Went up to Forest of Dean to spend the day with Katy and my lad.

https://www.katycurdcoaching.com/

For anyone who’s not aware of her, she’s a national DH champion and World Cup DH racer. My boy and his other 2 riding mates have been to her 4-5 times now and today it was my turn. She generally teaches them more in a jumping context, but that wasn’t in the brief for today set by me, it was more “trails, tech and cornering”

We spent 3 hours working on trail technique, body position, reading the trails and reading the corners and what to do for speed within them all. The lessons and techniques all make sense, but often when trying to get to grips with them as usual with training, you’re trying to think of 4-5 different things at once and end up messing things up a bit. But at times, you get things right and it flows well. I’ll be the first to admit i had more of the messing up moments than the flow moments, but certainly plenty of things to put into practice.
We also spent time just for my lad working on jumps, both in terms of height, length and technique etc, but more also on squashing and getting as little height to optimise speed as possible.

It also helps that she’s an exceptionally friendly person and ridiculously easy to get on with and chat, also very funny, which again, helps with throwing thoughts, ideas and even just general chit-chat about, making it seem very informal, but still very informative.

Obviously i’ll need to put a few things into practice, but i feel we’re getting somewhere with it and certainly got some things to try out.

That’s good to hear – it’s very local to me, and I’ve heard good things about Katy from others, too.
I’ve thought about some coaching for my other half, mostly to gain confidence.
Would Katy be a good coach for a fit, but very timid (think beginner, bit scared of everything, but quicker than many up the non-techy hills) or do you think Katy wouldn’t be the right person for that?

I’m far from awesome, but i think based upon having met her a few times with the lad and today as a student she would be absolutely brilliant. Clearly she can ride but i think she teaches well and puts riders very much at ease.

It was interesting that she was able to teach both me and my lad who are at different levels of ability.

Had a coaching session about 10yrs ago – they are great and would recommend to anyone at any level. Been thing about a day at FoD and doing another as she’s the closest to me….. Glad you had a good time and you found it useful….

I’ve had coaching from Katy and I think she’d be an excellent choice for a timid rider.

Yes, I think Katy would be perfect.  She’s been great for me and in the latest issue of Cranked there is a rather glowing write up about a session Alex (who I think posts on here) had with her

I did a drops and jumps course with her and she was great. Personally I think her style of coaching would be very good for a timid beginner.

I’m pretty sure Evie spent time with her the other week perfecting jumps – if an Olympic medal hope uses her, then that should be as good a recommendation you need.

I’m pretty sure Evie spent time with her the other week

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRW25iDhndL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Excellent write up op.

I’ve been thinking of getting some coaching for a while but don’t really know which area to concentrate on as there is plenty of room for improvement despite me riding for a while (now into my 40’s and only getting slower each year).

My real nemesis is “STEEP!” trails maybe I should concentrate on them 🤔

Just getting the basics nailed really helped me. I was on a course organised by another forum and the skill level of the other participants was lower than even my own but Katy helped me move from luck towards skill…

Yeah, reminds me, i need to get myself over for another lesson, always good to just have one or two a year, and in FoD Katy is the one you hear most praise about, pretty closely followed by Pro Ride MTB, all good guys, but if you can, try to get a group set up, especially if you’re all similarish and doing the same stuff and you can do a private group.

I booked a session with her colleague Sam for early August a couple of weeks back, to see if I can expand my comfort zone a bit…

We had a family session with Katy a couple of years ago. She was excellent and was able to coach us all even though we are all at different levels of skill and experience.
She was great with my kids and was a proper inspiring personality for my daughter.
We’ll book her again before our next Alps trip…hopefully next year!