"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"
Knowing how frustrated I get when I struggle to pick up a skill had me worrying about my upcoming coaching session with Xtreme MTB, knowing if I get frustrated when I'm alone that it would be even worse with someone watching me and seeing my mistakes. I was wrong. After speaking with Sam Flockart, Xtreme MTB coach, I expressed my concerns and he reassured me that it would be a great session, with his sister Eilidh joining us, that we would spend as long as it takes working to achieve my goals for the day, taking breaks if I started getting worked up. Sam's sister Eilidh is, like Sam, very talented in several sports. At only 16 she plays for Celtic FC Girls and the Celtic FC First Team Reserves. I agreed with Sam that I should use Eilidh's natural talent to my advantage and learn from watching and speaking to Eilidh as well as working with Sam. Speaking to Sam made me realise that getting angry with myself over mistakes was only going to hinder my progress and if I wanted to get better at racing and riding I had to start looking more positively at my performance.
We set off from the bottom car park at Glentress up the red route to the Freeride section.
Once we got to the top of the freeride section Sam asked us to ride over the jumps without trying to jump them, so he could observe our body positions and to let us get used to riding in the snow (this was my first experience of riding on snow and ice). He chose two jumps after a corner for us to work on. Starting just before the corner to let us get a good pedal in and good flow around the corner to get enough speed for jumping.
The first thing Sam worked on with me was the corner, although I normally feel confident on cornering, the snow had caused me to cut the corner a bit short. He got me using the full corner which although I got a couple of slides on, it gave me a much better flow into the jump.
After I had worked on the corner a few times we moved on to the jump, he first watched me attempt to jump, then gave me a demonstration of what I was doing on the bike and explained why I'm having trouble, he followed this with a demonstration by Eilidh of what I should be doing, pointing out her strong body position and how her weight was more centred over the bike, where I was too far off the back and soaking up the jump with my arms and legs. After identifying what my issue was we continued to work on just getting me over the jump with stiffer arms and legs. What a difference! I could immediately feel the change in my riding just simply from straightening my legs a bit more and keeping my arms strong.
Trying not to overwhelm me we worked on one thing at a time, so once I my arms and legs were better we moved onto my body position on the bike, again giving a demonstration of where I want to be when I'm coming up the lip. It felt strange at first as I was breaking some bad habbits that I have had since starting MTB but again I could feel the difference in my jump, nearly landing on the downslope of the jump. I was so impressed with the improvement in just a few hours with Sam. I needed a break so had a few blasts down Berm Baby Berm for a bit of fun. Before we finished up for the day I done a few more runs around the Freeride Park putting everything I learned from the session together.
After a fun blast down the blue run (only run open down to the car park) I left the session absolutely buzzing. The session with Sam made me realise how wrong I had been to be worrying about being embarrassed about my mistakes in my riding, and how learning from my mistakes will only help me improve and push me towards my goal of being a great racer. Sam handled my frustrations amazingly well and completely turned my negative outlook around. I cannot wait for our next coaching session and see how much more I am capable of. I feel that without Sam's guidance that I would have struggled with the upcoming race season. His years of experience mean I can make informed decisions about my racing and what I need to be working on.
Find out more about Xtreme MTB and Sam either on his website or Facebook:
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