Saturday 29 September 2012

Dave and Andy progress together






















 Dave had coaching from myself a year ago and wanted to push his riding on further and his mate Andy joined him for the session as they ride together loads. I ran them through the skills check and found I needed to work on Dave's body positioning and Andy's looking and body position too. I made the necessary set up changes to assist these and showed them why too and then we set off to apply the skills.
 The drop technique was first up and it didn't take long for them to get all 3 drops dialled.
 We moved onto the skills trail and worked on the 14 sections the are contained within it. Pre jumping, flat. bermed, off camber and switchback turns, rock gardens, fly out jumps, steps and drops were all linked together via the correct braking areas.
 Their new skills began to shine through and any errors were now self identified as they now knew why it was right or felt wrong. I worked hard on braking and line choice when linking fast drops into corners and soon they were riding it end to end way faster than ever. I wanted to worked on riding down steep stuff and also how the skills applied to riding very steep drop offs too.

Finally, it was time to teach them how to jump tabletops and using a 6ft tabletop I demonstrated as always and then they followed suit and soon they were clearing the tabletop with ease. They then used their mental skills questions to decide positively to ride the 6ft gap jump too! Our session came to a close soon after as they were both mentally drained by then.
Amazing session to end a great week of coaching and riding.
High5!

Friday 28 September 2012

Hugh's session


















 Hugh made the trip from Monmouth and on meeting I could see I needed to set up his bike and Change a few things around. The skills check revealed that I needed to work on his missing looking and body position skills and also the mental skills too.
 We began with  the drop technique and Hugh was very methodical and spent time getting each one perfect over and over again before moving up and eventually he rode all 3 drops with ease.
We moved onto the skills trail and began with pumping undulations on the trail and we used this gained speed to ride the next berm and flat corner. It didn't take long before I added in a rock garden, berm and switchback into the mix and Hugh rode them and already was identifying any errors himself as he now knew why. I moved onto the fly out jump and corner with a step on the exit and Hugh was surprised at how easy it was to get up into the air and whoops of joy rang out when he got it right. We added all the previous section to it and Hugh rode them with regained confidence and commitment. I worked on the end of the trail and its corner followed by drop section into a final corner. I worked on braking technique and line choice and soon it was time to ride the whole trail end to end. Each complete run was faster and smoother than before.
 I could see he was tiring but Hugh wanted to learn why the skills set applied to jumping tabletops so we worked on that. In a few small steps and much to his surprise, Hugh sailed over the 6ft tabletop which capped off an awesome session as he was mentally drained by the adrenaline of jumping.
Great session Hugh and I look forward to your riding updates
High5!

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Karl's one to one



















 Karl had a gift voucher for his session and nearly a year later our paths finally met. I found I needed to work on his looking, body position and mental skills during my skills check and I set to work.
To Karl's surprise, drops were first on the menu and it didn't take long for him to ride all 3 drops with ease.
 From there we moved onto the skills trail and the 14 sections contained within. Pumping, rock gardens, jumps, steps and drops were all linked to flat, bermed, off camber and switchback turns.



 It didn't take long for Karl to link the trail together and any errors were self diagnosed and he moved though conscious action. I moved us onto another technique where I worked on his body position, steep stuff. Karls' new body position on his bike gave him way more control than ever and it reflected on his riding as he rode the drop offs I demonstrated to him.
We covered jumping tabletops, gap jumps and manuals later in the session and ended with hopping over tree stumps using the skills set I teach and It blew Karl away how easy it now was.
Awesome session karl.
high5!