Dee, Russell and Eddie's eye opening skills session

 Dee, Russell and Eddie turned up as arranged and i began with my all important skills check and discovered they needed work on looking and body positioning, I made some set up changes to help enhance the skills and off we went to the drop to work on applying their new skills to the technique involved and to work on the all important mental skills. The guys were amazed at how simple and effortless it suddenly felt and I was even able to show why the skills made it easy to begin to style it in the air too. Onto the 6ft tabletop and the same result as they all sailed over the tabletop in amazement. The 6ft gap jump loomed and Russell and Eddie applied their mental skills and Dee wasn't ready yet but a couple of hours later we returned to the area and Dee sailed it easily. 

 We took a break for coffee as they were now all buzzing and when we resumed we worked on their cornering technique as well as pumping, absorbing and jumping multiple sections of a trail. 

Onto steeper terrain and dealing with near vertical drop offs. I demonstrated a couple of ways of doing them and then they all followed suit and that blew them away as their old sit back and hope method was replaced with calm, control.

 We moved to linking drops into corners and the required line choices and braking areas if needed and they soon easily rode those sections. I knew they were all getting tired but I wanted them to apply their mental skills again to decide whether or not to ride a 9ft gap jump. I knew they were all very capable now but as they were tiring only Eddie felt in the right place to ride it and a couple of goes saw him sail it, ending a great session.

 High5!

Daniel's skills session

 Daniel asked for a skills session from his wife for his birthday as he'd wanted to come to see us at ukbikeskills for a while. On arrival, we talked of hos experience as he'd been riding for 2 years and of his expectations for the session. Daniel hope he'd eventually be able to do drops and when I said that was a given in the first hour he just smiled. The skills check revealed some great habits in his riding but that he needed work on position and looking. I made a set up change that assisted in correcting these and we set off to apply the skills set to whatever we came across.

 Drops were first on the menu and the look of surprise on his face when landing the largest 3ft drop with absolute ease was a picture and his face ached from smiling he said. Well that smile never left.

 I surprised him by moving to the 6ft tabletop and applying the physical skills and the all important mental skills, Daniel sailed over the jump , laughing as he did so. loads of goes followed with the same result so he thought he'd try the 6ft gap. I told him it's not try , it's applying the skills sets and once again he sailed over it, woop woop!we moved on after he'd ridden it loads more and this time to cornering and carrying speed through turns. I discovered a weaker right side in turns so we focused on this and it is something that Daniel will be mindful of from now on.

 After a break we worked on positioning for steeper terrain and even a near vertical drop off now proved simple and easy for him. We linked drops into corners too and worked hard on braking and positioning when doing so.

Next up we worked on pumping, jumping and cornering on a trail with multiple sections and Daniel even rode a 7ft gap jump a few times withing that trail. I could see he was tiring but the session wasn't over. We rode the singletrack trail and linked the 14 sections of that together before riding the pump and jump trail together too.

Amazing session with a great bloke.

High5!

Mike's trans Portugal skills preperation

 Mike has entered the Trans Portugal enduro and wanted to work on his trail fluidity and make sure he was not wasting energy on descents. The skills check showed me that he was weaker on right turns and that he needed looking and body positioning worked on as well as the all important mental skills. Jumping tabletops was not on the menu for today, Drops were first up and his new skills set made Mike comment on how simple and easy it suddenly felt. Next up was applying the skills to cornering and linking sections of a trail together. I used the skills trail which has 14 sections contained within it. We worked on it in bite sized chunks before later linking the whole trail together. Pumping, steps, rocks, drops and drop offs were linked with flat, bermed, off camber and switchback turns. By the time he was riding it top to bottom we began working on building and carrying speed rather than his stop start effort of before today.

 Onto steeper terrain and first a long steep slope, then a near vertical drop off . I demonstrated two different ways of riding it and Mike followed suit, simples! Later we rode a short steep slope to immediate corner to jump and that got easier and easier as his skills set embedded further. 

Lastly we worked on pumping and absorbing multiple sections of trail with seat up and then down to show the difference and we even rode the trails a few times together.

Great session, high5!