Friday 30 July 2010

Uncovering the rider in Liz





I began the session with Liz as i always do, with the skills check. I could see that inside Liz was a rider dying to get out but lacked mental skills to enable this.
We began with un weighting and pumping and very soon Liz was able to do what she had been trying to do for ages, raise the front wheel off the ground effortlessly. During the pumping technique Liz really connected with the trail as she smoothly flowed through the trail. We then worked on the drop technique and it was here that Liz really began to feel her mental skills began to blossom as she began flying through the air and landing both wheels together. Liz showed great commitment during the drop technique as we worked at riding it at different speeds.
Now it became time to move to a trail and work on the sections contained within it. I broke the trail into 3 segments and worked on each segment one at a time beginning with corners.
Here we worked on body positioning, footwork and looking. We worked on braking in the correct zones and not in the sections. I then added the next segment and we worked on linking all the section contained and now Liz was really riding confidently.
Liz had told me previously of her fears for steep roll downs of any length and one of the sections contained that fear so we isolated it and worked on her 4 physical skills so that she could commit and feel confident rolling down into the corner. Once Liz had rode it her confidence went sky high . I added the end segment and its larger drop section but this proved no problem to the new Liz as each section was ridden confidently. Finally we rode the whole trail and from top to bottom Liz rode smoothly down the trail and all braking was done in the correct places and her skills were shining through.
As the final technique of the day I demonstrated a long, steep roll down. This was previously a big fear for Liz but now after a run up to check her line she sailed down. Here we ended our session and made our way back to the car park. A great session to end a great day.

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