So you got skills right?
It's riding a bike - how hard can it be??
I've read a book, watched YouTube and now I'm a combination of the two Danny's - Hart & MacAskill......
It's riding a bike - how hard can it be??
I've read a book, watched YouTube and now I'm a combination of the two Danny's - Hart & MacAskill......
Would be good wouldn't it?
Now I'm no trail god but I can ride a bike (i.e. stay upright and start/stop and not fall over.....much) but going on a skills course seemed like a no-brainer to me. I wanted to be able to ride better and feel more confident - and being armed with the correct techniques can't be a bad thing can it?
I've done two skills courses over the last couple of years with CHASE SKILLS (other providers are available) and have learnt a lot and had fun (and cake....) along the way
The first course I did was the 'Skills & Thrills' course which covers the basics and is a lot of fun!
I did this back in October 2014 and there were 6 of us on the course.
Our instructor for the day was Alex - who as well as being owner of Chase Skills is also a top bloke (he also likes cake...).
We met at Run & Ride in Hednesford and started off with the group riding in a coned area trying to avoid each other and not put a foot down. The area within the cones was gradually reduced and if you 'dabbed' you were out. So what's the point of this? balance and slow speed control - which are pretty essential for techy single track riding.
We had a look at bike set up including bar and saddle height/position and made a few changes which made riding positions better (mine was waaaay off!!).
We then hit the trails with Alex leading but also dropping back to have a look at our riding positions and general bike handling skills.
I think his comment about my riding style was along the lines of 'just holding on and ploughing over everything' - so not much skill or finesse then.....
So back to basics it was for all of us. We covered the attack position, gear selection, climbing techniques and riding down steep slopes. All the time Alex would enlist a member of the group to help out and pass comment on how they thought the others were doing and spotting any mistakes in a 'good cop - bad cop' kind of way - this works well.
All the time we were practicing the mantra 'light hands heavy feet' - this helps the bike to move around under you and keep your weight & centre of gravity lower and means you aren't holding on for grim death and being flung into the nearest ditch. The bike works for you!
All the time we were practicing the mantra 'light hands heavy feet' - this helps the bike to move around under you and keep your weight & centre of gravity lower and means you aren't holding on for grim death and being flung into the nearest ditch. The bike works for you!
After this went for for a short ride to practice what we'd learnt and ended up at the cafe as it was cake time......
After cake and a chat it was on to manuals, bunny hops and cornering.
This was where I realised that a dropper post was awesome and wished I had one. In fact I wished I had a seat post as Alex confiscated mine as I wasn't getting out of the saddle enough and leaning the bike over - its amazing how much no saddle focuses the mind......
So after much 'Wayne's World' style hip schwing-ing (showing my age here.....) and bouncing on the pedals to prove that tyres will grip when lent over it was time to hit the trails once again.
The route back incorporated a decent stretch of the 'Follow the dog' trail, including the 'High Voltage' and 'Zik-Zak' sections. These include a bit of everything and put in to practice what we'd learnt throughout the day.
I was feeling pretty pleased with my progress until the log roll drop off at the end of Zik-Zak (which sadly is no longer a feature on the trail) where I promptly forgot most of the techniques Alex had shown us and I went OTB (Over The Bars) and face planted at the bottom of the drop with my bike on top of me..... Luckily I wasn't alone and was quickly joined face down by one other person. I took away from this that being in the correct gear and having the appropriate speed are essential to staying on the bike.....
So after picking ourselves up and watching the rest of the group nail the drop it was a spin back to Run and Ride for a debrief and a cuppa (and some more cake....).
Overall a great day and meant that I had a lot more control of the bike and an idea of what I was doing when riding the trails!
The second course I did with Chase-Skills and Alex was the half day Jumps and Drops course. This was done in June 2015 - and I didn't have the best preparation for it.........
In September 2013 I had a minor mishap and fell over damaging my shoulder - this was actually worse than I thought and kept giving me problems over the course of the 18 months which resulted in cortisone injections and physio and the possibility of surgery... I'd had one round of injections in September 2014 but by February of 2015 I was back to constant pain. I got referred to a brilliant Consultant who stepped up the physio and discussed surgery. I had a second round of injections 3 days before I was due to undertake the course with Alex.
No problem I thought - the last lot didn't give me any problems and I'll be fine. Oh how wrong I was! by the first evening I was in agony and couldn't feel my hand or lift my arm above my waist - not conducive with riding a bike let alone getting some air! Luckily the effects wore off (slightly....) and by the Sunday morning I could lift my arm to shoulder height and feel my hand again but was still grip and strength limited and still felt like I'd been repeatedly punched in the shoulder for weeks. So I took a dose of MTFU (also know as paracetamol & codeine) and headed up to Run & Ride to meet with Alex and the other course members.
The day started with tea and biscuits and a general chat and catch up and introductions. There were five of us on the course so a nice small number. Before we headed off one of the lads, Scott, asked if I wanted to give my forks a quick spray with some fork juice (again - other brands are available....) I politely declined - which later turned out to be a bad move.....
So we jumped on the bikes and headed out across the 'Chase via some lovely trails to the 'Bomb Hole' just by Takeroo camp site. This should have been a fun ride but I had a bit of a nightmare on this - I just couldn't get into a flow - I was all over the place and kept going of the track and struggled to keep up. I thought it was partly down to my shoulder/hand issue and generally feeling slightly off. It turned out that I'd got my forks locked out and was riding a rigid! If I'd taken Scott up on the offer of a 'lube' I'd have spotted this and not felt so crap when we got to Takeroo.
