Saturday 10 November 2012

Ian and Ralph come from Oxford for a skills session


















Ian and Ralph wanted to have more control and confidence in their riding and their local riding is the Chilterns. I found they needed work on both looking and body positioning during the skills check and I made some set up changes to assist the corrections.
 We began with the application of both mental and physical skills in the drop technique.
It didn't take them long to get air for the 1st time since they were kids and they ate up all 3 drops!
From there we moved onto the skills trail and the 14 sections that are present in it and I began working on linking the sections together via their exits and entries. Flat, bermed, off camber and switchback turns were linked to upslopes, steps, rock gardens, pump bumps  and drops. We moved down the trail methodically, always linking the previous sections to the next and after a break they were riding the whole trail end to end.
 They were recommended by a friend who had been coached by myself previously and they had told them how mentally tiring the coaching is and I could see that they were tiring quickly. I knew they had a little left so I moved them on to applying both physical and mental skills to riding down steeps with their new body position and they were stunned at how controlled it felt and knew why!
 Our session ended after a couple of runs and we retired to the local pub for a well earned pint to celebrate an awesome session and a great end to a weeks coaching.
 High5!

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