Wednesday 10 December 2014

Building Dave's mental skills






 I coached Dave three years ago and a crash this summer in a berm whilst on holiday in the Alps had affected his confidence so he contacted me for a return. I began with the skills check once again and found that he'd become protected and needed his body positioning moved . 
 We began with drops and quickly moved from the 3ft drop across to the 6ft tabletop. Dave began the session clipped in but later changed to flats as that's what he rode before his summer crash. Soon he was clearing the 6ft tabletop and used his renewed mental skills to decide to ride the gap jump side also.
 Cornering was next and I used three linked berms for this to get him used to the change in direction and to work on his left turns as this is where his fear lay. I worked on pumping and absorbing sections on the trail and carrying that speed through the trail . Next we worked on a 9ft gap jump and the mental skills associated. This was a bit of a see saw but every error was self diagnosed as he could feel if he was moving his body back and it now felt wrong to him. We then changed it up a bit and spent some time on riding steeper terrain before resuming with the pump and jump trail and before Dave called an end to the session he'd ridden the 7ft gap jump he'd said no to earlier a few times too.
 Cracking session dude.
High5! 






















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