Tracey had the session given to her as a gift from her husband Martin and we had to delay the session back in December when she broke her ankle while running. On arrival today, we chatted over a coffee and chatted about the effect breaking her ankle had on her overall confidence.
I started with the skills check and found that Tracey sat down in corners and had footwork and looking faults too. I changed her set up and showed her why I had done so and the control she now felt was vastly different to before.
I corrected her braking technique and then we applied both the mental and physical skill set to the drop technique. I worked hard on the mental side of Tracey's riding and the yells of joy when she flew through the air could be heard for miles. The new found confidence in her riding was shining through already and after a few more runs we moved on to work on pumping and cornering.
I used a mound on the trail to show why pumping generates free speed and Tracey linked the following berm and flat corner to it also. Now her cornering technique was so much better than before but the rock garden was a complete block when I showed Tracey it so I moved past that onto riding up steep short slopes and riding down steps. Tracey used the four mental skills questions that I teach to decide whether she could ride them and then fluidly rode both sections.
Now she was believing in herself and wanted to go back to the rock garden and in a short while, Tracey rode them and immediately said how easy it felt as she was in control all of the time.
Our final technique was to pump undulations on a trail and generate speed from them to ride the next. Tracey was smiling all the time now as she felt in control and rode with a renewed confidence.
Our session ended when her ankle began to ache and she was tiring. Great session Tracey and I look forward to your updates.
High5!
Went for a ride in the forest this morning. First time I'd had chance to put some of what I learned into practice. On my way to meet my friend I practiced crouch and stand to do little hops and squealed with delight every time I managed to get air under my front wheel! Did a lovely section of single track but weather was atrocious so track, wet, puddly and very slippy. Had a great time and had no worries about slipping and sliding all over the place. Got soaked to the skin in a heavy rain storm and got home almost blind(glasses steamed up, rain dripping off helmet etc!). My biking buddy and I felt quite proud of ourselves for being so hard core!!
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