James made the 3.5hr journey from Cardiff and on meeting we had a coffee and he said he wanted to do big jumps and overcome his fear of gaps. The skills check revealed he needed work on cornering first and I worked on his feet, looking and body position. I made a set up change and we moved onto the drop sections to dial his new looking and body position but also I went through his mental skills questions that i teach.
James rode all 3 drops easily and we moved onto the skills trail. I worked on pre jumping, rock gardens, steps, upslopes and drops. We linked these to flat, bermed, off camber and switchback turns. I showed why the skills set apllied in each context, including absorbing upslopes to stay fast and on the ground.
By the time he was riding the whole trail he was absolutely flying! I worked on line choice when linking drops into corners
James was clearly the fastest rider down the skills trail yet and the smile on his face never left.
We moved onto jumping the 6ft tabletop and also the 6ft gap, should his mental skills say so. Yep! he rode both sides with ease.
When we met in the morning I mention maybe manualling tabletops and doubles was possible and that was the case as James only took 2 tries to get the technique down.
For our final technique I moved onto a 12ft gap jump. I worked solely on his mental skills here and once again James rode it with ease but only after answering his mental skills questions.
James was mentally done by now so we called an end to an amazing session and I know I'll be riding with James again soon.
High5!
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