Richard booked a one to one session with myself after recommendations from his riding buddies at mbswindon . The day arrived and we chatted about his expecations for the session and areas he wanted to develop. He'd never got air before and struggles to get the front wheel in the air but that was all about to change. The skills check revealed I needed to work on Richards looking and body positioning before I could work on his mindset. A set up change and off we went to apply the skills to the techniques both myself and Nathan teach.
Drops were first on the menu and the look in Richards eyes when he saw them showed me he was fearful but that was soon to change. In no time at all Rich was in the air and landing perfectly and he applied his mental skills to ride the next, followed by the largest 3ft drop too with whoops of joys ringing out over the hill side.
Onto cornering and I worked hard on this, particular his right sided turns. I sued three berms first and then we moved to the singletrack trail to work on linking the fourteen sections contained within it together. Pumping, flat, berms,off camber and switchback turns were linked to absorbing, steps, drops, rocks and drop offs. I demonstrated everything and we worked our way down the trail working on each section individually before finally riding the whole trail end to end. Every runs was smoother than the previous as his control and confidence grew and that made him become faster as a result.
I knew he was tiring and by his own admission, he only had a few more runs in him so we moved to the trail with the three berms we began on and worked on carrying speed through multiple sections on a trail by absorbing and pumping to removed pedaling. It all began to click together and Richard could feel he was riding faster through the berms now compared to earlier too.
What a session. High5!
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