Sam's session was originally delayed due to the snow but today was the day and blue skies greeted us. I could see that he was already a rider with a good skill set only missing body positioning but that he needed his mental skills developed.
A set up change and a skills tweak later and off we went to apply both
mental and physical skills sets to the drop technique and boy what a
change in his riding!
We moved onto the skills trail and began working on linking the 14
sections together that are contained on the trail. Flat, bermed, off
camber and switchback turns were linked to pumping, steps, rock gardens,
fly out jumps and drops.
We had a break for drinks and then resumed with why the skills applied to jumping tabletops. I used the 6ft tabletop and gap jump side for this and Sam used his mental skills to easily rode the tabletop and then to his surprise, the gap jump too.
We moved onto riding down steep drop offs and his new set up and body positioning felt natural and he easily accomplished that too. For our final task we worked on linking 2 berms and a ladder gap together and he sailed through it with a big smile and a high5 after.
Our session ended and we retired to a beer to celebrate an awesome session.
High5!
Tony, hands down the best day I've ever had on my bike! Somehow all the fears from my crashes and the hesitations dissapeared in a great day of learning and understanding that riding should be and is simple! Anyone who's ever thought that coaching is a waste of money needs to book a day here then eat Hubble pie when they realise this guy IS monutainbiking. Anyone who's lucky enough to meet and work with Tony will consider it the day they learned to ride, cheers
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