Alastair and Liam's 2 to 1 session

 Alastair and Liam are father and son and first found about my coaching at a talk I did at Allenburys sports club about mtbing. A session was booked and today was the day. On arrival we chatted over a coffee and Alastair said they were novice and was surprised at my "no such thing" retort.
 The skills check showed me that they needed working on footwork, looking at body positioning and so I made a simple set up change to enhance things further. The look on their faces at how easy unwieghting the front wheel was now was hillarious and soon we moved on.
 When I said we begin with the drop technique they thought I was mad but after a demonstration they both began landing perfectly and with less effort than ever before.
 Next, I worked on their body positions when turning before moving onto the skills trail. A hump in the trail was used to gain speed by pumping and then linked to a berm and flat turn. Their new skills sets were already paying dividends and  I added a rock garden followed by two more corners. I showed why and how to absorb features on the trail and worked on braking technique and line choice. The end of the trail was added and they rode steeper drop offs and linked them into a final corner.
 After a break for food and to allow the learning to settle, they began riding the whole trail end to end. Every run was faster and more controlled as they used their physical and mental skills to control the speed of the trail.

 I wanted to develop their pumping of trail features further so moved to another trail that has 10 sections that can be pumped without pedaling if it is all timed correctly and soon they were riding end to end again.
 Our final technique was riding steep and higher drop offs and using the mental skills to decide to ride sections rather than guts or balls!
 Our session ended as mental fatigue was growing and we ended as we began, chatting over a coffee.
High5!

Father and son return

Henry and his dad Colin had a session with me back in June 2011 and returned for a follow up session. I could see that they had worked on the skills since our session and I needed to work on looking and body position now as well as their mental skills. We moved onto the 3 drops that I use to isolate the technique and they rode all 3 of them with relative ease.

From there, we moved across to the 6ft tabletop and gap jump and once again worked on the application of the skills set in that context. I worked hard on their mental skills and after a while they were both sailing over it and Colin even rode the gap jump too!

 Onto cornering and I worked hard on their body positioning and they were soon linking four corners, pump bumps and rock gardens together and loving it. I knew from our previous session that they tire quickly when learning so I kept distance to a minimum and isolated segments of trails to work on them . I worked on rolling steeps into corners and also on riding long steeps with their new riding positions and they remarked on how controlled it felt. To end our session we worked on linking drops into corners and the braking areas and line choice before mental tiredness hit home and our session came to a close.
See you in April!
High5

October public singletrack skills session

Seven riders turned up as arranged to this public session and I gave them a brief outline for the session and we began.
The skills check revealed that I needed to work collectively
on their looking and body positioning in all areas so I made the necessary set up changes and set to work. I showed them why I changed their set ups and as they had no footwork faults I was able to work on the drop technique and the application of both mental and physical  skills sets. They all began landing perfectly and easier than ever before.
 After a while I moved onto a cornering excersise to develop body position and grip before moving onto the skills trail itself. Pumping, rock gardens, steps, fly out jumps and drop offs were linked to flat, bermed, off camber, switchback and off camber turns. I worked with each of them individually as well as a group on line choice and braking areas. we took a break midway through to allow the learning to compartmentalize and on resuming it all became easier still. commitment, confidence, concentration and being there now were the mental skills applied and every rider was smoother, faster and more controlled. Once riding the whole trail all riders were self analising and knew their own errors and why too and they carved their ways along the singletrack. Mental fatigue began to appear and within minutes everyone said they were too tired to continue and our session needed to a tour of the herts skills area.
 Awesome session guys and girls!
High5!