Mountain Bike Tuition Skills Courses

After a few weeks of poor weather it looked like the Ladies Beginners Mountain bike course was going to be rain free! Fingers crossed!

Holly had been given a gift voucher and although had ridden off-road several times before was keen to learn the proper technique to off-road riding. Liz is fairly new to mountain biking and was looking forward to learning the skills necessary to have fun riding off-road.

After a safety check on our bikes making sure they were in good working order and making a few adjustments to brake levers  so they were easy to reach we headed out.  Firstly I followed them riding the Green trail just so I could see how they got on before we headed into the forest.

First thing we covered was braking and the best way to brake efficiently and in control.  We did a little exercise with braking to show how important it was to have your body weight in the right place when braking.  Holly and Liz could feel straight away that knowing a few basic skills made them feel more confident on a bike, especially when braking.

After this we covered the most fundamental skill to off road riding…….. the body position.   Sometimes its referred to as the “attack” position”, I prefer “ready for anything/control” position which does what it says………you are in control and ready  for anything that you may encounter on the trails.

It took a few minutes for them to really feel at ease in the “ready for anything” stance as they had been used to sitting on the saddle when riding.  Before long they  were both looking more flexible and relaxed and I could see their confidence growing.

Next we moved on to cornering. Firstly I got them all to ride a coned slalom course so I could see how they rode before giving them tips to make cornering much smoother and easier. It took a little time to get them both confident getting away from their saddles and leaning the bike away from them.

They both worked hard on this technique around the cones so we then introduced a couple of sweeping corners.  Here we could work further on the technique of speed control, footwork, body position and looking.  Both Holly and Liz were looking far more confident manoeuvring their bikes around and started flowing smoothly round the corners.

Next we covered gear changing and the basic technique to climbing with a smooth pedal stroke. Both ladies used their gears effectively to make it to the top of the climb with ease. With a quick breather we talked about descending and the body position which should be adopted to feel confident going downhill.

With lots of enthusiasm to learn more we headed to another area of the forest and introduced linked cornering. The section we used had a series of  bermed corners on a gravity assisted piece of trail so body position, speed control and looking were all crucial.  At first the ladies struggled a bit with getting their looking and footwork right as the trail took them a little out of their comfort zone.  However, after a few tips and attempts their confidence grew and they started cornering with more flow.

To end the session we rode a small section of the Blue trail to see the improvements in their riding from the mornings Green run.  Straight away it was obvious that they were both more confident. Automatically getting in the “ready for anything” position as they tackled the trail. They both flowed through the trail with good speed and eased around the corners.

A very enjoyable morning and for me as a coach it’s lovely to see the confidence grow in all of the riders as the session progressed.   Hope to see you out on the trails soon.  Have fun

Alan has only recently started riding off road, in fact only about 10 times with one being a mountain bike race! Alan used to be a competitive runner but due to injury he started riding.  With the roads being quite unpleasant to ride on due to too many impatient car drivers he tried a bit of trail riding with some work colleagues and enjoyed it so much entered a race straight away!

With regards to the race he found that he was fit enough but as soon as it came to the singletrack he was left standing. He was braking, losing momentum, not getting round the corners which was very frustrating. He decided that if he was going to be competitive and progress in this sport he needed some coaching.

So with my brief done we headed for the trails.

To start with I got Alan to ride round a little corner circuit so I could see how he was riding already.  This highlighted a number of fundamental skills which were missing so we started back to basics to iron these out.

The first skill we worked on was his body position on the bike…..”control” or “ready for anything” stance and how to adapt this to get round corners.  Straight away Alan found it so much easier to move the bike around by being out of the saddle and shifting his body weight. By lowering his saddle a tad and adjusting the position of his brake levers also helped.

After a quick demo and practice of the best and most efficient way to use your brakes we headed to the 4 corners.  This trail gave Alan the opportunity to practice making the quick transition from a left hand corner to a right hand corner whilst controlling speed. Alan worked well through the corners and looked confident moving away from the saddle and leaning the bike over more as the trail tightened so he could get the best grip.

Once the 4 corners were mastered it was on to stickler with the many singletrack corners to work through.

After working on a few of the sections I then followed Alan whilst we rode the whole trail.  I could see how his riding had improved just after a couple of hours coaching and believed with practice he could finely tune his riding to flow more freely and be able to improve his race times/position.

