Paul and Rob have been coached by myself previously, as had Paul’s wife Emma who came along to watch and hang out. Ian, Nick and Colin came along via their recommendation. They wanted to work on cornering and work on airtime. The skills check showed me the areas that required correcting and that left us to apply the techniques I teach to various sections you come across on trails.
Cornering and carrying speed through turns was first up and their feet, looking and body positions were adjusted and they felt grip and control immediately. We applied this to linking three berms together as well as in a singletrack trail and they were loving it already.
Drops and jumping a 6ft tabletop was next up and both techniques were demonstrated and they all followed suit. The new boys were amazed at how easy and simple their new drop technique was and i was able to work with Rob and Paul on adding style to the technique too.
It wasn’t long before we moved to jumping the 6ft table top and gap jump side too. Watching them sail into the air and land the other side was awesome!
After a lunch break we resumed with riding steeper terrain which included a near vertical drop off and i demonstrated three different ways of riding it. They all applied their mental skills to decide which technique they would do or not.
We worked on rolling steep terrain into corners and linking a hip jump that came after.
We then moved onto riding alpine style switchbacks. The mental aspect of these is huge but gradually they all began to ride them. Paul and colin rode the 6ft drop to the side of it.
From there we moved onto the final application of the skills set, jumping larger gaps. I demonstrated both 9ft and 13ft gaps before it was their turn to apply their mental skills to decide which if any to ride.
Awesome end to an awesome weeks coaching and riding.
High 5!
