Ben and Dan arrived as arranged and I gave them an outline of the skills sets we at ukbikeskills teach. The skills check revealed their missing skills but also showed me what was present already, so I set about correcting their physical skills sets before working on their mental skills.
We began with drops and quickly moved to the tabletop to work on isolating both phases of jumping. Boom , they were flying and landing perfectly 6ft later on the down slope. Dan had been elsewhere previously for mountain bike coaching but he said this was very different as it worked effortlessly.
The 6ft gap jump proved no issue either and it wasn’t long before we began working on cornering. This had a profound effect on both of them as they had grip levels they’d never experienced before and soon they were railing three berms and carry speed over a larger jump.
We took a break and resumed, this time I demonstrated a 7ft gap jump that came after two berm and by carrying speed through both turns, the jump became easier. Ben, followed by Dan sailed over it again and again before we moved to work on linking drops into corners and then onto steeper terrain.
I demonstrated various ways of riding down a near vert drop off and they were amazed at how controlled and easy that was too and the smile on their faces grew and grew.
Next, a 9ft gap jump sandwiched between two berms was next. I demonstrated it at two very different speeds to demonstrate effort and they both sailed it, later adding the trail above it and linking pumping, manuals and berms into the line.
Before our time together finished, I moved them to a gap jump trail and demonstrated riding them and again the boys flew through them. What a session with two awesome blokes.
High 5!