...and it was seriously flippin' good!
I'm now sitting in a comfy chair with a glass of Pinot Noir (in the absence of any beer being in the house (must go shopping soon!) after a day's coaching with Tony.
This morning was started with some slightly nervous anticipation at how we may or may not progress during the day. Dan was hoping to get a well rounded set of skills, Dave was resolutely sticking to a wheels firmly planted on the ground stance and I was confidently saying I wanted to learn to jump, whilst inwardly doubting that would ever happen. Jumping for me had always been a simple equation. Velocity+ramp = jump. Landing could be dealt with by the contents of my first aid kit and/or a trip to A&E.
Anyway, we arrived on site a few minutes early and collectively gulped at the big ramps and big piles of earth. Oh Sh*t, have we done the right thing? a few minutes later we were out of the car and greeting with a cheery welcome by Tony. Once bikes were unloaded from the trailer, coffee drunk and helmets perched on heads, the coaching began. To start with Tony wanted to see how we rode, so a simple figure of eight was performed. Bad habits were immediately spotted, proved even more so by me as I promptly fell off! Tony then started to work his magic. Having identified exactly what each of us needed to work on we set about putting our improvements into action. Instant results, cornering was faster and more controlled than before.
Tony then set about looking at our bike setups, dialling rebounds in to much better settings than the Zebedee like settings we arrived with and completely changing out brake lever positions - in & up. What a revelation - no more 'pitching over the bars' feeling!
Next up was the small piece of wood on the ground to ride over without the front wheel touching it. Easy! Well riding over a 1inch high piece of wood is easy, but it Gave Tony a chance to see how we lifted the front of the bike. By some miracle it seemed I wasn't far off what was required and round & round we went. Within minutes all of us were all using the technique Tony taught us, then we realised that we were all cornering in the way Tony demonstrated earlier. Yep, it's not about the wood!
Next up were the drops. Tony talked us through what we needed to do - just the same as for the stick, but crucially sorted our heads out before hand. OK the first drop is pretty teeny, but the third looked a bit daunting and the tabletop/gap jump, just plain scary. Heads sorted we started on the small drop. It wasn't very long at all until we were all flying off the third drop. Even 'no jumps' Dave! this was fun. Grins all round.
Next up was the skills trail, which Tony broke down into smaller chunks and then broke these down into even smaller sections. Pumping, cornering and wheels in the air quickly developed. We were getting faster & more confident. I was making some mistakes, but now knew what I was doing wrong, and correcting instinctively. Gradually we worked through the sections putting everything together and I was getting more & more confident, and my wheels were getting higher & higher. I was also stunned at just how far you can lean a bike over in a corner without washing out and eating dirt, it's a mind boggling angle you can reach.
Before long we were riding the whole skills trail in one go, linking up the different sections and getting it right was massively rewarding. By now the only natural choice of drop running into the tight berm at the bottom was to take the bigger one. This air time is seriously fun & addictive.
Next was the table top. With Tony's encouragement we quickly worked up to clearing this and landing in a nice controlled, drama free manner. I was stunned at how much air I could get with so little speed & effort. This seemed so natural and it was only a few hours earlier we were looking at this thinking 'no way'! What was next, simple we were clearing the table top, so what the heck, may as well do the gap jump! I can see this getting addictive!
The day finished with pumps and jumps and I even got to have a go at manualling. This really did surpass my expectations.
Thanks Tony, you make things simple and really brought my riding on massively in just one session. A fantastic day!
Oh, and that's impressively fast blogging!
Great report PDF, what you achieved are the exact same reason I've booked to see Jedi, makes me want to bring it forward.
Can I suggest that forum users who have been Jedi'd have a a "J" next to their forum name. 🙂
congratualtions, you are now an STW riding god 😀
We're going at the end of May... really looking forward to it.
gary, i sent all the pics to daniel. let me know if they turned up ok. thanks for your kind words. its awesome to come home to read that 🙂
Without giving the game away pdf (and I'm planning on seeing Tony later this year when I can get down) how does his cornering work?
(Or Tony, can you comment, if its not too cheeky of me to ask?)
The reason I ask: I got a skills sesh with a local bloke recently which definitely helped with just about everything, but the technique demonstrated for cornering was to lean the bike into your outer leg while pointing your head and shoulders in the direction you wanted to travel, into the inner part of the turn (if that makes any sense.)
I'm completely struggling with this. As I say, you've got a living to make so I can't ask you to give too much away, but is your cornering technique more "natural" or am I just going to have to learn this?
Apologies if I'm thread hijacking or being cheeky.
you were taught to lean inside your turns???
I'm maybe describing it badly Tony.
I think its meant to be like this:
http://bike198.com/how-to-turn-on-a-mountain-bike-at-speed-maintaining-momentum/
Only I'm cack-handed at best!
