Any newbies been Jedi'd at UK Bike Skills?

Thinking of doing a Jedi day to further radify my skillz. From the feedback on here and folks I know I’m sure I’ll really enjoy it and get a lot out of it.

The little lady is also interested, but she’s a newbie, only really been riding for a couple of months. Does anyone know of any other newbie’s who’ve been Jedi’d? Did they get a lot out of it too?

I have dropped him a mail, I’m just fishing for experiences really.

When I first went to see Tony I was a newbie as I’d only been riding for about 6 months, that was a year go. Was it worth it…. 100% yes.

I wanted to get the basics right early on, and that’s what Tony instilled in my riding. My riding has progressed at a speed and to a level I never thought possible.

I just need to keep working on my style in the air now, as I just haven’t got any 😳

Go for it, best money you can spend on riding by far.

Personally I think she’ll get at least as much as you do out of it. He has a knack of being able to coach people with vastly different levels of ability. He’s a mate of mine, so when he was first setting up I did some of his courses at Woburn with him. We had loads of different people on the ‘public’ type days. My Mrs is going to be doing a course soon, she’s an absolute beginner, and I want her to get the best possible foundation.

ihn, you got mail dood 🙂

My other half went to Jedi and thoroughly enjoyed the day and got loads out of it! It’s given her so much more confidence 🙂

My turn next! 🙂

just got back from a 2:1 today. had a great time. lot to take in, but a 3ft drop off used to be a big deal for me, and now it is nothing to worry about at all. we were jumping a 6ft gap on the table top without any drama at all by the end of the day.

my missus and friend are going tomorrow, so i will let you know how they get on.

I certainly could do with aquiring the skill,hence why im thinking of this in due course. 8)

Def best thing you can both do, did a course a couple of weeks ago 7 on a public course all different levels, didn’t matter at all. Everyone improved massively in just a few short hours. And I think all went away feeling like they have some new mates 🙂
Andy

cheers for the kind words . 🙂

Just out of interest, what sort of money do you have to pay to be Jedi’d ?

Not sure about the “little lady” phraseology, however – Mrs Ononeorange and I went to Jedi a while back, while she’s not a newbie as such, she only learnt to ride a bike a few years back and wanted to improve basic confidence and skills. I may be technically illetrate as a rider but have much more experience. We were therefore unsure whether the disparity in our experience would work with two of us and one trainer. No need for concerns – we had a brilliant session, I finally learnt how to tackle drop-offs and we both learnt a heck of lot in approach, confidence as well as specific skills such as pumping, cornering etc.

Just afterwards, we went with the bikes to Sardinia and the transformation in Mrs O was remarkable – so much more confidence.

Given the above, both go for it and approach with an open mind and enthusiasm. What you read on here about Jedi is not hype in my opinion – it’s true.

Do it sooner rather than later. That way you don’t have to unlearn all your bad habits. I have been riding for 5 years and recently did a 1 to 1 with Jedi. It has made a huge difference to my cornering speed and the techniques are slowly becoming more natural.
I am still more Judy than Jedi but I am really making progress. Once I feel I have nailed the core skills I will go back for some more training.

high5 matt and ononeorange 🙂

Jedi – we’re talking about coming back…..

I was Jedi`d last saturday. Its changed the way i ride, and why i ride. he made the difficult seem easy, and put a smile back on my face again.
dont expect the normal coaching gobbody gook though, Tony aint like that.

ononeorange, don’t rush. you need time for the skills to emmbed. for some one is enough 🙂

malc, high5

http://ukbikeskills.blogspot.com/2012/03/overcoming-emma-and-nikkis-fears.html

they haven’t made it home yet, but by all accounts seemed to have enjoyed themselves!

it was so much fun today jamie. airtime the lot 🙂

Hi 5 Jedi,

thanks again. what an experience to meet you. great time had with you and your ridng buds. now where did you get that coffee? hows the gas?

one day i hope to be that good……..

off to the local singletrack saturday to show my new found skills off to my riding pals.

she hasn’t stopped talking about it! she is really really enthused now about her riding. she got air which she never ever had before, did the steep up and downs which she always had bother with before, and she also is more confident on steep downhill braking on loose stuff. so job done really!

malc, the coffee i liek is blake blend from hasbean.co.uk
jamie, she changed in front of my eyes 🙂

Hi jedi, do you ever make it up to Scotland to do skills sessions or does everyone come to you?

Bruce, Tony does go to Scotland occasionally to ride etc, so you might be able to catch him when he’s up there, otherwise you’d obviously have to pay for his travel expenses for a specific visit to coach you.
Most people go to him as he has a custom built coaching venue. I think he’s had people fly down for coaching though, not sure, but I think he had them picked up at Luton or Stansted. Again you’d have to ask him.

Me and the missus are off to see Tony on Saturday 🙂

Although, the missus fell off her road bike two days ago, so is now battered and grazed! So, Tony is going to have to be extra gentle with her – but still push her abilites 😉

i never push riders 🙂

Enough waxed lyrical about Tony’s skills as a coach already, but ask yourself this… When’s the best time to learn?

There’s never a bad time, but your rate of progression is going to be far greater if you’re a relative blank canvas, and don’t already have lots of bad habits to break…

Just a quick report after going to see Tony two weeks ago.

My missus went a few days after having a bad tumble on the road bike, so she was bruised and battered, and pretty unhappy on the bike as she was scared of hurting herself.

Tony was incredibly good with her, and built up her confidence throughout the day. She has always had the issue of not being able to lift her front wheel, which sounds bonkers, but it’s just something she hasn’t been able to do as she only started riding a bike 3 years ago.

Tony got her lifting her front wheel, and manualling over a short drop in no time at all. I took her around our local woods, and she applied the same knowledge and a bit more speed and had both wheels off the ground 🙂 Now, if you told my missus she’d be able to jump the bike three weeks ago she’d have laughed in your face.

I took away a lot from the session myself, the confidence Tony inspires is pretty amazing; just simple things that your other people you ride with wouldn’t say. By tweaking my body position, and where I look my cornering speed has shot through the roof, and has translated into my overall descending speed.

One of the great things for me was Tony showing me just how simple jumping on the bike should be, whenever I’ve been jumping in the past it’s been overcomplicated and I make a mess of it – we popped to Nant yr Arian at the weekend and sessioned Hippity Hop (possibly one of the most fun sections of groomed singletrack in the UK); my confidence to jump, and to push what I can jump has massively increased.

After the session I just feel more connected to the trail, and more able to feel how to control the bike.

Just to clarify mboy’s commect above about the best time to learn – it’s whenever, a blank canvas isn’t necessarily the best starting point, it’s having an open mind. Who’d have thought using only the front wheel to brake would change the amount of control you have descents?

Cheers Jedi – top job, we’ll definitely come back for further tweaking 🙂

missus and i went to see jedi a few weeks ago. we went to the surrey hills at the weekend to hit the gnar in an awesome display of riding prowess and have a cheese straw. didn’t see quentin or giles though. and no-one spoke to us because my missus has a specialised.

anyway, my missus was jumping off the drop offs on telegraph, and didnt have to walk down any of yogurt pots bit. really enjoyed ourselves, and without doubt both our riding has come along loads, but mainly she gets to the end of a section grinning now, whereas before she would look a bit fed up that she had to walk stuff.

we didnt ride BKB 23 times though.

ah guys i’m blown way. i’m still trying to process all the kind words 🙂