off road riding so headed to me via recommendation online.
The skills check revealed a natural push to unweight the front of the bike that was bogged down by missing skills. Also, Nick missed feet,looking and body positioning in corners which I'd expect in a beginner.
I began correcting things and to his surprise we moved onto drops. Nick had never thought he'd be doing this but applied his new skills and began landing perfectly. After a while we moved onto the trail and worked on basic pumping and also worked very hard on corners.
Nick clearly found berms scary but as his looking and body positioning got better he became more confident. I broke the trail down to it's individual sections and worked gradually down the trail. After the 1st two corners came a rock garden and Nick shook his head at riding them but after a couple of minutes and a demonstration, he rode them easily. We then worked on pushing into upslopes and soon he was getting both wheels into the air comfortably. I added in the next section of a step to negotiate and once again it was way easier than it looked as he applied his mental skills to everything also.
Finally we worked on steep roll downs into corners and after a couple of goes Nick went to the top and rode all 14 sections smoothly and drama free.
A few runs were done before mental fatigue and the heat of the day took it's toll and Nick called an end to the session.
Great session dood!
I finally made it to see tony of uk bikeskills after several months deliberating about it due to cost and distance.
ReplyDeleteThe day starts with intros and he gets you relaxed straight away. I do a couple of bike skills tests from which he can tell which areas need most work on and then we head across his field to the jump section. As we cycle we can hear some buzzards in the sky and it becomes apparent Tony likes his birds of prey, which i thought was rather apt as when you session a section he watches you like a hawk and along with his trusty phone which he uses, he shows you what you just ridden and points out any mistakes and explains how to correct them.
Tonys mantra is keep it simple and have fun. Tonys seems to get as much enjoyment out of seeing you progress as you do yourself. He doesn't push you into doing anything your not comfortable with but has the ability to progress you onto the 'next level'. He can also see when small mistakes are creeping in as you become tired and need to call it a day.
Was it worth it? Well £180 is alot of anybodies money, and to all you sceptics who say you can get all the gen off you-tube and the internet etc, for free, I've been doing that since i started riding just over 4 years ago.
But i was never comfortable doing drops and jumps. Look at the photos Tony has taken, the 1st north shore jump onto the ramp i done, i had such an adrenalin rush my whole body was shaking with excitement, that was the point I knew it was worth every penny. Tony was genuinely pleased that i had done it too. The day wasn't finished yet, i progressed to another couple of sections and each time the adrenalin rush kicked in.
Without Tonys help i would still be fretting on the small jumps on my local trails.If you are reading this and thinking about doing a skills day, just book it you be glad you did. Thanks Tony for a day that i'll remember for a very long time.Cheers. Kev