Jock and Marissa's skills session

Jock booked a 1 to 1 session but his riding buddy Marissa wanted to come back for coaching with him as she'd attended a session previously.
The skills check showed me that Marissa had worked on her skills and needed work on the mental skills and  that Jock needed body position and looking skills installed as well as the psychological skills.
 I began as ever with the drop technique and it blew Jock away at how simple it all seemed to be and how easy it was, but he also knew why. Both him and Marissa were riding the largest 1 meter drop with ease.
I worked next on cornering and then moved to the top half of the skills trail to work on linking pumping and rock gardens with 4 corners and they soon began riding fast and fluid and what seemed to them unhurried.
I put a coffee on and while we waited for it I demonstrated more advanced pumping and carrying the gained speed through a berm, they soon followed suit and both flew around the berm with a grin on their faces.
We resumed after coffee with moving to linking the drop technique and cornering technique out on a trail and Jock , followed by Marissa were soon riding the largest drop and landing with control to rail the berm that followed, Awesome stuff!
They then started riding the whole skills trail and linking the 14 sections that are contained within it together with confidence and control. Each run was faster and smoother than ever and they knew why.
Jock had never got into the air on a jump before today and Marissa had never ridden a gap jump but that soon changed. My fellow coach Nathan turned up and joined in coaching them with me and he explained then demonstrated the jump technique and soon they were sailing over the 6ft tabletop, Marissa used her mental skills to ride the gap jump a few times too and I could see the skills really embedding in them.
We then moved onto a trail to work on berms, pumping and jumping to gain and maintain speed. They were now riding with a resonance with the trail and were choosing when to pump or jump. The rain didn't dampen their spirits and after a few more runs, both myself and Nathan could see they were tiring and they knew it, so our session ended.
Amazing session. High5!


Jedi   @ukbikeskills  (twitter)

Nathan   @ukbike_nath   (twitter)

Ed and Toby's private two to one skills session

 Ed and Toby booked in with us after recommendation from friends and today was the day. The rain greeted us but a coffee soon warmed us up and I began. The skills check revealed footwork, looking and body position errors and the slippy conditions amplified this so when I began correcting everything they really felt the difference.
 Toby never liked airtime and Ed always felt out of control when trying to drop or jump but that soon changed when we moved to our first application of both mental and physical skills sets.
The difference in control now on drops was easy to see and they really felt totally in control even when dropping from the 1 meter drop and landing easily.
 We moved to the skills trail to work on their fluidity in singletrack riding. I worked hard on their cornering and they got faster and faster , linking flat, bermed, off camber and switchback turns to pumping, absorbing, steps, rocks, jumps and drops.We took a break for cake which they kindly brought with them and coffee. We resumed and they were riding the whole trail end to end and really flying and they knew it.
Neither of them had ever cleared a jump before but that was about to change as we moved to applying the skills sets to jumping tabletops. I used a 6ft tabletop for this and in a few minutes, after a demonstration from myself, they were sailing over it with ease and it was high 5's all round. Now they were riding beyond their wildest dreams but I wasn't done there. I moved to riding near vertical terrain and the required skills. I demonstrated two very different ways of riding down them and they used their mental skills to decide which version to do, Awesome stuff!
I could see they were tiring but I wanted to work on their trail fluidity further and moved to the pump and jump trail to work on this and even linked a berm at the end which they were carrying speed around with ease now. They were choosing whether to jump or absorb sections of the trail on sight and this really cemented the session as they were using the same skills the have applied during the session.
Nearly 5 hrs since we started, mental fatigue took its toll and our session came to a happy close.
High5 guys!