I've been riding for years (since about '93) and have done a couple of skills days in the last 5 years, one with MBI at Rivington and one with AQR at Sherwood. I thought both were good and I came away having learnt something.

What I really don't know is to what extent I've adopted the good stuff I learnt or have slipped back into my old ways. I just ride my bike, enjoy it most of the time, crash a bit and carry on.

I know there's probably not one right answer (but let's not let that stop us) so…

do you think skills days have a lasting effect on your riding?

with repition and practice

It's been a bit the opposite with me and the one's I've been on. I found that I came away and the learning had just started if you know what I mean. It was the weeks and months after that as I practiced that my riding really improved.

Well, although I run skills days now, when I've done training myself in the past, I find it does stick, as long as you use it a bit. An interesting bit of info is that your brain processes stuff when you're asleep. I wouldn't have believed this but a few years ago, learning to bunny hop, on the day of being taught, I got nowhere, I could see it all, but it just wasn't happening. Next ride, about 2 weeks later, 1st go, it all worked. Thought, must be a fluke, but no, 2nd, 3rd, 4th goes, still there.

…also, feedback from people who keep in touch every so often says that yes, they do remember what they learn.

I don't know if this is answering my own question but, today while riding through some of the twisty bermy bits at Gisburn I was deliberately doing something that I was taught on the AQR skills day I did a couple of years ago.

I suppose the question is… was I also doing it on the other berms when I wasn't thinking about it mechanistically? I dunno.

The only thing I've done was a weeks guided riding in the alps, where you get a little bit of coaching from the guides. For myself, I learnt that my limits were much higher than I'd previously thought (although I'm still fairly shit!). I've tried to take that into what I'm doing at the moment, which is learning to jump. I'm progressing slowly and carefully, but I am taking my riding forward which I'd not really done since a bad injury 4 years ago.

I've not done 'skills days' as such but I've had plenty of time set aside to work on technique in my normal riding. When I was first getting into riding DH a group of us would work on a single type of skills for a few weeks/months till we'd 'mastered' it and made it second nature.

Of all the things I've learnt from biking, the key was repetitive training on the same skill till I could do it subconsciously is the only way to really improve.

I reckon you have to do it while you're thinking about it a lot before you start doing it without thinking about it. The learning experts have a cycle for it. I've done it as part of my SMBLA thingy and also on a few management courses. It's unconcious incompetence (don't know you're crap) -> conscious incompetence (know why and what to do) -> conscious competence (you can do it when you think about it) -> unconscious competence (you can do it without thinking about)

You go from stage 1 to 3 on a skills course but only practice can take you from 3 to 4.

Sorry for the spelling, I'm consciously incompetent at that.

Repeat and practice good technique enough times and it becomes ingrained.

Slightly off-topic but I went whitewater kayaking for the first time in ten years today. I was rusty but it was all the skills were still there…

all techniques have the same basic skills needed in place for them to succeed

doug_basqueMTB.com – you're right about 1st of all having to think about stuff then after a while doing it without thinking. If you had to think about driving, it would be quite dangerous, it's actually safer when you no longer have to think about it, providing you've learnt good habits.
When riding, as long as you practice good technique, you want to get to the stage where it's automatic. How do you know whether you're automatic reactions are good? Mostly by whether they keep you on the bike more often than spitting you off!

Did a couple of hours with the bloke on Aston Hill when I first got my SC Bullit. Learnt how late you can brake, how little you need to brake and how to punch the handlebars into holes so they decompress on the way out and the front of the bike doesn't even seem to feel the bump*.

Unfortunately I smashed my ankle about 6 weeks later falling off some northshore and couldn't ride for 6 months so didn't get much practice and then sold the bike. The bump thing still works and actually has the best effect on my fully rigid ss.

*not sure if that is explained properly but it makes riding trails with tyre sized dents a lot faster and smoother.

Totally agree with Doug and Jedi. Skills days can lay the foundations, but you only change your riding with practise and repitition.

i took a skills course after my confidence was lost after a head rock interface where i ended up in intensive care ;-( i got my confidence back enough to ride better than i was . so it worked in that way

im thinking of doing a ed o day to stop me from being shit on stairs and drops and prob lots of other stuff too lol

on stairs??

jumping sets or rolling them

just rolling them jedi im fine on normal sized ones but i went on some the other day that were big unevely spaces and round a tight bend (in the dark) i just seem to go all buckaroo ;-(

It would be nice to do a course in mucking about, ie how to manual, wheelie and endo etc.. 😉

btw Higs I thought you had ninja like skills anyhow!