Thursday 31 October 2013

Gordon's follow up session




















 Gordon came to me for a session last year and wanted to build on the singletrack skills we covered back then and further his riding some more. The skills check showed me that he'd worked hard on his skills set and that he'd a body position fault on turning left. I set about correcting this and also moving his riding on.
The drop technique was something we warmed up on and I was able to teach him to style in the air once his body positioning was correct. We then moved to the skills trail and worked on cornering and absorbing sections at speed rather than taking off, that would come later. I worked on his line choice and soon the left handed bias was corrected in his cornering.
Onto the pump and jump trail and I worked again on absorbing and pumping to gain speed through multiple sections of the trail and see how far out of a berm he could carry his speed uphill. Gordon really got to grips with this and could feel when it was right.
I moved onto the 6ft tabletop and showed why his skills sets applied to jumping and soon he was clearing the tabletop and then used his mental skills to decide to ride his 1st ever gap jump. After a good few clears of the gap jump we took a break and resumed on another trail and worked on different ways of riding drop offs and linking sections on a much faster trail. Nathan took time out from preparing the trails for his coaching session and watched, commenting at how fluid he now looked compared to last year.
 Now Gordon was buzzing and we moved back to the pump and jump trail and this time worked on the whole trail. Now Gordon was choosing whether to manual, pump or jump sections on the trail and choosing to jump a 14ft tabletop at the end too!
 An awesome session came to a close after a good few more runs as mental and physical tiredness has bettered him.
Amazing improvements dude.
High5!

Tony  @ukbikeskills

Nathan  @ukbike_nath

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Otto, Gareth and Harry's private session



















Otto, Gareth and his dad Harry turned up as arranged after being recommended on a forum. We began with the skills check and I saw that they needed work on looking, body positioning and footwork and I made some set up changes to their bikes also.
We began with the drop technique and they used their new mental and physical skills to decide to ride either of 3 drops and soon they were landing perfectly. A cornering excersise followed to work on body positioning and its effect on grip before heading to the top half of the skills trail. Otto is only 12yrs old and his ability on his bike was clear to see but once polished, he along with the others were getting faster and smoother too. We worked on absorbing and pumping a section on the trail and carried this speed through 4 corners and a rock garden. We took a break for much needed drinks and food and resumed, adding the next two sections of the trail and it wasn't long before they were riding the whole trail top to bottom. Flat, bermed, off camber and switchback turns were linked to rock gardens, pumping, drop offs, absorbing steps and drops. each complete run of the trail was smoother and any errors were already being self diagnosed as they now knew why it was right or wrong in any section. 
As they rode i could see that they were tiring mentally and Gareth soon declared himself tired, closely followed by Harry and Otto and our session came to a close in beautiful blue skies.
Awesome session.
High5!

Tuesday 29 October 2013

63yrs old and getting better with age













 I coached Mike a few months ago in a public session and he wanted to develop his riding even more so booked a private one to one. The skills check showed me that I needed to work on his looking skill as the learning from the previous session had stuck. We began with the drop technique and started working on effort for speed whilst applying his mental and physical skills. From there, we moved to the pump and jump trail to work on his absorbing and pumping to stick to the ground during multiple sections and linked a berm in at the end  and carried speed out of it.
We too a break and then resumed with jumping using a 6ft tabletop this really paid off as when we moved back to the original trail Mike was able to start to choose when and why to jump or pump.
We then moved onto the skills trail and really worked on linking all 14 sections of the trail via line choice and control areas. Berms, switchbacks, off camber and flat turns were linked to pumping, absorbing, steps, drop offs and rock gardens. Each run was faster than the previous and my fellow coach Nathan turned up to watch and commented on how much better he looked from when we had both coached him during that public session.
 We ended our session linking 2 berms together at the end of the pump and jump and he became faster and faster until mental and physical tiredness go the better of him.
Awesome session Mike and I'll see you again soon

High5!

Tony                       Nathan
@ukbikeskills           @ukbike_nath
@ukbikeskills