So a week after Alan’s coaching session he entered his second ever mountain bike race, the Gorrick Fun Race.  He came 1^st out of 25……..not bad for a Rooky, in fact pretty awesome!

Good luck and enjoy

Spring was definitely not on its way for this mornings tuition!!  Instead, a lot of cold showers, however it didn’t put Rachael off turning up for her booked mountain bike skills session.

Rachael had been on a mountain bike holiday to Sardinia which was great. It was a little more extreme than she was expecting so decided to book a coaching session with me to get back to basics and build her confidence to be able to tackle more difficult terrain in the future.

We began the session with a quick briefing about SwinleyForest followed by talking about the bike set up and completing a  safety check before setting off.

We had a bit of a warm up cycle to start with as it was so cold and wet before we stopped to go through the ideal body position which is best adopted when riding off road trails.  Rachael grasped this well so we moved on to gear changing.  Sounds simple but it is so easy to be in the wrong gear at crucial times. We rode a slight incline working on our pedal stroke and changing gears at the right time to keep the traction going through the tyres and keeping it nice and smooth.  Rachaels’ poor hands were freezing so she found it a little tricky manoevering the gear lever.

Before reaching our introductory corners we went through how to use your brakes safely and confidently.  We then started moving our weight around the bike to introduce where our body position should be to gain the best traction from our tyres. With Rachael having skied before she had no trouble understanding where she needed to shift her weight.  Riding the corners several times started to build her confidence which was great so we headed onto Stickler 3 to work on linking some corners together.  Rachael was keen to work on some switch back corners so we used some tighter bermed corners which challenged the whole cornering technique ie: speed control/looking/footwork/body position.

After working on the swithback a few times we carried on and rode more singletrack to put all the basic skills learnt into practice.

It was a very cold and wet morning but Rachael was starting to flow down the trails looking more confident.

Hope to see you out on the trails  :-)

Elaine is a lover of the great outdoors. She runs, cycles, does adventure races and triathlons. With an injury keeping her from running she was out on her mountain bike more and decided she wanted to learn the necessary skills to build her confidence for off road riding.

We began the session with a quick briefing about SwinleyForest followed by talking about the bike set up and completing a  safety check before setting off.

Firstly we briefly covered how to change gears smoothly whilst using an efficient pedalling technique for going up hills off road efficiently.  At the top of the climb it was time to explain the ideal body position to adopt when riding off road.  Elaine picked this up really quickly which was great as this meant we could move on to the core skills to cornering.

On the way to the introductory corners we went through how to use your brakes safely and confidently and adjusted Elaine’s brake levers so they are easier to reach when in the control position.  We then started moving our weight around the bike to introduce where her body position should be to gain the best traction from our tyres.

Moving on to cornering we started with a simple one just to get the basics correct. To begin with Elaine stayed fairly straight on her bike with not much movement.  However, after a few tips she started to lean the bike and shift her bodyweight around which was great.

Moving on to the four corners it gave Elaine the opportunity to practice making the quick transition from a left hand corner to a right hand corner whilst controlling speed. We also looked at line choices and visual irritations on a trail that may affect your confidence and commitment and spoke about how best to tackle them.

Elaine worked well through the corners and looked more confident moving away from the saddle and leaning the bike over as the trail tightened so she could get the best grip. With her confidence growing we moved onto Stickler to work on linking some corners and using tighter bermed corners to challenge her “looking” and “footwork”technique.

Another aspect of off road riding Elaine wanted to learn was to get over obstacles such as roots/logs/step ups on the trails so we spent a bit of time running through the technique for this.

With time running short we headed to Seagull and covered the “cone of movement” going over a mound in the trail and followed the trail to the green gate before heading back to the Look Out.

See you on the trails soon.

A lovely morning in Swinley  Forest for the Forest Rider Course with Steve and Ben.  Ben had taken up mountain biking 6 months ago having not been on a bike for 15 years.  He had never been taught and wanted to learn the basics to become more confident.  Steve didn’t learn to ride a bike till later on in life and had just started venturing off road and wanted to know the techniques of off road riding to become more assured riding the trails.

After a safety check on our bikes and making a few adjustments to brake levers so the wrists could be dropped when in the “control” position we rode out into Swinley  Forest along one of the fire tracks.

