Hannah and Tamsin are gifted a skills session

Hannah and Tamsin were given gift vouchers by their husbands for their session and today was the day. Both had minimum experience with riding off road and I knew I would be working on their mental skills as well as then footwork, looking and body positioning that the skills check showed up. I made some set up changes and showed them why and what effect they had and straight away they felt more control. We moved onto the drop technique and applying both skills sets and in no time at all they were landing perfectly and rode all 3 drops too!
 We moved onto the skills trail and I began working on the top half. pumping, berms, flat corners , switchbacks and rock gardens. I could see that riding the rocks were very much a mental barrier but we worked through that and their riding was smoother and faster than before. After a break we continued and I moved them to the bottom part of the trail to work on riding steeper drop offs and linking them to corners by braking and line choice. I added in a up slope and corner with a step on the exit into the mix and the girls ate that up easily. I then got them to ride the entire trail end to end and everything began to click together easier than before and the rock garden became less of an issue as they both rode the trail end to end over and over. Confidence and commitment were blossoming and any errors were now being self diagnosed.
I could tell they were tiring mentally and after a few more runs of the trail our session ended to smiles all round.
 Great riding ladies and keep me informed of the riding progress
High5!

Helen's one to one

 Helen came to me upon recommendation and on arrival we chatted over coffee and spoke of her aspirations with her ring. the skills check showed me that i needed to work on her footwork and looking but later on I was able to work on body positioning too. 
 We began with applying both mental and physical skills sets to the drop technique and at first Helen was worried but soon she was flying off the first 2 drops with a big grin. I moved us on and before going to the skills trail, we worked on body positioning when turning and linking turns.
 On the skills trail itself I broke it down into bite sized chunks and soon Helen was pumping undulations on the trail and linking in berms,flat, off camber turns and rock gardens. After a break for coffee and to fix a puncture, we resumed with a fly out jump, step and linking drops into corners. Helen's uptake was very fast indeed and it was clear that she could ride a bike once the skills began to embed.
 I could see that she was tiring but had enough energy to ride the complete trail end to end a few times and every run was confident and controlled and also faster than ever before.
 Helen herself declared mental tiredness and our session came to a close with a smile as wide as the skills area on her face. Amazing session and Helen, I told you that you could ride a bike!
High5

A year on and a 2nd session for Anja

 Anja had a skills session with myself last year and returned as a trip abroad was a bit too much for her riding experience and she was lacking confidence. The skills check showed me that I needed to work on  her body positioning in corners and also her looking when heading to straight on sections.

  Off to the drop sections we head to apply both the physical skills but so I could also work on her mental skills too. From there I moved onto cornering and I worked on Anja's body position to gain more control and grip before moving onto the top half of the skills trail. Anja has a hating for rocks and the rock garden was something I isolated to we could work on the mental skills and soon she was riding them along with 4 more corners.

 I moved on to work on riding steeper terrain and linking sections along the way too. I used a selection of steep sections so Anja could use her mental skills to decide whether to ride them or not. After a break , we moved on to linking the drop technique and cornering technique and the required line choice. Anja was riding the largest drop and linking it to the corner smoother and faster than previously.

For what proved to be our final application of the skills sets, I moved us onto the 6ft tabletop to work on Anja's body positioning and looking skills. Anja was clearing it smoothly but mental tiredness from both her year of riding that was catching up on her but also the mental aspect of the coaching was taking its toll and our sessionn ended.
Great riding Anja.
high5!

Rich's 2nd skills session

 I coached Richard on a group session in the rain 8months ago and he wanted to return for a one to one session to help his riding further.
I wanted to work on his body positioning and the application of the mental skills so we began with drops.
Last session he rode the largest drop only once but now, after some corrections he was beginning to style it too!

Over and again Rich rode the largest drop and soon it was time to move onto something he thought maybe possible at the very end of the session, jump the 6ft tabletop. It took no time at all to get him sailing over it and he then applied his mental skills to ride the 6ft gap jump side too!

I moved him onto the lower half of the skills trail to apply his skills sets to abosorbing rather  than jumping ..

and then linking that section to steps, drops and corners too. The ease of it all was striking to Rich and soon it was time to work on another of his fears, riding steeps. I worked on alpine style switchback, high steep slopes, near vertical slopes and slopes into corners and Rich used his mental skills to decide for himself if he could ride them or not.

We moved onto another trail and linked off camber steep into a corner and linked it to a jump and more corners. The mental side of the coaching was tiring him out quickly and we ended our session on the pump and jump trail with Richard trying the same skills and techniques on his hardtail too.
Awesome session.
High5!