Alex and Tom ride an e-bike and standard bike respectively and wanted to share a private mountain bike skills coaching session with myself. I explained that their is no skills difference between either bike and that it is themselves that have the greatest effect.
They wanted to learn to get air and perhaps clear a tabletop but the session gave so much more.
Stuart booked in with me a few weeks ago and took advantage of the all year round ride able conditions of the skills area. I broke his skills set down and worked on his looking and positioning and then the mental skill set also.
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.
I coached Pete back in December and he wanted to return with his brothers Joseph and Tom for another session. I was able to use their skiing experience to develop a new understanding of their skill sets. They said it was like being shown how to make fire for the first time.
I have coached Steve on his mountain bike but he really struggled on his cross bike to relate the skills set to it. He said grassy off camber turns were his nemesis, especially right turns. Steve was amazed that I showed him why that was and by working on his hips and feet I changed his cornering on his cross bike dramatically. Drops, drop offs and linking turns all seemed easier suddenly 🙂
Great session, really enjoyed the change
Three friends, all called Chris booked a private session to work on controlling the off road environment they are putting themselves in. I made small adjustments to foot placement, positioning, looking and braking areas and then applied their new skills to various sections commonly found on singletrack and trail centres.
Josh was bought today’s mountain bike skills coaching session as a gift and he wanted to get more fluidity in his singletrack xc riding at places like Thetford and the Surrey hills. I worked on positioning, looking, footwork and braking in his skills set and applied these to the techniques required.
