Meeting new, old friends.

Mark, Sam and laura came to me as arranged for our 3 to 1 session. As always, I ran them through my skills check and discovered the missing skills in their riding. I made the set up changes necessary and also showed them why. We then went off to the drop sections to apply both the physical and mental skill sets that I teach.


I demonstrated the correct body positioning, looking and foot position required and they soon began landing perfectly and easier than they had imagined it ever would be. Laura deliberately got both wheels into the air for the 1st time and Sam and Mark joined in too. Mark used his mental skills well to eventually ride the largest one too!
From there I demonstrated pumping and braking areas and we linked the gained speed into the following bermed and flat corners. I did a body position correction exercise and we moved back to the skills trail and the effect was dramatic as they all began to ride faster but comfortably and already could self assess any errors. I added a rock garden and 2 more corners that were tighter than the previous ones but their new skills allowed them to manage them with ease. I showed why the skills set could be applied to jumping up fly out slopes and linked that to a corner with a step on the exit. In a few runs they were airborne and Laura laughed when she first got into the air. I moved to the end of the trail to work on more complex cornering techniques and the effect of line choice and braking when linking drops into corners.
Finally it came time to ride the entire trail end to end and each run, even though there were errors present was faster than the previous one and any errors were self corrected as they moved through conscious reaction and into unconscious action. They began to visibly tire and Sam and Laura called an end to the session as they were shot mentally. Mark could have carried on but was happy to call it an end and we all had a beer or coffee to celebrate the end of a great session and to begin our new friendship.
High5!