PROGRESSION SESSIONS
PART 1: CHRIS FINDS THAT GOING BACK TO BASICS WITH A DAY OF BEGINNER COACHING CAN BE THE BEST WAY TO PUSH YOUR RIDING FORWARDS
We send production editor Chris for some one-on-one coaching with pro rider Joe Connell, to nail some fundamental skills. Find out how going back to basics can progress your riding quickly and easily
We’ll get you sending it,” Joe says, with a reassuring smile. I push my bike back up the run-in, flip it round and mount up. Grinding hard at the pedals to build up as much speed as possible, I can feel my eyes wandering downwards as I approach the rock. Gritting my teeth, I raise my head and force my gaze to rest 10 to 12 metres ahead, as I’ve been instructed. Before I have time to work out what’s happened, the bike has rolled effortlessly over the first rocky feature and is hurtling towards the jump with gathering speed. “Let’s see it!” Joe shouts, as I push down on the bar and pedals, hit the take-off and pull up as hard as I dare. This time, my line feels near-perfect. I can feel my flat pedals pop up to meet the soles of my shoes and the bike sails through the air with the grace of a bird of prey. Or so I think. Landing straight as an arrow and returning proudly to my coach, he gives me one of his infectious grins. “Well, you definitely jumped that time,” he laughs. “Now we’re going to do three more, and each time you’re going to go harder than before.”
PRESSURE HEADACHE
I’ve arrived at this point in just a few short – and fun – hours in the company of Joe Connell, a Focus Trail Team rider and professional MTB coach. I’m in the unique position on the MBUK team of being a relatively inexperienced mountain biker. My enthusiasm for the sport often takes me down trails that are way above my skill level and the subsequent descent can turn into an unappealing combination of walking and crashing. So, features editor Ed decided it’d be a good idea to get me ‘back to basics’, so I could unlearn some of the bad habits I’ve picked up over a couple of years of trying to teach myself to ride. He put me in touch with Joe, who’s normally based in Inverness but has come down to meet me at Glyncorrwg mountain bike centre in South Wales – a venue neither of us has been to before. Luckily, we’re accompanied by photographer Russell Burton, one of the original team responsible for building these trails some 20 years ago.
Leading the way on his Specialized e-bike, Russell takes us onto the singletrack climb up the valley’s edge. I’m only riding for a couple of minutes before Joe’s identified some issues with my set-up and technique. Stopping at the trailside to give things a good once-over, his suspicions are confirmed – I’m running way too little pressure in my tyres and rear shock. I’m impressed that he’s managed to deduce this from simply glancing at me struggling up the rocky trail. After adding some air, we get riding again and it becomes clear just how inefficient my previous pressures were. I feel like I’m on a different bike! This, combined with some tips from Joe on weighting the bike and correct body position, has me scaling rocks with dexterity and confidence. We’ve only been riding for 20 minutes and I’m already learning some seriously useful stuff. “When you’re a beginner, you make much bigger strides in improving your technique,” Joe explains. I can see where he’s coming from – the only way is up.
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
Further along the valley, we head into a series of tight switchbacks as the autumn sun bathes the panoramic view in a honey-like glow. Here, Joe decides, is the perfect place for me to practise my cornering. This is a real Achilles’ heel for me, and something I really should be better at, having ridden for a couple of years. I’m instructed to ride the nearest switchback without tuition so that Joe can identify where I’m going wrong, and I do so to the best of my ability. “Yep, there’s definitely plenty of room for improvement,” he says, with a wink.
This is what’s great about Joe’s coaching style. Neither too strict nor too lax, he focuses on the individual and puts them front and centre. With his friendly, patient manner and neat little hacks for just about any situation, he’s like that one teacher that you actually got on with at school. His ability to tailor the coaching to both the pupil and the situation means that you’re never not learning under his tutelage.
Joe has me following his line around the tricky off-camber part of the turn, until I’m hitting that same line instinctively. Next, we cover braking zones and I learn the correct place to manage my speed. A common problem, Joe says, is braking around the turn and losing momentum – something that certainly rings true in my ears. Instead, he shows me the best place to get all my braking done before the corner, with enough
SOME TIPS ON WEIGHTING THE BIKE AND CORRECT BODY POSITION HAVE ME SCALING ROCKS WITH DEXTERITY AND CONFIDENCE
momentum left to roll around the line before pedalling out of the other side to regain speed.
