Mangamahoe Skills session No2

We had a big group out with us on Saturday in clear dry weather for the second skills session focusing on climbing and descending, step ups and drop offs.

The groups abilities ranged from pretty much 16 to 60 years old and novice to expert so we split the group. Half spent the morning with Jenn to focus on Climbing and descending with line selection and trail evaluation. Whilst the other half were with myself learning step ups and drop offs. I had to adapt to the group as a couple of riders were at the novice level with flat pedals so I had to teach bunny hop with flat pedals before we could move onto step ups, something I have not done since my BMX days. They managed to hop the bike after some practice and understood the principle of loading the bike into the ground, and how to grip the bike with their feel even with the flat pedals, which was hard work as I can remember from my youth.

During the drop off practice the group progressed from a small section of wooden Vancouver style boardwalk step up and drop off I made, to a 2 foot dirt drop off I built into the trail, to correctly dropping off a 2 foot wooden drop built in the trail directly into a steep 5-6 feet down hill landing, with their front wheel level with the real wheel when it leaves the lip. They also practiced pitching the bike in the air for flat and down hill landings.

Jenn worked hard evaluating climbing styles and techniques, running through the pros and cons of each method and on different terrain. There were questions about bike set up and bike types and how this effects chosen climbing and descending styles all great valid questions which we shed some light upon.

For myself it was a great coaching day, all the group learned a significant technique that they either thought they were doing correctly and were not or learned and completed a technique that they previously thought was way out of their comfort zone. The challenge now for me as a coach is to find more interesting methods of delivery to keep both the novice and the expert riders motivated to learn and progress.

A couple of video clips here of the drop off that the group progressed to and the step up/drop off I built