(logo whirring)
- Welcome back you beautiful people.
Today is an Ashton Academy Trials Academy.
Martyn said to me in here that this specific rock,
he's not here yet,
but he did say ride this rock over and over and over again.
It could get a bit boring, but all right.
Ride this rock over and over again.
Don't know what it's got to do with.
I just steam over this thing.
(energetic music)
- Blake Samson!
- Oh, Mr. Ashton!
- Woo-hoo!
Hi!
- Ashton Academy time!
- Rock.
- Rock!
- Yeah, it's fun, it's like a transition.
If I went this way, you can use it as a lip.
- Yeah, show me, show me, show me.
- All right.
- Yeah,
nice!
You're making it look easy, dude.
- Yeah.
- Now, what I wanted to talk to you about today
is your strengths and weaknesses.
- Yes.
- Okay, now, what we know about Blake Sampson
and maybe, at times, a weakness
is you are prone to just bash through something.
- Like that.
- You're not necessarily thinking about what's coming up,
you're dealing with what's in front of you at that moment.
- Yep. - Okay.
It's great riding, don't get me wrong,
but what trials can teach you to do
is to break things up.
The one thing you have to do every time
you ride over this rock
is start and then stop.
Trials riding means you have to go over something,
stop. - Right.
- Next thing, do that, next thing.
Because, unless you complete the thing in front of you,
you don't get to the following obstacle.
- Okay.
- So what I'm going to get you to do
just to demonstrate that
is to come over this rock from one side,
- Yep.
- Turn 'round, and ride back over it.
- In a space or just turn 'round?
- I mean, keep it kind of tight, but I'm not worried.
That's not the point.
- Okay.
- Come from that side, over here, turn around, back over.
- Back over again?
- Yeah.
Just ride over it.
- Just ride over it? - Ride over that rock.
- Right, now this is the space where you think,
you come over the rock, pause.
- Right, - Come round,
- 'Cause I was just going to steam again.
- Use this very easy piece of trail flat.
You don't need to do anything here
other than think about what's coming up,
not what you're doing here.
- So you come over that rock,
use this time to think about your line,
and back over that rock.
Over it, turn-
- Should I make it look a bit neater
or should I just try and ride it?
- Nah, just ride over the rock.
- Okay.
- Over the rock.
Now you've got time to think about the next bit of trials.
Turn 'round.
Okay, now, you've got time.
Use the time.
- This is actually really hard.
- You can balance here all day long.
It's got plenty of time, go when you're ready.
- Oh, oh.
- Nice, nice.
- That was a-
- See how much time you have here?
- Yeah, loads.
- All day. All day.
And that's what trials can teach you.
When you're going down a trail,
you don't have to hit one obstacle to the next.
You can go down through an obstacle,
use the next bit of simple trail to line yourself up
and get the right line for the next bit
rather than use an incredible tool set you've got of skills
to just handle it as you hit it.
Practice. - Right.
- Think what you're doing.
Simple, innit.
Simple.
Break it down, use your time, nice and smooth.
- That was smoother.
I reckon if I had a little bit more time,
think about my gear choice,
'cause going off that I was like, "ooh!"
Thought the front wheel's going to drop.
- I mean, you're sacrificing speed, sure.
But, what you are doing is really riding through the trail
in a confident, calm way.
You've definitely got your line choice sorted
and you've got plenty of time to take the obstacles on.
And that's probably a really
good way to go through the trail first
unless you've got a big ol' bunny hop like Blake.
So, we've slowed you down a little bit
and we've got you thinking about the space you've got
in between obstacles.
That's one of your weaknesses, if you've got one.
But one of your strengths, we've seen it here,
is the bunny hop.
So let's work on that next because
working on something that you're confident with
will really make you feel better on the bike
and totally teach you what you can use.
It's one of your weapons.
So, we're going to use your bunny hop now
to make you do something you never thought you could do.
(energetic music)
Okay, right, we're going to teach Blake, like I just said,
to do something bunny hop-wise he's never done before
using that skill that he's already very good at.
So, maximizing the strengths in his riding
rather than the weakness.
Okay, so, Blake, this park bench
these are great trials obstacles.
Trials riders, this is bread and butter.