Then comes the big one – leaning the bike over. This is something I’ve tried in vain to teach myself. We go through the technique and I follow Joe around the corner a few times trying to emulate his demonstration, but it’s easier said than done. Seeing that I’m struggling, he launches his backup plan and we relocate to the nearby fire-road. Hauling a few thick sections of chopped log from the roadside, he positions them into a handy little slalom run and we spend a while chasing each other through it, so that I can focus on my body rather than the trail. This helps massively, and it’s not long before I’m twisting and dipping the bike around the stumps – left-right-left, then right-left-right, back the other way. My efforts to bend my bar down to the ground aren’t nearly as dramatic as Joe’s, of course, but he’s managed to get me somewhere in half an hour that I couldn’t get myself in 18 months, and it feels amazing.
BRAKE ON THROUGH
Just one more singletrack ascent stands between us and the precious downhill trails, so we waste no time in getting stuck in and climbing up. And up. And up. This is a lovely climb – a predictable but interesting trail carpeted with loose, fist-sized rocks and intersected by streams and slabs of stone. The last 10 minutes’ worth is sheltered by a dense canopy of evergreens, with shafts of warm, golden afternoon light piercing through the branches and a dappling of sunlight across the leaf-strewn ground. It’s truly beautiful, but bloody hell, it’s a long one! I take the opportunity to practise Joe’s tips from earlier, choosing the hardest lines and hauling my bike over the biggest features with new-found dexterity.
Joe’s pro-racer stamina and Russell’s e-bike mean they’re now out of sight (and earshot) somewhere ahead, so I fall to singing to myself in time with the pedals. Three Led Zeppelin songs later, I can’t take any more and have to dismount to down half of my water. Basking in the tranquillity of the forest while I catch my breath, I’m soon recharged and push down on the pedals once again, launching into a private rendition of Stairway to Heaven. A moment later, I pop out of the treeline onto a wide gravel road – to the sight of Joe carefully arranging three small piles of rocks and pacing between them, counting under his breath. What he’s setting up, he explains, is a great way to practise the fundamental theories of effective braking. The 10-pace gap between the first and second stone markers is the pedalling zone, and the five-pace gap between the second and third is for braking. Joe gets me accelerating through the first zone, then stopping in the second zone using all the various brake combinations – front, back and both. This gives me a great feel for how effectively each lever can stop the bike, as well as how they affect balance and traction.
Joe’s last braking trick is what he calls ‘anchoring’. This time, he gets me to squeeze both brakes with full force, but the split-second before I yank the levers, I shift my body rearward, bend my knees, weight the pedals as hard as I can and assume a ‘squatting’ position, slamming my bum down until it almost touches the wheel. This sudden, heavy downforce boosts the bike’s traction and feels like pulling the handbrake on in a car. I stop within a single foot, as opposed to the couple of metres it took without the anchoring technique. “You can do this in a car park, or anywhere really,” says Joe. And this fits perfectly with the tips and tricks he’s been dishing out all day. It’s a solid foundation, a base of knowledge from which I can go and develop my skills at my own pace, in my own time. This explains why I feel noticeably more coordinated on the bike than I did just a few hours ago.
JUMP TO IT
We’re just about done for the day and Joe’s been dishing out the wisdom all the way up the hill. This means, I realise, that he’s left me the descent as a final treat, where I can test out everything I’ve learned on the really fun stuff. Dropping into the red-graded ‘Blade’ trail, I do my best to chase Joe’s back wheel and, to my surprise and delight, I’m not far off him the whole way down. Leaning over and with the occasional dab of rear brake, I throw the bike around the corners with a speed and confidence I’ve never felt before.
As the sun lowers and the shadows lengthen, the valley basks in an orange-filtered glow as we join the ‘Skyline’ trail, which meanders along and down into the woods. The singletrack wends its way through a foot-deep, narrow stone gully and I have to alternately dip my pedals to avoid the rocks on either side, but I still can’t bring myself to slow down. When we hit the treeline and the trail drops through the forest, I’m spent but elated. Joe can tell I’m giving it my all (and produces some much-needed chocolate, which he rations out between us) but as he comes to a halt to inspect a rocky jump feature and flashes me a cheeky grin, I realise he’s got one more thing to teach. “We’ll get you sending it,” he says, with a reassuring smile.
IT’S A SOLID FOUNDATION, A BASE OF KNOWLEDGE FROM WHICH I CAN DEVELOP MY SKILLS AT MY OWN PACE