Air time confidence for Trevor

 Trevor has been trying to find time for a skills session with myself for some time and the planets aligned for us both to be able to do today. The session began with my skills check and set up change and I found that Trevor needed work on body positioning and looking skills as well as his mental skills also.We chatted about what he wanted from the session and it was to be comfortable in the air and to be able to jump. The mental aspect of jumping and clearing a tabletop is something i build up gradually, so we began with applying the corrected skills set to the drop technique. Trevor was amazed at how simple it felt when lading correctly and the effort required. His old weight back technique that had undone him in the past was something he now understood why it went wrong. The 3ft drop proved no issue and we moved across to work on the mental aspect of jumping a 6ft tabletop and landing on the transition. I worked on both skills sets here and gradually pieced together both techniques required and bit by bit Trevor's confidence grew. We took a coffee break and resumed, in fact we took lots of chat breaks as it is so tiring doing repeat goes of something that has a fear factor involved.Trevor was clearing the tabletop with a smile and by the time we moved on was clearing the jump with more effort and less speed than before the break as the skill set began to settle in.

We then moved on to pumping and carrying speed through corners but soon the mental aspect of jumping had taken its toll as mental fatigue hit home and unforced errors began appearing so Trevor called an end to a great session that we celebrated over a cold bottle of beer.

High5!

Ant returns for some more skills

Ant had been before and returned for the rest of his previously cut short session. We quickly ran through the skills check again, and then moved to drops. After a few goes he reminded himself what i was looking for, and was landing perfectly off the largest drop. We also worked on the tabletop and gap jump, mainly to work on his body position and mental skills, and was soon landing perfectly on the transition. After lunch we looked at steeper stuff, and how body position was a big factor in this, and then linked this with a trail we had ridden on the previous session. Our session ended on the pump and jump trail, where he was pumping and jumping through the sections, and linking it with the two berms, and wooden gap jump which followed. 

Good to see you again mate, remember to explode!

Nath (@ukbike_nath)

Tony (@ukbikeskills)

Adam's xc race tune up

 Adam has be riding for years and races cyclo cross and mountain bikes as well as road bikes too. He wanted to work on his skills set to gain more speed in singletrack. The skills check showed perfect footwork but missing looking skills and a small body positioning error that when corrected made a huge difference.

We worked on pumping first and carrying speed through a berm. It was here that the saddle height he had really hampered his efficiency when trying to absorb and pump at speed. I then moved us to the skills trail to work on linking multiple sections of the trail together using control areas and line choice. We also worked on the mental skills, especially when getting air off jumps and drops. I timed sections of the trail and when errors were made or not the time difference was huge and when right it didn't feel fast.
Amazing improvments and I can't wait for Adams riding updates
High 5!

Jumps and drops public session

 The riders all arrived as arranged previously during the booking process and i began with my skills check before correcting their missing skills and showing them why the skills apply to the techniques involved in mountain biking. 

 We began with drops and soon they were riding the 3ft drop with ease and confidence.I then did some berm work and we linked the drop technique into the berm. A quick break for coffee saw us resume with jumping a 6ft tabletop and gradually they all sailed over it and then used their mental and physical skills to ride the 6ft gap jump too! I moved on to our final application of the skills to a trail with multiple jumps and 2 berms to work on pumping and gaining speed without pedaling to be able to clear a 9ft tabletop and then to choose what to jump or pump through. Amazing session.

High5!