Kev arrived as arranged and I immediately put him through the skills check. This revealed a tidy rider but with a couple of missing skills that bogged down his techniques out on the quantocks etc.
We began with drops then drops into berms. I worked hard on his looking and body position in both techniques.
We moved onto the tabletop and 6ft gap jump to apply his new skill set to this technique and the same result occurred.
After a while, we moved onto the pump and jump trail and I worked on pumping the gain speed. In no time at all, Kev was generating enough speed from the first couple of sections to jump the 9ft tabletop.
I then brought him onto a very low ladder to work on his mental skills and to deal with a very common fear. Once corrected, Kev was confidently riding along and off a low ladder drop. It was clear that we could move it up a notch.
We worked hard on linking an advanced ladder drop into a wooden berm and Kev really got to grips with it and was railing it by the end.
To round off our session we worked on another drop and linked it to a 9ft gap jump and into a berm. Once Kev had ridden each one he then linked them together smoothly and fluidly.
This capped off a great session and the smooth unhurried progress we made was awesome in a single session. I can't wait for Kev's future riding updates.
I finally made it to see tony of uk bikeskills after several months deliberating about it due to cost and distance.
ReplyDeleteThe day starts with intros and he gets you relaxed straight away. I do a couple of bike skills tests from which he can tell which areas need most work on and then we head across his field to the jump section. As we cycle we can hear some buzzards in the sky and it becomes apparent Tony likes his birds of prey, which i thought was rather apt as when you session a section he watches you like a hawk and along with his trusty phone which he uses, he shows you what you just ridden and points out any mistakes and explains how to correct them.
Tonys mantra is keep it simple and have fun. Tonys seems to get as much enjoyment out of seeing you progress as you do yourself. He doesn't push you into doing anything your not comfortable with but has the ability to progress you onto the 'next level'. He can also see when small mistakes are creeping in as you become tired and need to call it a day.
Was it worth it? Well £180 is alot of anybodies money, and to all you sceptics who say you can get all the gen off you-tube and the internet etc, for free, I've been doing that since i started riding just over 4 years ago.
But i was never comfortable doing drops and jumps. Look at the photos Tony has taken, the 1st north shore jump onto the ramp i done, i had such an adrenalin rush my whole body was shaking with excitement, that was the point I knew it was worth every penny. Tony was genuinely pleased that i had done it too. The day wasn't finished yet, i progressed to another couple of sections and each time the adrenalin rush kicked in.
Without Tonys help i would still be fretting on the small jumps on my local trails.If you are reading this and thinking about doing a skills day, just book it you be glad you did. Thanks Tony for a day that i'll remember for a very long time.Cheers. Kev