Brave Endeavors Coaching Philosophy

Photo by Colin Meagher

“Confidence occurs when the insidious self-perception that you ‘aren’t able’ is trumped by the stark reality of your achievements.” - The Confidence Code (Kay and Shipman)

My coaching philosophy places your needs, mental and physical, front and center. We begin each clinic with the end in mind. You state your goals and we work to develop a process best suited for you, to find success. Obstacles and challenges are tackled from a mindset and skill perspective. Often you have the skill to ride a feature, but lack the confidence. Other times you genuinely have no idea what to do with your bike or body to get around that dang corner, over those crazy roots, or up and over the jagged rock. Improve both your mental confidence and your physical skills with coaching! Find success on the mountain bike and get that ear to ear grin that leaves your cheeks sore and your fist flying in the air with pride. Brave Endeavors is more than a MTB Skills Clinic. It’s an opportunity for you to rewire your brain through physical and mental accomplishments, increase your confidence, embrace new challenges, and ultimately, Be More Brave!

Four key steps are integrated into all Brave Endeavors coaching:

Photo by Colin Meagher

1. Beginner’s Mind. At the start of all clinics, you are encouraged to adopt a beginner’s mind. This mental state of “newness” allows you to let go of past experiences, expectations, and attachment to outcomes. You open yourself up to trying and recognize failure is part of learning and you may mess up at least 180 times before you nail a new skill.

2. FLOW. Many of us, especially women, have a hard time turning off our brain. Thoughts flood in like waters during a storm, muddying the clarity we long for. Thoughts such as:

• I can’t ride over that log because it’s too big.

• I’m embarrassed to even try

• Last time I crashed. 

• What if I get stuck…

• I have a million things to do at home…

It can be really hard to turn off the flood of negative self-talk, especially if you’re standing still. Find flow, and turn your brain off through movement, bite sized challenges, and “sessioning,” trying tasks repeatedly until you experience success. With movement on your bike, you ask your brain to quiet, to focus on the present moment, and concentrate on the task at hand. You find your own form of meditation, or flow state, and re-write your brain’s pathways with thought-roads of “I can” rather than “I can’t.”

3) Progression. We always start with small obstacles and progress in a purpose driven manner. For example:

1) Ride over the stick you would have ridden over without a second's thought. Good! What did you do with your body, what did your inner dialogue sound like?

2) Let’s make that stick bigger. No problem! 

3) Now, let’s put the stick on a downhill and ride over a log, not a stick. 

By this point you’ve learned what your body needs to do to quiet the mind and experience success. Soon, you are riding over features, not obstacles and your confidence grows! 

4) Repetition. As soon as we are faced with an obstacle that appears too big or too scary we return to step #1) We adopt a beginner’s mind, expect to fail, and know that messing up is part of the growth process. #2) We find our flow, recognize our inner dialogue and look for movement over stillness. #3) We progress with intentional and manageable challenges. 4) We repeat the process on AND off the bike :)

Through this four step process you will experience the quintessential “ah-ha” moments in mountain biking. Experience success when the fear and anxiety associated with riding over a section of roots or rocks is followed by the flood of adrenaline and “hell yeah!” Brave Endeavors clinics teaches you the skills you need to ride smoother, faster, and have more fun and is steeped in mindset work to flip the inner dialogue switch from one of “I can’t” or “That’s scary” to one of “I can” and “That looks like a fun challenge!” 

Ready to start? Sign-up HERE.