So first thing we covered was manuals and why you should push and not pull the bike when doing it and Alex had us popping over roots and stumps to practice. Alex again employed the 'good-cop bad cop routine' with getting us to critique each other.
We then went on to 'pumping the trail' - this was a major revelation to me. I'd watched Aaron Gwin's 'chainless win' at the Down Hill World Cup not that long back and wondered how he'd done it.
Pumping is awesome - allows you to pickup and carry speed through various features of the trail just by making the trail work for you - no pedalling!
This culminated in a friendly pumping competition - a line was drawn where we could pedal up to (gave you about two pedal strokes!) from there on it was pump the terrain and see how far you get. It's actually pretty impressive how far you can carry yourself with this technique.
We then went on to get some air! This was combining the pumping and manual to 'pop' the bike of an obstacle - which in this case was a small angled stump. I may have got carried away with this and taken a bit too much speed on the first go which resulted in what felt like a long time on the air - Alex looked impressed anyway.....
So after this we went on to some bigger drops which I was getting quite confident with and contemplating the biggest step when Scott went OTB and required a bit of patching up - my enthusiasm was somewhat tempered with this reminder and the lack of grip in my hand!
Once Scott was patched up we hit the trails and headed out to the small quarry over by 'Cadet Corner' - where handily someone has built a table-top jump! the ride over was much more pleasant now that my forks were working as they should!
Much fun was had on this section with learning how to pump the up slope of the jump and getting the correct body and bike position for the landing.
This was great fun and trying to get the perfect take-off and landing became a bit of a competition. I think I managed one really good combination of the two.
We then headed back to Run & Ride at Hednesford for a debrief (and tea and biscuits...) via a few more trails I hadn't previously ridden.
A great way to spend a morning and thanks again to Alex for his patience and enthusiasm.
So whether you're a novice or an experienced rider there's always something to learn and it's always good to get someone to look at your technique and give feedback.
I will be doing more skills courses in the future - I might even revisit the Jumps & Drops and see how I get on with two working hands and shoulders!!
Thanks for reading!
No problem I thought - the last lot didn't give me any problems and I'll be fine. Oh how wrong I was! by the first evening I was in agony and couldn't feel my hand or lift my arm above my waist - not conducive with riding a bike let alone getting some air! Luckily the effects wore off (slightly....) and by the Sunday morning I could lift my arm to shoulder height and feel my hand again but was still grip and strength limited and still felt like I'd been repeatedly punched in the shoulder for weeks. So I took a dose of MTFU (also know as paracetamol & codeine) and headed up to Run & Ride to meet with Alex and the other course members.
The day started with tea and biscuits and a general chat and catch up and introductions. There were five of us on the course so a nice small number. Before we headed off one of the lads, Scott, asked if I wanted to give my forks a quick spray with some fork juice (again - other brands are available....) I politely declined - which later turned out to be a bad move.....
So we jumped on the bikes and headed out across the 'Chase via some lovely trails to the 'Bomb Hole' just by Takeroo camp site. This should have been a fun ride but I had a bit of a nightmare on this - I just couldn't get into a flow - I was all over the place and kept going of the track and struggled to keep up. I thought it was partly down to my shoulder/hand issue and generally feeling slightly off. It turned out that I'd got my forks locked out and was riding a rigid! If I'd taken Scott up on the offer of a 'lube' I'd have spotted this and not felt so crap when we got to Takeroo.
So first thing we covered was manuals and why you should push and not pull the bike when doing it and Alex had us popping over roots and stumps to practice. Alex again employed the 'good-cop bad cop routine' with getting us to critique each other.
We then went on to 'pumping the trail' - this was a major revelation to me. I'd watched Aaron Gwin's 'chainless win' at the Down Hill World Cup not that long back and wondered how he'd done it.
Pumping is awesome - allows you to pickup and carry speed through various features of the trail just by making the trail work for you - no pedalling!
This culminated in a friendly pumping competition - a line was drawn where we could pedal up to (gave you about two pedal strokes!) from there on it was pump the terrain and see how far you get. It's actually pretty impressive how far you can carry yourself with this technique.
We then went on to get some air! This was combining the pumping and manual to 'pop' the bike of an obstacle - which in this case was a small angled stump. I may have got carried away with this and taken a bit too much speed on the first go which resulted in what felt like a long time on the air - Alex looked impressed anyway.....
So after this we went on to some bigger drops which I was getting quite confident with and contemplating the biggest step when Scott went OTB and required a bit of patching up - my enthusiasm was somewhat tempered with this reminder and the lack of grip in my hand!
Once Scott was patched up we hit the trails and headed out to the small quarry over by 'Cadet Corner' - where handily someone has built a table-top jump! the ride over was much more pleasant now that my forks were working as they should!
Much fun was had on this section with learning how to pump the up slope of the jump and getting the correct body and bike position for the landing.
This was great fun and trying to get the perfect take-off and landing became a bit of a competition. I think I managed one really good combination of the two.
We then headed back to Run & Ride at Hednesford for a debrief (and tea and biscuits...) via a few more trails I hadn't previously ridden.
A great way to spend a morning and thanks again to Alex for his patience and enthusiasm.
So whether you're a novice or an experienced rider there's always something to learn and it's always good to get someone to look at your technique and give feedback.
I will be doing more skills courses in the future - I might even revisit the Jumps & Drops and see how I get on with two working hands and shoulders!!
Thanks for reading!
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