Tony dives into a world of a new skill set

 Tony booked in with me what seems months ago and after waiting his time the day arrived and we met as arranged and over a coffee chatted of his previous coaching experiences and riding. I began as ever with my skills check that showed me I needed to work on Tony's footwork, looking and body positioning. I made a set up change and showed him why I had done this and from there everything became easier.

We began with the drop technique and in  no time at all Tony was riding 2 of the drops easily and comfortably but couldn't say yes to  the mental skills questions that I teach but later on in the session that changed and he rode the largest with absolute confidence and commitment.
We moved onto the skills trail and I broke it down into bite sized segments before we linked them all up by their control areas. Pumping, rock gardens, steps, fly out jumps and drops were all linked to flat, bermed, off camber and switchback turns. We added the previous sections to the next and before long he was riding the whole trail end to end and loving it. Any errors were self diagnosed as he moved into conscious competence with his riding.
 I could see that after 4 hours or so that he was tiring mentally but I wanted to work further on his body positioning when riding steep drop offs. Non dramatic were the words he choose as he rolled easily down a 40ft drop off with ease and control.

I then moved us onto a shorter but very steep section and after a demonstration, Tony followed suit after answering all of his mental skills affirmatively. Our session ended soon after as I could see that he was mentally tired from the rewire of his brain and we retired to a tour of the skills area and a cold beer to celebrate an awesome session.
High5!