Inspiring confidence in Andy.

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On meeting Andy it was clear he could ride but lacked confidence in his ability.
after identifying missing skills during the health check I went to work on his front wheel un weighting and then onto pumping the trail. In a very short time Andy was smoothly pumping the trail, things were looking up!
I then demonstrated the dis connected bunny hop technique and both pushes that comprise this were evident straight away just the timing was out. In a couple of tries Andy had it.
The drop technique was next and as Andy's pump technique was so good it was a given that he physically could do this but did he have the mental skills? Very soon Andy was rolling off the drop and landing smoothly and after a few runs at different speeds I moved us onto a table top for the jump technique.
I control the speed during this which enables us to focus on the 3 remaining skills before finally adding speed to mesh the technique together and airtime occurs!
Now the mental skills were really blossoming and we moved onto a trail to work on corners and linking sections on the trail smoothly and fast.
One by one we isolated each segment of the trail and focused on the sections within and where the possible braking zones were. Andy really flew through the sections linking them smoothly and very fast indeed. all sections, including the end drop section were negotiated easily. The Adrenalin of the final drop section really wore Andy down and we called an end to the session as mental fatigue began to show.
Great session!