Thursday 8 December 2011

Dave's 1 to 1 skills session






Dave had previously been coached by another company and his search for more coaching led him to me. Over a coffee we chatted about his aspirations for the session and I set to work.
We began with the skills check and I could see that he needed work on body position, looking and foot positioning too. I changed his set up which dramatically enhanced his control and confidence too.
The first technique we applied both the mental and physical skills set to, was the drop technique. Dave found this so simple and began landing perfectly from the word go. The day was windy and getting worse so we moved onto the skills trail without doing the larger one to stop the wind being a factor.
I began with basic pumping and later on I showed why the skill set applied to more advanced pumping too.

We then used the acquired energy to ride the following bermed and flat corner and later added in a rock garden, a switchback and berm. The skill set was very much still a conscious reaction as I moved us down the trail to the fly out jump and corner with a step on the exit. Once again Dave applied his skills and sailed into the air on the jump and then rode the corner and step easily and things began to come together.
I then showed why the skills I teach applied to riding over logs and why the same technique applies in many other areas too.

We moved back onto the trail and I worked on roll downs and drops into corners and the correct line choice. Dave then rode the entire trail end to end quite a few times and the skills set really began to blossom in his riding as it moved into a more unconscious action as opposed to a reaction. We rode the trail end to end and it was awesome to see Dave choose whether to drop or roll and land perfectly to link it into the final corner.
We ended our session with a ride down a new piece of singletrack that I wanted to show him and he could feel himself choosing the correct techniques.
The wind was too strong for me to teach the tabletop so we spent more time on the trail before our session came to a close.
Awesome riding!

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