Cyclewise Whinlatter - MTB Skills for AR

This was actually the second MTB skills course that I have undertaken within the year, the previous one being a Day at Glentress with David Webster and is also highly recommended.

What did I learn? Well, Firstly – I’m still a crap mountain biker, and secondly; it is important to identify and practice your weaker disciplines for successful improvement across AR. Just like triathletes needing to training at their weaker discipline in order to gain maximum improvement overall, most of us favour doing what we like best, and not what we like least. Therefore, we go out and train at our favoured sport and neglect skill development.

So, how was Whinlatter? Embarrassingly, I had done very little technical riding over the summer and arrived clutching my ‘trails’ bike which is a smart and relatively unmarked Orange P7, bought about a year ago with the sole aim of improving my technical riding. Even more annoyingly I had done no ‘prep’ for the course and hadn't managed to ride my bike or practice at all. I always ride my other bike, my ‘race’ bike in ARaces; I’m used to it, it has a map board, cross roads tyres and bar ends all set up for efficiency in longer events and it seems to go faster. Consequently, at the recent Open5 in Blanchand on a wet and muddy day, I shied away from spending too much time mud plugging on the bike and allowed more time to ‘clear’ all the run controls. Was this right? Had I under achieved on the bike?

The answer is ‘Yes’ possibly, I had under achieved on the bike section, but I had played to my strengths so that my overall strategy was right for me in those conditions. Setting that aside, in order to move up the finishing order I need to improve my ‘efficiency’ on the bike, and whilst there is nothing wrong with my navigation and route choice is usually very good, I need to ride faster on more technical terrain. But this would only pay off in an Open5 if I can spend, say, the half an hour I spent clearing low value run controls, and replace them with better value MTB controls. Such is the dilemma of Open5 … of course.

I can highly recommend undertaking any sort of coaching to improve your performance and simply your enjoyment of your sport. All too often we reach a plateau in our activity and it is very difficult to move on without some form of external feedback. Sports psychology is a fascinating subject and by ‘getting inside your head’ a good coach will be able to allow yourself to identify what is holding you back. It may be possible to do this yourself, but is easier with an external feedback.

This past weekend I have been working with some Mountain Leader candidates assessing their skills and performance. Over three glorious weather days I thought a lot about learning styles and performance under stress. During the MTB courses I found it very difficult to perform ‘to order’ as the group circled in a regular formation, and had better success when away from any peer group spotlight. Of course this is quite normal for everyone and Rich and Neil, and also David Webster are excellent and breaking down those barriers and providing coaching tricks. Recently I decided that I must swim regularly over the winter months to strength my swimming ability. Living a mile form Ullswater I prefer to swim in the lake. I like swimming but hate swimming pools but whilst ploughing up and down one night I thought this through. I concluded that it actually originated from the childhood stress of swimming pools and actually the changing room part of a swimming session; I was the fat kid uncomfortable in the changing room! Well now that I’m 46 it made me smile but that actual realization was a powerful one.

Whether swimming or biking what is necessary is practice …. practice …. ractice … but based on feedback and with great awareness of your weaknesses and inhibitors.

Go on a Cyclewise course – you won’t regret it.