Dalby Coaching Session

The youth team kids of Marcus, Andrew, Bailey, Matthew and Megan attended a coaching session at Dalby on 31 August organised by Mark G and Mike Thompson.
There was a degree of aprehension and nervousness as soon as Mark said they were going on the red route to learn some bike skills but first a bike and equipment check was done with a bit of inflating and deflating of tyres, tightening of seats and checking of brakes.
Then it was off into the woods with Mike leading the group over a few roots and branches to build confidence and focussing on getting the right gear for control. Only Bailey fell off at this point! (New bike needed christening!) with Matt Duley finally finding bottom gear.

Then onto the bomb hole bit of the red where Mark talked the group through the best line to take, even marking it with yellow spray and Mike T then giving it a few runs at different speeds to skillfully demonstrate the theory. Andrew, Marcus and Bailey all went through as confidence grew.
Onto the bits of red with short climbs then onto the down hill berms. Megan, refulled with fizzy energy drink put on the kneepads and was away after the first one tackling banked corners on the steep downhill.

Coach Mark then set up a rolling sprint session where Marcus, Bailey and Andrew all battled it out to do some burst of energy sprints, Meg and Matthew took it easy on this one! Matthew then swapped to his dads bike and realised it was easier to ride than his own!

A final blast round Dixons hollow and for Marcus/ Andrew and Bailey a turn on the Skinny planks while Mike showed the way on the Pump track

Mark held a debrief and went over the session to see what they had enjoyed/ learnt as Me and Paul put on the hot dogs and drinks.

All in all a really good session and at £2 for three hours excellent value!

Bryden

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will do!