From Manchester for skills

Will has had coaching by someone else some time ago and made the journey from up north down to me and stayed in a local b+b. On arrival, we chatted over coffee about his expectations for the session and I set to work. The skills check Tells me the areas needing work and it's also where I make the necessary set up changes.
I began with braking technique and then onto the application of the skill set to the drop technique. Body position and looking were worked on as well as his mental skill set too. Immediately, will could feel the difference and ease of the technique, I even showed why the same things can be applied to begin to style it too.
We moved onto the skills trail and its fourteen sections. We began with pumping and using this energy rather than needing to pedal and linked it to a berm and flat corner.


Footwork, looking and body position were really starting to pay dividends and soon I added a rock garden, berm and switchback corner into the mix. This proved easy for Will now as he linked them all with ease in a controlled and confident manner. We moved down the trail and added in a fly out jump and a corner with a step on the exit. Getting air was now simple for Will and easy for him to control. I worked hard on line choice when linking the final segment of the trail together and then we began riding the entire trail end to end. Now will was riding fast and smoother than ever before and the smile never left his face. Will made a couple of small errors every so often but now he recognised what he was doing wrong and corrected it.
We moved onto the tabletop as Will rides trail centers and these are becoming common place so I demonstrated and when it was Wills turn he sailed over and even rode the 6ft gap jump too a few times.
For our final session we moved onto the pump and jump trail and worked on pumping two sections to gain speed to jump a 9ft tabletop and I also showed why the skill set applies to manualing across jumps. Mental fatigue began creeping in and we agreed the session should end after over 5 hours.
Great session and I look forward to our on going coaching connection.
high5!