MTB Coaching

Mountain Bike Skills Coaching

Our mtb skills coaching philosophy revolves around working with you to tailor the course to your needs, to the skills you want to develop or the trail problems you want to solve. For people to focus on technique it is usually helpful to strip out fear and risk that might exist on harder tracks, and often the stress of harder trails makes it harder to learn. We focus on the building blocks solidly before getting into anything with higher risk.  While we will often have “theme topics” we don’t have a fixed curriculum, the courses evolve dynamically based on your interests, your level, and your progress. We focus on PROGRESSION in a supportive, safe, and fun environment.  Our passionate and expert coaches are here to help you level up your skills in a wide variety of areas, you can click on the links below for more details about each of these areas, or to check out a list of upcoming group coaching clinics click HERE:

• After School Coaching programs for a variety of levels of school aged riders, there are offered every term of the year.
• Adult group (one-off and multi-part) courses focusing on progressing particular skills over several sessions (“Sendy Sundays”, “Tackling Technical Terrain”, etc)
• Women’s only coaching (“Queen of the Mountains”) courses.
• Private bespoke courses on a wide variety of skills including Cornering, Body Position, Drops and Jumps and more.
• Courses in a wide variety of locations including our private “Field of Dreams”, Codgers, Sharlands, Wairoa Gorge, Cable Bay Adventure Park and more.
• If you would like to learn more about the background, experience and qualifications of our coaches you can visit Here.

We can, and do, offer all levels of coaching from beginner to advanced, however we generally focus initial sessions on grade 3 trails, or on our own private track and drop zone (the “Field of Dreams”). By doing this we can remove much of the risk, fear and nerves that higher grade trails invoke, yet still teach you the skills necessary to go back and tackle harder trails.  If you are already an experienced rider we can often isolate and correct basic technique errors and trouble-shoot problems in this environment and then subsequently take them to harder trails.

Gravity Nelson Ltd is excited to offer excellent value for money half-day coaching clinics for individuals or small groups. Our pricing is aimed to encourage you to do sessions regularly, just as you need to maintain and upgrade your bike on a regular basis… we believe you should do the same with your skills, and as such we want session prices to be accessible.  We believe that once you do one of our courses you will be keen to do another one, perhaps one every two or three months as you build your skills, upgrade your confidence, advance your techniques, and progress your riding.   This “semi-regular coaching” concept is quite self-evident in most other sports (have you ever heard of someone taking just one tennis lesson and then never another and progressing? or someone going to just one football coaching session and playing full seasons with no more coaching?) but not as common in mountain biking, maybe it is time that this changed?

We have a fixed rate for a three hour Private Bespoke Session of NZ$249 for one or two participants. That is TOTAL, not each.  For every participant beyond the second we charge $99 each.  We also offer reduced bike rental rates if you would prefer to use our bike rather than your own. We are flexible about where we hold sessions, and flexible about times.  Private Bespoke sessions can be booked directly by hitting the “BOOK NOW” button on this page.  You can also browse upcoming Group Coaching Sessions and check out more information and pricing by clicking HERE.

Remember that our private “Field of Dreams” facility has a wide variety of drops, jumps, and trail features you can practice and train on, contact us for coaching there or simply to book an unsupervised session there.

We are always happy to chat about which coaching packages, sessions, or topics are most likely to help you progress, feel free to pop into the shop,  or give us a call, email us, or send us a Facebook messenger chat.

We look forward to hearing from you. Just remember, the best possible bike upgrade you can buy is… a coaching lesson for yourself!  Remember that coaching vouchers also make excellent gifts for your friends and family.

Are you interested in becoming a part-time mountain bike coach? Gravity Nelson is always happy to talk to individuals who would like to get trained up and qualified as mountain bike coaches.  Gravity Nelson’s founders Alistair and John bring an enormous amount of experience and passion to the role of coach trainers and mentors and can help you achieve your dream of becoming an expert mountain bike coach.  Alistair is a trainer and assessor for New Zealand’s two mountain biking qualifications through Skills Active and NZOIA and can guide you through the process of getting qualified as you work for us.  Email us on info@gravitynelson.co.nz if you are interested.

Cheers