Coming up from Devon

 Nigel, Lee, Jackie and Rob camped in Herts to be fresh for their session and I met them as arranged and we began with my skills check and set up changes. I found I needed to work on their footwork, looking and body positioning in all areas as well as the mental skills.
We began with drops and soon they all rode the 3 drops and commented on how simple it seemed. We moved onto the top half of the skills trail and I worked on pumping, riding rocks and cornering. They began to move into concious competence as they self diagnosed any errors . I moved them on to a different trail and used 2 berms and we began working on carrying speed through them via line choice and braking areas.
 We took a break for lunch and then resumed with linking the drop technique and cornering technique and they soon got faster and smoother than ever.
For what proved to be our final application of the skills , we moved onto the 6ft tabletop and gap jump. By breaking them down bit by bit and building the technique up they all cleared the tabletop and Lee and Rob used their mental skills to positive effect to easily ride the gap jump too with lee styling it!
What a great end to an amazing week.
High5!

claire returns for a top up

Claire had been on a session earlier in the week with tony, and decided to cone back for another session we a space with me opened up. I didn't need to do the skills checks as it was still fresh in her memory, so I started her on the drops again, just to refresh her memory and to get her warmed up. We then moved to the singletrack trail, where I began to work on jumping, and linking this in with cornering. Before long she was rolling down steep bits into corners, jumping and riding the trail top to bottom comfortably. We then looked at some steeper stuff, where she used her mental skillset to choose whether to ride them or not. After a quick break for lunch, we moved onto the tabletop where I controlled her speed, and she used her other physical skills in order to fly across the jump and land perfectly the other side. We had another quick break, as she was beginning to tire, and then moved onto the pump and jump trail, where I explained pumping, and how it can be used to generate. After four hours since we started our session, Claire called an end as she was both physically and mentally tired, and I look forward to meeting up with her in the alps next month to dee how her riding has improved.

Nath.

Andreys session

Andrew arrived as planned, so I started with the skills checks where I discovered that I needed to work on looking and body position in all the areas of his riding. I could tell that I needed to work on his mental skills, and that he needed to be here now in order to have a full mental skillet. We started with the drop technique where he used his new found skillset, and was soon riding the largest drop so comfortably, that he was unaware that he was riding the largest drop, and commented on how easy it felt. I then moved him onto the skills trail, and we worked on the top half of the trail to begin with, were we looked at cornering in both bermed and flat corners, rock gardens and pumping. His new skillet started embedding and any errors were beginning to be self diagnosed. We then worked on the bottom half of the trail, where we looked at absorbing flyouts and steps, drops, and more corners, and was soon flying down the trail top to bottom. Even after a break, I could see that he was tiring, so I moved him onto two linking corners, where he could see how his skillset allowed him to carry speed through the two sections. 5 hours after we began, our session came to an end due to mental tiredness taking its toll, and I look forward to sseeing Andreys riding updates. 

High 5!

Paul returns for a top up

  Paul came to me for coaching over 3 years ago and wanted to return for another session to correct some errors that had crept in and bring his riding on. I found he needed work on body positioning and looking so I set to work. The drops proved no issue to him and we moved on quickly to linking 2 berms together and the required body positioning, from there we went to a new trail to work on linking the sections on that trail. Steeps, corners, jumps, pumping and near vert drop offs were riding in various ways and the speed of the trail controlled by the identified areas.
 We had a break and resumed with jumping the 6ft tabletop ad gap jump and I was even able to show why the skills applied to styling it in the air too. From there we moved onto the pump and jump trail to work on pumping, jumping and manuals, which to Paul's surprise he managed to do pretty quickly. I then worked on choosing which technique was best in each section and he linked the 2 earlier berms into the line and the following gap jump.
 Paul had said he didn't like steeper dj style take offs,  so I worked on that on an isolated dirt jump before moving on to what would prove to be our final application of the skills sets, a 9ft gap jump sandwiched between 2 corners. Paul sailed over the gap 1st go easily but he was tiring and soon after he called time to the session as he was done.
Cracking session.
High5!