I’m off to see Jedi on Thursday morning for a much needed skills session. The following post is a harsh appraisal of my riding:

I’ve had a couple of big falls off the bike since I started riding, well… more than a couple, I can look back and identify what I did wrong in each instance (following a friends line blindly, saddle too high on techy descent, weight too far forward, riding a section ‘blind’ downhill staring at my front wheel as it twisted in a rut… stupid stuff!). Each accident has knocked my confidence and more often than not it has resulted in injury. But I LOVE riding bikes with friends, so the diminished confidence is forced to take a back-seat and I always try and get back on the bike as soon as possible, each time with something extra holding me back.

Recently my riding buddies and I have been slipping into the habit of increasing the percentage of the ride where we’re pushing the miles in on fire-roads instead of messing around on singletrack. As ride ‘leader’ I must admit it’s largely down to me loosing a lot of confidence from my last ‘off’ which resulted in many hours strapped to a spinal board and enough emergency service personal to make me feel comfortable paying tax for the rest of my life!

I’m pretty comfortable on singletrack (compared to my other beginner riding buddies), my pace and momentum through it has improved dramatically over time, so despite my knocked confidence… on reflection I must admit that I am faster and my technique is better than before when I was a complete beginner… my head and technique are now the things holding me back instead of bike-fitness.

Saying I’ve improved is one thing, it’s nice to reflect on something positive… but I know there’s a lot to learn with regards to improving my technique and confidence:

– I’m aware my footwork needs working on.
– As I get mentally tired on a ride my looking gets closer and closer to the front wheel = silly mistakes.
– I’m not confortable with the back wheel off the ground.
– The steeper the downhill the quicker my brain panics.

So that’s how awful I am the bike, reading most of the blogs that Jedi writes up inspire confidence in his ability to take a relative beginner to the point where they’re happy with wheels off the ground and reviews are a great way of seeing that the riders loved it and have come away with increased confidence. Mrsconsequence went for a session with him, didnt stop raving about it for weeks and her confidence and momentum when riding has improved hugely, she even pops off every little feature she can spot to get some air 🙂

But Mrsconsequence is a stronger persona than I, and luckily hasn’t ever had a crash/injury on a bike… watching the videos of people sailing over tabletops, the gap jump and riding fullbouncyhorses do make me nervous also. I’m worried I’ll be the idiot who turns up, then spends the rest of the session in the back of an ambulance after washing out at 2mph in the car-park 🙁

I will admit that I’d still be a happy rider if I never improved as I genuinely love playing in the woods with friends, I’d almost go as far as saying that if more crashes result in not enough confidence to ride over a pebble I’d take up road riding and still love whatever bike-time I could handle… but I’m hoping the session with Jedi goes towards kicking my brain back into the right place, any new skills or improved skills on top of that are a bonus 🙂

Not expecting any replies to this apart from maybe ‘I struggle with long sentences’ ‘TL;DR’ or ‘man up you wimp’ but I would definitely appreciate any replies from people who have been on a session with Jedi about how it helped them, or just a little reassurance I’m not going to die on my crappy hardtail!

Thanks in advance to anybody who’s taken all the time to read all that! 🙂

Mods, can we get this moved to the other forum please.

This is the longest post I’ve ever read.

I’m going to have a coffee and a fag and then reply properly.

Mods, can we get this removed to the other forum please.

It’s too bloody long!

I predict after your session you will be happy, more confident in your riding and you will have cleared the 6ft double. Don’t worry about your bad habits, that is Tony’s job and he will sort them all out for you. Have a fun day. 🙂

🙁 i dont like the bike forum deadly… its full of people who reply to questions with things like ‘31.8mm’ instead of ‘here’s a cat licking a window’

scary place!

You will be fine and come away from the day a better rider.

I did a skills day (not with Tony) and after an initial review of my riding he showed me up to a largish drop (5-6foot) and asked me would I normally ride that sort of stuff, I laughed (nervously) and said nope, wouldn’t consider it. Yes 10 minutes later was quite happily popping of it 🙂 The rest of the day went well, just need to get the jumping sorted now 🙁

That was a bit of a long post, maybe next time just say ‘I’m a bit of a 😀 fanny and I’m scared!’ 😀

You do need to MTFU up a bit though as well though don’t you 🙂

I wish Jedi worked ooop north as I think I would be tempted to book a session with him

Phil, I got jedi’d yesterday. Best advice I can give is go with an open mind, trust the guy (you’ll decide when to move up, not him) and enjoy. There’s not been an ambulance up there for 8 years. The only bit of me that hurt afterwards was my cheeks from grinning so much. He’ll mentally massage your mind back into place.

