Diamond Jubilee weekend saw Matt come to Swinley. He’d ridden here a few times before, and felt it was time to try and get a bit more flow and control through the corners.
We covered the basic safety checks and briefing before heading out to the trails. (more…)
Easter break saw Liam with the 4 kids come to Swinley, William and Lizzie had been on a course at another centre, Henry and David were new to skills sessions.
We covered the basic safety checks and briefing before heading out to the trails.
We spent a short while just focusing on the control position, braking and bike set-up. As is common with children’s bikes the brake levers are always set up too far away for their hands to reach the levers. After a few adjustments we were sorted.
Basic cornering followed the braking exercises; changes to the body position, “dropping your outside foot” and “looking” helped the group start to flow around the corners. (more…)
Both Dad, Tony and Son, Charlie had ridden in Swinley a few times before – but struggled with a few of the trails so decided to come out on a coaching session.
We covered the basic safety checks and briefing before heading out to the trails.
We spent a short while just focusing on body position, braking and bike set-up. As is common with youths’ bikes, Charlie’s had been set-up without any consideration that he has smaller hands than the mechanic that set the bike up. It needed the brake levers closer to the bar and also set at the correct angle. Once we’d made the necessary adjustments, Charlie was able to use the brakes in a more controlled and safe fashion.
Basic cornering followed the braking exercises; changes to foot work was the order of the day for both Tom and Charlie. Linking the foot work with the shift in body position became more natural and both of them were starting to flow through the corners.
We then headed over to “Stickler” to sample the challenges of the switch back on “Stickler One”. Here the focus turned to “looking through for the exit”, and both Tony and Charlie developed their looking skills with a few runs through the corners.
As both were taking in the new found skills quickly and smoothly we decided to up the stakes a bit and headed onto “Stickler Two” where the bermed corners get progressively bigger and tighter. Charlie soaked up the cornering techniques and was whizzing through the corners like an expert in no time at all.
We finished off the cornering on “Stickler Three” with the final deep bomb hole and berms, both Tony and Charlie flowed through the berms with style and confidence.
On our ride back towards the LookOut we tried a few exercises with pumping and manual front wheel lift. Then discussed how you can develop this into the bunny hop.
Final debrief at the car park and it was time to head for home. It was a pleasure doing the coaching session and I hope to see you both out on your bikes soon.
Karl & Ian
A freezing session today – a balmy 0deg C – Karl and Ian had ridden at Swinley a few times before, but mentioned that they were struggling with the bermed corners, and maintaining the speeds.
After basic bike and kit check we headed out towards the trails.
Initial 30mins was spent assessing and correcting basic body positioning, bike set up, braking techniques and cornering.
Once we’d removed a few old habits, and got them thinking about how they were riding we were then on the linked corners in the single-track. (more…)