We had a coffee together when they arrived and I explained my outline for the session and what look for in the skills check. I changed their set ups and showed them why and corrected their collective footwork, looking ad body positioning and then we set to work on the mental skills and applying them out on the trails.
They were never comfortable at trail centers when air time was available as a choice but now they were comfortable in the air and all 4 of them rode the 3 drops up to 1 meter high with ease.
Next we moved to the skills trail and with a lunch break midway we worked on linking the 14 sections on the trail together. Flat, bermed, off camber and switchback turns were linked to pumping, jumping, drops, steps and rock gardens. They were all riding faster and smoother than ever and self diagnosing any errors too.
Nathan turned up to do some trail maintenance and joined in coaching them too which is something we do usually for 6 or more riders but the opportunity was to good to miss.
We moved onto riding steeper sections and they were amazed at the control they had now and even a near vertical drop off didn't faze them.
We moved on again to the 6ft tabletop and over the next half hour they went from can't jump to clearing the 6ft tabletop with ease and control. Doug, Dave and Paul even rode the 6ft gap jump side too!
For our final application of the skills sets, we moved to another trail to work on choosing which technique to use in any section on the pump and jump trail and they carried that speed through 2 linked berms.
Nearly 6 hours since we began, our session ended as they were knackered both physically and mentally and we enjoyed a beer and a tour of the herts woodwork.
High5
Jedi @ukbikeskills on twitter
Nathan @ukbike_nath on twitter
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