Firstly we covered gear changing and the basic technique to climbing.  After a few minutes playing with gear changing and pedal stroke ie: spinning cranks in a circle rather than a square, we rode a small climb. They both found that gear changing and a smooth pedal action gave a real benefit to mastering climbs.

After this we covered the most fundamental skill to off road riding……..the body position.   Sometimes its referred to as the “attack” position”, I prefer “ready for anything/control” position which does what it says………you are in control and ready  for anything that you may encounter on the trails.

Ben picked this up quickly and looked more flexible and relaxed on his bike.  Steve initially found it difficult to feel comfortable standing on the pedals, out of the saddle as he was use to sitting down most of the time. However with practice his confidence grew.

Following on from this we did a little exercise with braking to show how important it was to have your body weight in the right place when braking.  With the brake lever adjustments already made both Ben and Steve were quite surprised that knowing a few basic skills made them feel more confident.

Next we moved on to basic cornering.  This highlighted the issue that both Ben and Steve were staying in contact with their saddles for most of the cornering, which was restricting their cone of movement. We spent time focusing on getting the outside foot down and moving bodyweight to increase the grip and control throughout the corner.

Steve did find this a bit unnatural and challenging but had progressed by the end of this session.  Ben felt confident leaning the bike over and was cornering smoothly in control.

Moving on and to put the skills learnt into to practice on a basic bit of  Singletrack we headed to the Seagull Run.  We stopped at the drainage dip along the trail to practice being in the “control” position when such trail features appear, and how to ride them with confidence and control.   The first few attempts they were quite tight in the shoulders but soon started relaxing which made a smoother transition.

Both gents said the biggest learning points for them was body position and brake adjustments.

A very enjoyable morning.  Hope to see you out on the trails soon.  Have fun

On a beautiful September afternoon I was coach for a family of four.  Virginia and Dave (Mum and Dad), 6 year old Ellen and 5 year old Dan.  Dan had just turned 5 and this was a birthday treat for him as he loves mountain biking.   All of them had mountain biked many times before and also knew Swinley Forest.

After we had carried out the “M” check on our bikes to make sure they were safe to ride and adjusted our helmets we were ready to hit the trails.  The first bit of trail was a hill which Ellen and Dan climbed really well considering they only have small wheels and little legs.

After a quick stop at the top to get our breath back we covered the body position that should be adopted when mountain biking…… ”ready for anything” position.  The family practiced this and got the hang of it straight away.

As we descended along the trail it was fantastic to see them all up in the “ready for anything” position in total control.  Riding to the next part of the forest was along a very undulating trail with quite a long steady climb.  With Ellen and Dan full of beans and the reward of a yummy chocolate biscuit at the top they were off.

The next fun game was a slalom course round cones to introduce a bit of cornering.  The birthday boy showed us how it was done as he whizzed through the starting gate, in and out of the cones to the finish.Ellen was next and did really well moving her weight around the bike to get around the cones without running over them.It was Mum and Dad’s turn now.  To start with they were both on their saddles but with a few coaching tips they started developing the skill of leaning the bike away from them to make tighter turns around the cones.

With a high five from the children it was time to move on to a bit of singletrack to practice what they had learnt.  The trail I chose was a short circuit that had a few corners as well as some roll in’s so it was possible to ride again and again to really get the skills mastered.

Dan loved it with lots of ‘whoops’ of joy; Ellen rode the circuit a few times before helping me take action photos of Mum and Dad’s mountain bike skills.

After a quick snack and drink we headed to the four corners to finish cornering technique for the day and to give Virginia and Dave some more tips to enable them to corner smoothly and efficiently.

All buzzing from this it was time to start heading back to the Look Out. We took the scenic route back and rode some lovely single track with some lumps, bumps and rooty sections in it so they could all try out their new skills.  Despite tired legs Dan and Ellen rode all the way back with great confidence.

A big thumbs up for an enjoyable afternoon.  Have fun practicing your new skills. May see you on the trails soon

A slightly overcast morning in SwinleyForest for the Ladies Beginners Course but the sun did make an appearance!

Catherine had ridden at Swinley before but is fairly new to mountain biking. She wanted to learn the basics to enable her to go mountain biking with her husband.  Louise and her daughter Tasmin where new to Swinley and mountain biking and wanted to learn how to ride safely off road.

After a safety check on our bikes making sure they were in good working order and making a few adjustments to brake levers so they were easy to reach we cycled out into Swinley Forest along one of the fire tracks.