Not so much teaching you techniques, more concepts and principles. As for the bike, I worried about the same thing before I went. Didn’t need to, it really made no difference.

And for when he makes his way to this thread, cheers mate, cracking day!

I’d followed the same path as you Phil – I had a bad fall on one of my first rides which killed my confidence, then it gradually built up again until the point I had a helmet splitting off etc. For a bunch of other reasons I’m also pretty conservative when it comes to risk and stuff like getting my wheels off the ground seemed like a recipe for a mess of tangled metal and limbs.

I had a day with Tony a while ago – when he was back at Woburn. The first thing is that you will not be pressured into doing anything that you’re not comfortable with – this is one of the great things about 1:1 teaching even when compared to a small group as there is no peer pressure. However you will gain in confidence during the day and you will probably find that a lot of the things you found difficult can be put right pretty easily. Don’t beat yourself up about stuff you’re doing wrong – relax and enjoy the day. Tony’s a great teacher and has a habit of slowly moving your comfort zone without you realising it. And don’t worry about your ‘crappy hardtail’ – the bike’s not going to learn anything no matter how bling it is.

FWIW I’m still no rad-meister but I’m way faster, smoother and more controlled than I was and the one thing that really winds me up is not getting as much air as I could have off bumps & jumps. (Oh, and the jump gully at Swinley being rammed with 12 year olds with mad skillz during the day at the moment)

And cats are so last year

Relax, you’ll be fine with Tony.

I wish Jedi worked ooop north as I think I would be tempted to book a session with him

Speak to Ed.

Great Rock

It sounds like your really over analyzing your riding at the moment and don’t sound at all confident.. a course isnt my cup of tea, but if you have belief in the skills course your going on (which you seem to) im sure youre gonna come away with a more positive, confident mind set which it desperately sounds like you need…

‘I’m a bit of a fanny and I’m scared!’

In that case, don’t worry. Jedi seems to have a good reputation, just go and enjoy it.

Phil – we all keep improving, almost every time we ride. You learn from both the positive and the negatives. The important thing, for you especially, is not to dwell too much on, or overthink, the negatives.

Tony will help you set up your head so that you’re better equipped to do this.

I’ve seen you ride… I know you’ve got the skills, I wanted to push you through some more singletrack stuff at the weekend but sensed a visit to Tony first would be a better plan.

Once you’ve had your day, get to Wales and ride one of the trail centres… you can definitely nail them, and it will do your confidence no end of good.

I’m going to have a coffee and a fag and then reply properly.

you dont smoke anymore and you’re incapable of replying sensibly 😛

EDIT – 50seconds too late, cheers dude!

maybe next time just say ‘I’m a bit of a fanny and I’m scared!’

that’s true… i like to reflect though and was hoping the details might help lead to some more specific replies 🙂

He’ll mentally massage your mind back into place

<30rock>I fully expect him to crush my problems with his mind-vice</30rock> 😀

thepurist, cheers dude.. sounds like we have similar mindsets with regards to risk! how have the skills transferred to swinley?

thanks again everyone 🙂

Yeah, reading for that long gave me that post sexy time warm feeling that’s only made better with a ciggy. Plus I’ve been on a TeeJ post writing day… it’s helped with my focus.

I’m more than happy to ride some different places at times when there won’t be loads of kids to help re-enforce what he teaches you. Awesumz.

I struggle with long sentences.

Forget all that, don’t be worried, Tony will take you skipping through fields of butterflies and wildflowers to riding nirvana.

Hello,

I had a session with Tony in July, and I can’t recommend him highly enough.

Sounds like I was in a similar situation as yourself, major off knocked all my confidence. Right now, I’m enjoying being back on my bike more than ever, but more importantly, with the knowledge of when to try something new and when not to.

You’ll have a great session, that’s for sure.

Damion.

thanks everyone 😀

anybody know what beer tony likes?

“Speak to Ed.”

Might look at that for a birthday present. Does sound a bit more structured (which I dont like) where as Jedi appears to be more of a chilled session, although that could be from just looking at the website though….

I wanna go and play at Herts 🙁

Jedi will be as chilled as you want it to be would be my guess… I found the session pretty intense and knackering.

Keep on reading nothing but good things. If you dont mind me asking, what’s the cost for a skills sesh with the Jedi??

depends, if you join a group session or go with a couple of friends then it brings the cost down, i went for a 1:1 session… around 4 hours long and 180quid, paid the same to learn how to snowboard and i only do that for 1 or 2 weeks a year, i ride off-road about 9+hours a week so well worth the investment if it helps.. and going by the reviews i’m confident it will

doesnt stop me being nervous about making a fool of myself (more than normal anyway) hehe

I’m going down to see Tony on Friday, but I’ll be getting there on the Thursday so I may bump into you philconsequence

I’m going with the mindset of I’m just gonna ride my bike and learn how to do it better. I’m not trying to think about it at all

I have like most riders had off’s that knock your confidence, but I’m not letting that concern me.

