The kid in Karl

Karl first heard about us online and then from riders he met out on the trails. Today was his session and we began with my skills check where I could see a tidy rider underneath some skills errors. He showed me a video of a crash that prompted his visit to me and I knew exactly why he had a drop in confidence. I set up his bike and then corrected his body positioning, followed by footwork and looking. Karl felt different on his bike as soon as I made the changes and it came down to applying the physical and mental skills to techniques that I teach in each section.

 Drops were first and soon he was landing the 3ft drop easier than ever before and the smile on his face said it all. I moved across to the one thing Karl wanted to work on, jumping. We moved to the 6ft tabletop and gap jump and worked on effort and speed and Karl was confidently riding both the tabletop and the gap with ease.

 Next, we worked on cornering and linking corners together and developing speed through them. The change in Karl was huge as he was soon pumping and jumping along the trail, through three berms and styling the jump at the end. I demonstrated everything as always and next was a 7ft foot gap jump and later added a 9ft gap jump sandwiched between two corners. 

Time and again Karl rode them all smoothly and with style . I could see he was tiring but another couple of complete runs of the trail and linking all fifteen sections on the trail together saw Karl call an end to a cracking session. What an end to another brilliant week of coaching.

High5!

Chris from Hebden Bridge

 Chris came to us after recommendation online and today was the day. We chatted over a coffee of his experience and wants for the session. We began with the skills check and I found footwork and body positioning were in need of work and also looking was something we worked on after that too.

I made a set up change that gave him more control and began to install the skills sets that we teach here at ukbikeskills . 

 We began with the drop technique and I demonstrated why the mental and physical skills sets made the technique simpler and easier. It took a few goes but it soon began to click and Chris began landing perfectly from the smallest drop and quickly progressed to the largest of 3ft.

We moved on to cornering and I worked hard on his footwork and body positioning and that made a massive difference to his grip levels and his control in turns. We worked on pumping and linking berms together before having a coffee break. 

 We resumed with linking drops into corners and the required techniques. Chris was amazed at how comfortable he was and was soon riding the largest drop and landing controlled and linking the corner in too.

We moved to jumping and used both a 6ft tabletop and also a fly out jump to get Chris used to getting both wheels into the air on a upward takeoff and finally applied it on multiple sections on the trail with the three berms we began with earlier in the session.

 Brilliant session and I look forward to the continued updates from Chris

 High5!

Kas and Matt re-return

 I have coached Kas and Matt twice before and today was the third installment. It turned out that Matt had crashed three weeks ago and had a massive drop in confidence so the session was based on body position and the all important mental skills. I could see that Matt's skills set was dramatically effected by the crash so i built the session gradually. Beginning  style in the air was first up and we used the 3ft drop for this and soon they were both moving the bike in the air. We moved across to the 6ft tabletop and gap jump and it was there that I had to piece Matt back together and also move Kas's riding along too of course. By the time we moved to another part of the skills area, both Kas and Matt were riding the gap jump and even styling it at times too.

 Three berms were next on the menu and Kas was weaker on his right sided turns so I worked on that and we rode the steep take off jump that came afterwards and it was there that Matt woke up and began to pop again.

 Last session Matt but not Kas rode a 7ft ladder gap and was disappointed in himself but happy to use his mental skills set to choose not to but this time it was Kas who was first over it  quickly followed by Matt. We wasn't done there. I demonstrated a 9ft gap jump to them and they both eagerly rode that too, eventually linking it in a line including the previous ladder gap too. Now they were riding for fun and loving it. They called an end to the session wanting a beer so we retired to the pub to celebrate an awesome session.

High5!