Rachel and Tom wanted to understand the why and what to do in their mountain biking. I broke their skills right down and rebuilt them, focusing on body positioning and looking and then applying those to the techniques required in mountain biking.
They wanted to learn cornering and drops but I was able to do more than that as I showed them steep drop offs, jumps, pumping and linking berms together to.
So today was a follow on session from part one yesterday. I spent time first up reinforcing the things we covered yesterday and soon he was primed and ready to push on further.
I then moved into linking jumps with short run ups between so Tom could really focus on the separation of techniques. I worked more on his mental skill set today and he applied them to riding woodwork, Narrow run up drops, steeps and linking sections even more.
What a fantastic two days it was and Tom ended the session happy and knowing what to work on and why.
Lucaz and his 10yr old son Artur arrived for coaching wanting to get better at judging speed and to get over their mental block of gap jumps.
What a session it turned into as as soon as I had corrected their set ups and physical skills errors it all clicked. Gaps to 13ft, 14ft tabletops and linking gaps and jumps together, drops, style, berms, wall rides you name it. They even started jumping over each other!
I have coached Mel, her husband Darren and friend Jason before and they returned all wanting to improve and with different issues in their riding. I had to help Melanie get over her broken arm on holiday in the Alps and get Darren more comfortable with drops and also Jason too.
I built the session by bringing it to the basic levels needed to correct physical errors and then build the mental skills from there.
Nick came to me for mountain bike skills coaching to understand why his jumping was hit and miss and lacked height too. The skills check showed him why and also that he was weak in his cornering too. I worked hard on his positioning and footwork in all areas and in particular jumps and right hand turns.
Dee and Amy work for Tftuned.com suspension tuning company and arrived as arranged for 10am. We chatted about their needs and expectations for the mountain bike skills coaching session. Cornering and possibly getting air under their wheels was on that list. The skills check showed the areas in their physical skill sets that needed work and a small set up change assisted the skills change further.
It wasn’t long before they could easily get their front wheel into the air and then off of drops to 3ft too. I worked on cornering next and also pumping and maintaining connection to the ground when riding multiple mounds on a trail. Soon they were choosing to jump them instead and flow through three berms. Steeps drops were a bit of a mental barrier, but by application of their new mental and physical skills it all clicked into place and became easy.
Jo and Andrew have been to me for mountain bike skills coaching a couple of times before but today was after a two year gap. I worked on Andrew’s weaker right hand turns and on Jo’s positioning in turns. We then moved to linking gap jumps, drops and adding style too. An amazing end to a great week of coaching.
The pics tell a great story of the session
