dave and Richard's 2 to 1 mtb skills session

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Richard and Dave came to the Herts skills area as arranged and I gave them an outline for the session and found out their aspirations. The skills check revealed some great habits that were bogged down by missing skills and once they had been corrected and along with some set up changes, their riding really took off.


We began on the drops and i worked hard on their looking and body position in this technique and immediately the difference could be felt by them.
After a while we moved onto the skills trail and i worked on the top half consisting of pumping, flat, bermed and switchback turns and a rock garden. The guys improved massively over such a short piece of singletrack and posted 3-4 second improvements.
I then took a break from the trail and showed why the skill set applies to both the disconnected bunny hop and advanced pumping.



We moved back to the trail and added a fly out jump, flat corner and a step on the trail to the mix and they just ate it up as they used their footwork, body position and looking almost unconsciously. Finally I worked on linking drops into corners at the end of the trail and with the addition of line choice too they really flew.
It was time to ride the whole trail and each run was so much faster and controlled than the previous one.
I could see the guys were beginning to tire, so I moved them onto the 6ft tabletop and gap jump.
Both had never jumped one before and looked pensive at the thought but any fears were put to rest as they both sailed over both the tabletop and gap jump too!






Mental fatigue really began to take its toll so I called an end to the session. I then did a riding demonstration of the same skill set in use in my own riding on the high woodwork at Herts.
Great session and I can't wait to hear of your riding exploits in the future.