The guys came all the way from Cardiff. They wanted to be able to do drops, jumps and corner better too, so I set to work.
As usual, I began by identifying the missing skills by two simple exercises. Armed with this information I set to work installing the physical skill set before working on the mental aspect of riding too.
We worked on unweighting the front wheel before moving onto the drop technique. Here I began working on the mental skill set too as the guys rode each drop section using their skill set.
Then we moved onto the trail where we worked on all 13 sections on the trail in segments before linking them gradually together. Flat Corners, berms, rock sections, drops and up ramps were linked together methodically and flow and control followed. We worked on line choice and braking zones.
After a few complete runs of the trail it came time to fulfill the groups wish of teaching them to jump.
I moved the guys onto a tabletop and by controlling their speed I worked on the skill set involved in the technique. As speed was added the guys all jumped the tabletop cleanly and rode away from it smiling. Now was time to work on the mental skill set once more and I moved them over to the gap side of the jump and once again they all jumped it cleanly.
Tiredness began to show and I called the sessions close.
Awesome session!
So we travelled all the way from Cardiff, which was an event in itself, roadworks, junctions closed and total gridlock on the M25 (not unusual!) for over 5 hours. The day could only get better!
ReplyDeleteNever in a million years did I expect how good the day turned out.
Jedi was an absolute genius! Never have I met someone who knew what he was talking about on a subject as he did!
On to his teaching, I turned up and saw that table top and was saying, no way on this earth would I be clearing that, But alas, I did! And what a feeling it was! Such a relief and a feeling of freedom! I think the only thing that can attribute to this accomplishment was the Jedi's teaching method. He was extremely patient and never pushed us passed our own limits, which he obviously knew better than we did! He gave us the core skills to complete the tasks set, but also gave us the belief in our selves that we could do it, even with our own self doubts!
I would recomend this course to anyone wishing to further their skills at mountain biking.
We got back to Cardiff today, and went up to Castell Coch where we ride regularly, and were hitting all the jumps that on every other occasion we have looked at and just been too afraid to attempt! If that doesn't make the course worth it, I don't know what will!
The only critism is, my name is spelt Iwan, not Ewan! ;-)
Thanks again for a great experience!
Iwan