Firstly we covered gear changing and the basic technique to climbing.  After a few minutes playing with gear changing and pedal stroke we rode a small climb using our gears as we went. All of the ladies used their gears effectively to make it to the top of the climb. They all found that gear changing and a smooth pedal action is a good thing to master to make hills easier. (more…)

Polly booked up a 1-1 mountain bike skills session keen to learn all the techniques for safe off road riding.

After a bike and equipment check where we discussed bike set up ie: seat height, brake levers, tyre pressures we headed off to the trails.

The first fundamental skill we covered was the ideal “body position” for biking off road.  Being up out of the saddle helps manage the lumps and bumps that are on the trails.  Polly adopted this well and could feel an improvement straight away.

Polly was quickly moving confidently around on her bike so we then covered braking.  After spending a few minutes practicing she could really feel the benefits of dropping the wrists which makes braking more efficient and safe.  From here we moved on to cornering.

Starting with a simple flat wide corner it enabled me to slightly adjust her cornering technique before moving onto some linked corners.  Before Polly rode the corners we discussed the rooty entrance section and how best to tackle such trail features.  Polly rode this section several times and at first looked tense in her upper body and she was also dipping her shoulder into the corner. With this feedback and some coaching points she was soon relaxing her shoulders, moving her bodyweight to gain the most grip and was riding far more smoothly.

With her confidence increasing with every go we headed across the forest to Stickler 3 where we used a switchback corner to work on her “looking” and challenge her cornering technique further.  On her first attempt she froze and popped out the top of the corner. However it didn’t take Polly long to use the building blocks already learnt to start nailing the corner. She really started moving her bodyweight around the bike to maintain grip.  Her transitions between the corners became smooth and flowing and her confidence at a high.

With time pushing on we worked on how to get the front wheel over trail obstacles with ease.  Polly sussed this technique very quickly and was enjoying popping her wheel over the various sized trunks laid out on the trail.  We also covered the technique for lifting the back wheel over obstacles to finish off the session.

It was great to meet you and I had a great morning.   Have fun practicing the techniques you picked up today and may see you out on the trails soon   Sarah

Jo,  a local mountain biker booked up a 1-1 mountain bike skills session as she had never been taught to ride off road before and was keen to learn all the techniques.  As she was riding into the forest from Crowthorne we met on one of the trails.

Firstly we went through a bike and equipment check.  We discussed bike set up ie: seat height, brake levers, tyre pressures and after a couple of adjustments  we were ready to go.  Riding behind Jo along the Seagull run to start with gave me an idea of her riding level, technique and confidence.  We then covered one of the first basic skills of mountain biking which is the ideal “body position”.  Being up out of the saddle helps manage the lumps and bumps that are on the trails. Jo adopted this well and with the new position of her brake levers could feel an improvement already.

Jo was quickly moving confidently around on her bike so we then covered braking.  After spending a few minutes practicing she could really feel the benefits of dropping the wrists.  From here we moved on to cornering.

Starting with a simple flat wide corner it enabled me to slightly adjust her cornering technique before moving onto some linked corners.  Before we could tackle them Jo had a slight mechanical where she couldn’t unclip one of her shoes because the SPD had come lose and one of the screws had fallen out.  With some pulling and tugging we eventually released it, put in an old screw that I carry in my tool kit and it was good as new.  (Top tip – carry old spare SPD screws, you never know when you may need them)

Before Jo rode the corners we discussed the rooty entrance section and how best to tackle such trail features.  Jo rode this section several times and with some coaching points she was soon relaxing her shoulders, moving her bodyweight to gain the most grip and was riding far more smoothly. (more…)

Slightly overcast morning in SwinleyForest for the Ladies Beginners Course but the sun did make an appearance!  All the ladies were on the course for similar reasons.

Tania is local to the forest and has ridden some of the trails but wanted to come on a course to learn some basic skills on how to do it properly and gain confidence.

Esther has done some mountain biking with her partner.  She found that she lacked confidence on the trails he had taken her on so thought it would be a good idea to get some coaching to build her confidence, especially for tackling the narrower singletrack trails.

Emma, Esther’s friend is new to mountain biking so wanted to learn the basics.  She has recently become a new Mum and wanted something she can do with her friends to have that all important “time to yourself”.  Mountain biking is ideal to escape from it all and have a great time with your mates. (more…)