- It's like safety, isn't it.
- For a trialser, it's great.
What I want you to do is ride at this picnic bench
at this 90 degree angle.
- Just straight into it?
- Yeah, and bunny hop.
But, you know how you do it on a trail,
you're bunny hopping and leading with your front wheel.
What I want you to start getting your head around
is bunny hopping to your back wheel,
very steep landing point, back brake locked.
- Right.
- It should go, on a trials bike,
it would look a bit like this: eek.
So, that's what I want you to think:
really high front end, back wheel landing right
on that edge there.
- Think about it, it's a very sharp edge,
but you've got a good quarter of a wheel
to hit it with.
- Yeah.
- So it's not that bad.
And then we're going to progress it.
And now shuffle your feet in,
make yourself a little road through the loam.
Nice little channel,
it's going to focus your root in.
- I'm nervous, Mr. Ashton.
- Oh, you've got this.
Your bunny hop is strong.
Have a little run up, don't do it,
have a little run into it.
See, you're not going to get three in.
- I am not going to get three in.
- So, you need to take it back,
you need two strong pedals,
left, right.
Go for it.
- So I'm going to start with- - So you want to
start with your left. - My back foot first.
- You're going to go left, right.
- And then zoom. - And bunny hop.
Now, I've noticed something else.
- What's that?
- Right, you're wasting a lot of energy right at the start.
Because you're starting from a sat down position.
Get up, balanced.
Try and stand.
Go!
That's it, oh, that's perfect, Blake.
- And then zoom.
- That's it, that was bang on.
- Was that good? - Yeah.
We're looking for a bunny hop
without the assistance of a pedal.
So that left, right's got to be really strong.
- Okay.
(mimics pedaling)
- Yes.
Better, better, better.
Yes! (upbeat music)
- Is that it?
- You still use a little pedal, but I like it.
- Yeah?
- Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
(clapping)
- Is that all I need to do?
- Yeah, what you want to concentrate,
you land and you want to think
that back brake's going nowhere.
You want to go (imitates chugging).
Think about all these trials riders
that you see on Instagram,
they're going up and landing on such tiny things
but they're absolutely,
100% sure their back brake is going to grip,
the tire's going to grip.
And that's how they're doing it,
they're focusing on a very small point.
Oh, lovely, yeah!
- Oh, I thought I was going over the bars!
- That was nice!
- Nice!
- Start on a right, on your strong foot balanced,
pedal it round to your left,
then wait a little bit and go left, right.
- Ah.
- Because, you're going, at the moment you're going,
left, right, right.
- Yeah.
- So, you kind of go left, right, right.
- Right, yeah.
- Whereas, if you changed it 'round,
you could go
[Both] right, left, right.
That left, right will be huge.
Right, now go.
- Yeah, that was it.
- If you hit the timing right,
that's powerful.
- That's it. - Yeah.
- That was it.
- Yeah.
- I think at this point
it's important that you be quite disciplined.
And now you've got your run up dialled,
I would be quite disciplined.
Rather than trying to go for the big height,
I'd do five gos at this.
- Yeah.
So you just get really comfy.
'Cause then you're going to move onto something much bigger,
but you want to be confident about what you're doing.
So, I would just have a bit of discipline now
to just repeat this a few times.
You've got it.
- Bigger?
- But don't go bigger yet.
- He's saying bigger!
- It's trials, that's what it's about.
It's weights and measures, man.
You've got to like, how big can I go?
Yeah.
Nice. - Yeah?
- I think you could get a bit more
conviction with the back. (imitates thudding)
At the moment it's like this,
it's labored.
It's like,
we want, "ah!"
Like put it there.
- Make sure I'm putting it there.
- Yeah. - All right.
- Bit of aggression.
(bike thuds)
Oh, you're the best student.
(laughing)
You're the best student
the Ashton Academy has ever had.
- Yes! - Because that was like,
definite.
- That was ...
- Right.
Now that's the energy you want to
move onto a harder thing with.
(sighs nervously) (swooshing)
- That is really hard.
It's undercut, it's sharp.
- It looks intimidating. - It's very intimidating.
(laughs nervously)
I think we can get him up there.
And he won't believe it, he'll be chuffed,
he'll be so stoked.