Listen, its getting late, don't sweat this- I'm definitely meeting up with you some time later this year, so we can sort it out then. I'm not the worlds most natural rider and I probably just need to get out there and practice.
I look forward to meeting you very much!
cody push/lean the bike down onto the outer knobs of the tyres.
a corner throws you out - you don't want to lean the bike into a corner too far, or it will slip - so moving your body into the corner while keeping the bike more upright should mean you can turn the corner faster - that wrong?
no idea what i actually do mind.. just "turn the corner" i suppose.
proved even more so by me as I promptly fell off!
At least I'm not the only one
LOL!
is your cornering technique more "natural"
Tony's technique is so natural that it will slide into your subconcious without you even noticing! 😉
@altaz @piedi - well that's at least 3 of us then .....
Tony - yep pics arrived - thanks (these aid bragging rights with our wheels on ground mates!)
Cornering. It's not just what you do with the bike in the corner. It's where you look, how you approach and assessing whether you are committed or not. Then it's outside foot and inside hand down.
Go & see Tony as he'll suss out exactly what you're doing wrong and what you're doing right.
Once you've got it sussed (doesn't take long) you'll find that you instantly know when you've got it wrong. Doing it right rewards massively.
Generally (and non-expertly),
push tyres hard into ground, tilt bike over onto the side knobs, look (up and turn head) for the exit, not at the ground in front of you (or at the trees -often difficult), feel the g's.
If the tyres do slide, don't panic and try to ride it out.
I have to re-programme my brain between mtbs and motorbiking on the road, as the moto requires more counter-steering,'pressing' the knee into the tank and leaning into the corner.
Cornering - brake *before* you enter the corner... drop your inside shoulder... turn your head AND your hips (the rest will follow).
I have no need to be Jedi'd thanks 😉
(but the work he does with many people does seem to produce fantastic results, so he's obviously doing something right)
Braking?! Whatever next?
Turn your head with purpose and the rest will follow.
Reading the replies, I can tell whose spent time with Tony and who hasn't!
Jedi, drop me a mail please
weeksy59 at hotmail dot com
Thanks mate...
I want some of this 🙂
Heh heh heh 🙂
The one thing that strikes me from any Tony/Jedi thread is that people come away happy. Some people go away and continue their learning and others malkie themselves at the first opportunity on things they were too scared to attempt before 😆
Keep up the good work Tony, good service is hard to find these days. 
cheers mrplow 🙂
I wish you buggers would all stop going to see the man, I can't get it in until September now, grrr 👿
🙂
As far as cornering goes, I have no problem getting the bike leaned right over, my problem is the front wheel washing out.
I'm wondering if it has something to do with the bikes I learned on when I started out (around 1998). I recently went back to my trusty '97 P7 with 130mm stem and found getting enough weight over the front to get the back end to drift with the front staying fairly well planted easy enough. Steering felt pretty twitchy though which is to be expected I guess.
On my Dialled Alpine with 160mm forks and on my Nomad I feel like I'm really struggling to get my weight over the front and consequently washing out when I start trying to push on the corners.
reading these threads reminds me how much i enjoyed my coaching session session last year.
havent progressed much since mind 😉
Bruce, go see Tony. You will be stunned (really stunned) just how leaned over you can get a bike without it washing out if you're doing it right.
I would love to. Unfortunately I'm in Norway at the moment.
Like I said though, it seems strange that I can corner well on old geometry bikes but not on new ones.
if i could see you doing it bruce, i might be able to comment, but ive learned not to try to help by typing on the internet...
what jedi sees* is the complete package of body position and mental focus, he can then identify which teeny little bit you are doing just slightly wrongly AND explain and demonstrate how and why to do it differently, till you feel the improvement.
@BruceWee - it's fairly common for Jedi to change your bike setup after he's seen you ride a bit. I have a Reign with 160 forks and he moved the spacers (steepen the head angle/reduce bar height), I too was having trouble getting enough grip on the front end. For me this created a different riding position which naturally allowed more balanced weighting front vs rear. I'm no expert but there are lots of things to fiddle with bars, stem, seat post, saddle ... aside from the changes to riding technique.
look after the small things and the big things become easier 🙂
look after the small things and the big things become easier
I keep telling my Mrs that! 😉
I have been jedi ed and fully agree with what is written above, I tried to pass on his teachings at the weekend, as a result my mate fell off 4 times coming down the stanage plantation. Don't think I am destined to be a coach 🙂
sorry to be a pedantic forumite jambalaya but swapping spacers makes no difference to head angle unless they are under the head tube, which i doubt!
I'm on a one to one with him in September and boy am I looking forward to it.
Aristotle - I had the same problem coming off of Gsxr's. Took a while to swop knee down, hanging off the inside for pushing the bike down into corners 🙂
Next year I'm defo getting a little Jedi action.
keefus, its a way off but it will be here in no time 🙂