I am a forty something rider, been riding for 20 odd years and gradually come to the realisation I am rubbish when it comes to jumping or drop-offs, ie I chicken out on both,
Anyone got any good recommendations for courses/training in and around the peak district (derby way) to let me improve ?

see jedi, uk bike skills. worth travelling for.

can’t recommend him highly enough.

Campbell Coaching is near you.

+1 Jedi, the man changed my riding big time.

thanks for your kind words guys 🙂

clive
Nigel Page
http://cyclewise.co.uk/

I’ve got a trip booked to see Jedi with a few riding buddies next month. Looking forward to being made awesome 🙂

http://www.forestfreeride.co.uk

Around 2 hours from Derby.

Another vote for Jedi, ukbikeskills is where its at, he has built his own training ground now too. My riding has changed enormously since I saw him.

Hi

Peak District –

http://www.mountainbikeskillscourses.co.uk/index.asp

Cheaper option is a few tinnies of Strongbow and some mate to egg you on….

DrP

[list]Honestly go see Jedi the bloke is the puppies privates,(like the dog bo##ocks but better!!!!) you’ll be so much faster and confident following a session with him.

Its all easy when you know the answer 🙂

Wookster and toys19. High5

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/was-my-skills-course-worth-it

Tony every time, got me in the air more than I thought possible!!

More Jedi praise here – he managed to get me over some gap jumps pretty easily 🙂 Unfortunately I haven’t got out on the bike much since my session but have a feeling the next ride will be a fast one!

Another for http://www.campbellcoaching.eu/Campbell_Coaching/home.html

tom_ – Member

More Jedi praise here – he managed to get me over some gap jumps pretty easily
cheers tom.. let me know how the riding is going

Try Stu at forestfreeride.

Try Stu at forestfreeride.

Why do you want to do drop offs and jumps? I do them but nothing huge but enough for the trails I ride and the people I ride with. (On my own a lot so I would not really want to push it anyway.) My point being that if you are riding with people who are doing that kind of stuff would it not be better to get some help from your mates and if not do you really want to be doing it on your own? I wouldn’t! Riding regularly with people just a bit better than you is one of the best ways to improve your skills. Anyway jumps and drop offs are not that common when riding most trails. Fast cornering and learning to not use your brakes is where its really at.

Cambell coaching

Bob and Ally are great been on two courses with Bob it really helped my riding skills.

Another vote for Jedi, here’s a pic he took of me (30 something and female), couldnt do this before his coaching 🙂

It may be bigger than i would usually encounter on a trail but the skills are applicable and relevant to everywhere i’ve ridden and the improvements in my riding since being coached are massive, much more flowy and smoother now 🙂

would you do corners on your own geda?

“Why do you want to do drop offs and jumps?”

I hate slowing down or even stopping, don’t you?

I need some jedi training! time to raid the kids money box! 😀

There’s a man with an impressive beard… http://www.great-rock.co.uk/blog/

lol@darrenh 🙂

would it not be better to get some help from your mates

Because when I listened to my mates, they said ‘you don’t need to do anything, you just ride over it.’ Cue massive endo to face plant, concussion and the best black eye I’ve ever had. Next time I got my coaching from someone who knew what he was doing. They may be able to ride the jumps/drops but they don’t necessarily know how they do it

andy
Im in a similar boat & also in your area
There is (was – not been up there for ages so it may have been ripped out) a nice little jump up at Shinning Cliff thats good for practising on, or get yourself to Alvaston BMX track and swallow some pride and ask the kids there to give you some tips

There must be something you are comfortable with now, kerbs, steps? Jumps and drop offs are fun but not essential. Out of trail centre land how many jumps and big drops do you encounter that have a good landing without a big jumble of rocks for example on the landing. If you are riding with people who are already dropping like flies but you still do faceplants maybe some skills training would be good though.

I would like to do the same kind of thing but I kind of talked myself out of it due to the reasons above.

Out of trail centre land how many jumps and big drops do you encounter that have a good landing without a big jumble of rocks for example on the landing.

I honestly can’t remember the last natural ride that didn’t include both jumps and drops of some sort. You must either only ride extremely dull trails or just not be looking hard enough.

Plus….with you new Skillz, and a shovel, you can ADD new features to trails!

Also George, there are LOADS of features (jumps/drops) that litter the woods/trails. It really is a case of “seek and thee shall find”!
Classic example – long, boring rock garden to some…. Big kicker rock with other rocks to try and clear to others (note, the second option is the quicker!) A section of slow roots becomes a buzz and blur below your wheels when taken at speed with a bit of lift…

DrP

I can think of plenty of trails where you don’t have to ride the drop off or jump – you can always roll the chicken line, but that almost always involves scrubbing a load of speed off – the more natural way is to fly across that gap jump or take off from the highest point of the drop off. So sure you don’t need to do drops and jumps but the chances are you will enjoy your riding more if you have the confidence to tackle these trail obstacles.

I’ve got plenty of mates that are very good at jumps and regularly hit things that I will probably never ever hit, but they were never able to give me the basic advice that I got in a group coaching session off jedi to show me where I was going wrong. Since then I’ve been able to hit many more jumps than I could previously with a lot more speed and confidence. I still have a mental block where gaps and doubles are concerned, which is why I’m pretty chuffed that my girlfriend bought me a coaching voucher for christmas.

Yeah, you might be able to teach yourself this stuff – plenty of people do, but if you are struggling it can be a lot better value for money than upgrading a part on your bike.

How big though? Kerb sized? Step Sized, 1 meter or bigger? I used to live in Sheffield and quite happy with all the trails in the Peaks but there are not really that many drops bigger than 1/2 a meter high unless you go looking for them. I would not really call anything smaller than 50cm a drop as you can ride down it with just a bit of balance, letting the front wheel flop down with no need for much skill.

It is a bit a a fallacy that if you are not doing huge hucks and drops you are not doing proper mountain biking. I started off in the Cheviots that are dull as dish water for that type of thing but 100 times more epic than the Pleny run in Morzine for example.

I dont think many riders are looking for training on 50cm drops.

There is also a big difference between a trail centre jump/drop and something that is not pre-prepared. Learning to drop onto a wet sloppy, rocky mess is a different skill to a nice smooth trail centre.

I dont think many riders are looking for training on 50cm drops.

Most of the photos of people doing drops training are not much bigger than 50 cm drops. Nothing wrong with that my desk here is about 75 cm drop and tackling a drop with a face that big takes a little planning and making sure you have a good run out unless you’re on a big bike.

Maybe you have a different point of measurement for drops or a different idea of a drop from what I am thinking off and we’re discussing slightly different things as I’ve seen people talk about drops on this site which I would not consider to be a drop but a different trail feature.

keyses2 picture is a good example of features you do not ever see outside a trail centre.

I dont think many riders are looking for training on 50cm drops.

I have to disagree on the above,I have taught hundreds of mountain bikers (whatever they are) who have required coaching for 50cm drops.

I reckon a training course is a great idea. I spent a couple of hours with a coach on Aston Hill. I didn’t want to learn to jump or drop, just general advice on keeping speed and how to react to the different trail hazards.

It was nice to have confirmation of my good riding habits and corrections for my bad habits.

I was happy at the end of the course thinking I might have improved when a couple of the locals offered to ‘race’ me down the hill to see if I was any good. This was clearly a cue to humiliate myself so imagine my shock when I stayed with them right the way down. I was amazed how much quicker I was.

I also stayed injury free for the following two months which was a record at the time.

[edit]so good it posted twice