- It's that high.
- Yeah.
- That's high.
That's a meter.
- It's high.
- But I have to go higher than that.
- That is probably a meter high.
Oh, pedals were all over the place.
- Yeah, I left foot there.
- Yeah, all over the place.
You're going to go- - Left foot.
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- Working your pedals out is so important.
- It is, actually, because you want your power foot
to be the power to get you there.
- And as you ride trials more, it just becomes instinctive.
You start thinking, "ah, left, rights there"
or "left, right, left."
There's lots of different combinations.
But one thing, I think is going to make a huge difference
is placing a little
in trial's language, it's called a kicker.
- Right. - Right.
If you stick a little bit of wood,
tiniest little bit,
just something that's got a little bit of bump to it.
Now, okay, this might seem like we're suddenly cheating
or anything, but you can remove this at any point,
but this will help you with the timing,
confidence,
because one of the things when you're going towards
an undercut step is you're thinking,
"what if the front's not in the air?"
So, the most important thing is to get the front in the air.
I would place that,
looking at your pedals,
I would reckon about
there?
- (exhales) Do you reckon?
- Have a run in and see.
But let your front bump that
and you see how much more confident that makes you feel.
- Do you know that makes perfect, okay.
- Just try it. - Okay.
- Just try it. - Just try it.
I just need to tap it?
- Just roll in like you were before,
see if it feels like the place where you take off.
If not, you adjust it.
It's pretty close on the right,
it's nearly the right spot.
- It's nearly the right spot, that.
Okay.
- I'm pretty confident you're going to fly up there.
(bicycle thudding)
- That was not it, though.
- Oh, I mean, it was a great result I'm not going to lie.
- That was a bunny hop up.
- That was a great result,
but it was your classic huge bunny hop.
(giggles)
- Which is the skill that we're trying to take advantage of,
so that's great.
We want to get you making that back wheel get there
with a definite lock and stop. - Bang, bang.
- Oh, no. - Oof!
- Oh, no.
I would suggest starting right back there,
rolling in,
like (imitates bicycle pedaling sound).
Like, get the pedaling out,
roll in,
and just concentrate,
where is that left, right going to start here?
- Okay.
- Whoa.
So?
- So, I caged that. (laughing)
- No, but, what was really interesting there
is that your natural approach was right, left, right.
Which equates into lots more power,
because you've turned that two pedal
that you were doing on the smaller step
into three.
So that's really great.
Rolling in nice.
Wind it up.
(bicycle thudding) (cheers)
(clapping) Come in!
Come on!
Yes!
That was good.
- That was good!
- That was good, that was big!
Really nice and calm there and then you're like, "Woo".
- Don't know if I want to do that again.
- I really want to see you do it again.
Because you could land even steeper.
Oh, that was nice.
That got me going.
Yeah.
(bicycle thudding) Yeah!
Stop, stop, balance.
Think about the next bit.
Go for it, go on.
Woo-hoo!
- Yes!
- And we got a result!
- I can trials! - Yes!
(laughing)
That was sick!
[Both] Oh, that was a terrible high five.
(giggles)
- There you go,
I knew you had a big bunny hop!
I knew it.
That was awesome, that was awesome.
So, if you would like to try something like that,
that was a great way to do it,
you could even make it harder by start removing that kicker.
But, you don't need to,
because a lot of the time you'll see in the natural terrain
there's something there that will help you,
a root, a rock, something like that.
The important thing is to get confident with it.
So, Blake will be able to practice that over and over again,
and then he's suddenly hitting lines
that he never thought possible
because he's becoming much more accurate
and using all that beefy power
to throw his bike up some great rocks.
End of lesson number three.
- Yes!
- In the Ashton Trials Academy, loving it,
I've got some more to come for Blake and Neil
where we'll be testing their balance in the next session.
So look forward to that.
If you'd like to stay with us on GMBN, then,
I'll tell you what, I've been enjoying GMBN Tech, recently.
- Oh, yes, we have that.
- And check out one of those videos just there.
There's a globe right there for subscribing.
- There, click it.
- And yeah, give us a thumbs up, like, if you enjoyed
Blake's trials progress.
- I am.
- See you next time.