Graham of http://www.sixthelement.co.uk wanted to come to me for coaching and to understand why he has always struggled with getting into the air.
I focused on his foot positioning and body positioning throughout the session and used his muscle memory of skiing to really enhance his riding.
What a session today was. Chris was worried about the weather but the all weather trails meant we were good to go. I was able to use his snowboarding experience to really develop his mtb skills set. I worked hard with him as he’d never cleared a tabletop jump on a mtb but a snowboard jump would be no issue. I showed him why this was and he clicked straight away. jumps, turns, pumping and gap jumping all seemed easy to him suddenly.
I coached Matt on a public session in May and he wanted to return with his 3 mates David, Iain and Dave for a private session to work on their individual skill sets even though their abilities differed. I focused on positioning hugely today with them and that followed onto their head game.
The session moved through hopping logs to cornering, steeps, drops, jumps and gaps.
All four of them concentrated on their missing skills and worked hard at redressing them and slowly it all pieced together, with a few laughs thrown in too.
I had coached Chris and Mick a couple of years ago and this time they were here with their mate Tim for his 50th birthday present. Tim was worried about being able to ride the stuff they would but his fears soon were forgotten. I had to work on positioning in corners as well as when jumping. They wanted to get better at drops but also gaps too.
I have coached Jonny a few times over the years and he wanted to return as he had begun to feel like he was being bucked on jumps and landing heavy front wheel and knew I could correct this, aloso his cornering in his words had gone to shit. I broke his skills set right down again so he could understand what he was doing and why then I pieced it all back together again. Boom! what a change.
Joel made the trip down from the Scottish Boarders for his session with me. He wanted to work on drops and jumps and had never cleared a tabletop jump before. That was about to change.
I corrected his set up and missing skills from his skills sets and then everything changed in his riding. Foot positioning and body positioning were in need of correction and he took the change on board to change his perception of his limits.
I have coached Damo, Sean, John, Pat and Dan previously and their riding buddy Craig wanted to come along on their session too. I worked on the physical skills first and then really focused on their mental game.
What a session and what an end to a week of coaching. Im blown away by these guys!
