Giving Mike back his confidence

 Mike was having trouble staying on his bike off road when riding with friends and wanted to do what he did with his tennis playing, get coaching. He spoke of his lack of confidence as we drank a pre session coffee and how he felt out of control at times.

 Footwork and looking were non existent in the skills check and I knew I could correct that quickly and then work on Mike's mental skills too as he said he'd like to maybe get air under his wheels at the end of the session. well I corrected his missing skills and went straight to the drops to apply the skills and to Mike's surprise, he was getting air!
 We moved onto the skills trail to work on his cornering among other things and soon he was linking the trails 14 sections together. Pumping was used to connect to the trail and flat, bermed, off camber and  switchback turns were linked to drop offs, upslopes, rock gardens and steps by their identified braking areas. I worked on the effect of line choice when linking drop offs into corners and when Mike rode the whole trail the effect was dramatic. He was now a new rider, confidently riding each section and commitment was there too.
 I could see he was tiring so we moved onto the pump and jump trail to work on developing his pumping technique further. Our session ended with Mike requesting a riding demonstration of the same skill set in use on a fast and high line at herts.
 Amazing session.