Mike had been losing confidence in his riding ability and his search for coaching led him to myself.
Over a coffee, we chatted about his aspirations for the session and I could already build a picture of what I'd have to do.
The skills check revealed the missing skills but also found a great technique that he didn't even realize he could do as it was bogged down by his missing skills. i made the necessary set up changes and then we went to apply his new skill set to the drop technique. I worked hard on Mikes looking and body position in this technique and also I gave him 4 psychological questions to ask himself whenever he thinks about riding something new. In no time at all Mike was in the air and landing perfectly.
After Mike was riding the smallest drop, he decided to ride the larger one using his mental skills questions.
We moved to the skills trail and its fourteen sections and began working on linking the sections together using the identified braking areas.
I began with pumping undulations on the trail to gain speed from the trail and we used this speed to ride the following bermed and flat corner, Later adding in a rock garden, berm and switchback corner too. Now Mike was riding smoother already as his footwork, looking and body positioning really began to work for him and he could feel the difference.
We moved down the trail and worked on applying his skill set to a fly out jump and linked it to a flat corner with a step on the exit and soon Mike was airborne and he immediately said it felt easy. By now Mike was riding 9 sections and It was time to work on linking corners to drop offs and back into a corner. I worked on braking and line choice and even Though Mike was now visibly beginning to tire, he rode the whole trail end to end before declaring himself mentally tired. Our session ended right there and I am really looking forward to Mikes riding updates in the future.
HIGH5!!
No comments:
Post a Comment