Don’t over-think your situation

Phil

He had warm Bud (the american stuff) when I was there, but I am pretty sure no-one likes that!

Had a great day out there, but sadly haven’t been out enough since.

Jedi the only disappointment was the beer! Can I recommend that you get some alcohol free beer for drivers? I really fancied a beer to wind down but won’t touch a drop if I am in the car.

I think all your concerns/riding issues are shared by a lot of riders, even more those of us that have had a few decent crashes 😉

Firstly, good decision on doing it 1:1, that takes a lot of pressure off IMO (I did it with a couple of mates but we were at a similar level so not too bad, if I do another I’d do it solo though). I was the only one that crashed on the course and it was a tame one (washed out on a berm, not doing everything I was supposed to :p glad I had pads on though).

Although I really wanted to get some air time on the course I wouldn’t make it your goal otherwise again you’ll be putting pressure on yourself. I had plenty to learn to fill the time without having a go on the little jumps but wanted to anyway, tbh though I didn’t really take much away from them as I was physically and mentally a bit knackered by then and was also finding the more I tried to focus on the take-off the worse I got. Tony is good at spotting when you’ve gone past the point of taking stuff in though.

I would focus on the basics that he goes through, positioning, looking ahead, wrists and feet etc. Make sure you get all those right during the course and then keep forcing yourself to practice them on your own time, without them being second nature you’ll just be asking for trouble doing the more advanced stuff. Main issue I’ve had in applying the stuff later is I usually end up riding in a group in quite close proximity so it screws up the looking ahead bit so still have to remind myself to do it.

As someone who went to a Jedi day with a specific goal- wanting to go bigger on jumps. I came away with more alternative benefits.
My cornering which I felt was quick and not needing tune up, has stepped up significantly, I can hear inside my head Tony’s mantra for cornering and forcefully have applied this ever since so hopefully soon it will become second nature.
His approach to getting the basics right seems to then under pin all other aspects of what you do, whether it be cornering, jumping, drops, etc.
I was also knackered at the end of the day – mentally. Take food and drink to stay hyrdrated! otherwise loose the aprehension and enjoy, he’s a top trainer.

Tony will do wonders for your riding, and he’s not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do or aren’t comfortable with.

When I went for my first session with him I was also a little nervous as I was very new to the whole off-road thing, but Tony certainly put aside those fears and gave me a skill set that I’ve been continually working on for the last 5 months.
The skills I know have made me faster on the trail, more confident both on the ground and in the air, and generally increased my enjoyment overall. When it has gone wrong I have also generally been able to work out which of my skill set was missing to cause that.

I now have my 2nd session booked with him next Monday, and part of me is nervous that I won’t perform as I should. It’s just natural for some of us to be that way I think; and honestly I think Tony just wants you to enjoy riding and doesn’t have any expectations of what you should or shouldn’t be capable of. (I could of course be quite wrong here and apologise to Tony if that is the case, but I don’t think I am 🙂 )

To sum up, don’t worry just go and enjoy. You’ll probably surprise yourself, and don’t forget to post how it goes on here.

+1 for taking plenty of fluids with you.

You’ll have a great time 🙂

🙂 thanks again everyone

Agree with everything people said about Tony “fixing” you rather than forcing you into riding stuff you don’t want to ride. He’ll also stop or pause the session when it’s clear you’re tired/over-excited and in danger of doing yourself a mischief.

I had several bad habits that whilst not totally fixed have made me much better (one of them had me off my bike and on my arse in the carpark riding around a stick) for knowing they’re there. From my PoV, trails seem to “come at me” significantly slower than before and I’m clearly faster than I was.

TLDR version – Go into it with an open mind and try to soak up as much as possible. Tony won’t make you do the woodwork and you’ll come out a better rider.

i for one am not looking forward to your gushing review on friday

you will enjoy thursday, you will be buzzing for days.

dont read it then 😛

nowt wrong with youthful enthusiasm

There’s not been an ambulance up there for 8 years.

I was told that if you bin it at Herts, they just chuck you in the road and tell the paramedics it was a hit and run, mind you this was a few years ago now 😉

nowt wrong with youthful enthusiasm

Pretty similar to what my Priest used to say.

onzadog, high5 dood 🙂
thanks for all your remarks and advice people. its bike riding not war, so turn up and be the fonz!

🙂