Find It By Feature

I want to practise berms

Start: Old Bob's skills areas — berms at a forgiving speed and size, with nothing punishing about getting it wrong.

Then: the pump track. Genuinely the best berm-training tool on site, and it's free. You'll learn to pump and carry speed through a turn far faster here than on a trail, because you can lap it endlessly.

Then take it to: the Verderers. Big flowing berms at speed, and the trail rewards you for carrying momentum rather than braking into every corner.

And finally: the Boneyard descent on Freeminers (added 2025) — tight corners, hips and berms, and rather less forgiving.
 

I want to practise drops

Start: the Freeminers skills area, about 1km into the trail. It's built for exactly this — rocky drops you can session repeatedly without committing to the full loop.

Then: the graded skills areas near the centre — work up through them rather than jumping straight to the hardest.

On trail: the Freeminers proper has drop-offs woven into its descents. The downhill tracks have bigger ones — GBU in particular is known for two genuinely tricky drop-offs, and it's a double-black for good reason.
 

I want to practise jumps

Start: the Freeminers skills area again — tabletop jumps, which are the right thing to learn on. A tabletop punishes a bad jump far less than a gap does.

Then: the downhill tracks. Launchpad and Countdown are the blue-graded runs and the sensible starting point — rollable, so you can case a jump without disaster.

Step up to: the black tracks, where the jumps get bigger and the consequences less forgiving.
 

I want to practise roots and technical riding

This is the Forest of Dean's speciality, and the Freeminers is the place.

Roots, off-camber, switchback corners and natural terrain throughout. Autumn is the sweet spot — enough moisture for grip, before winter turns them to ice.

The Adit extension (Boars Nest, Sugar Rush, the TNT descent) is the most natural, most technical riding on the waymarked network.
 

I want to practise cornering at speed

The Verderers, and it isn't close. Flowing, well-shaped, and it lets you build speed progressively. The Dragon's Tail descent at the end is the reward — and the best place on site to feel what carrying speed through a corner actually does.
 

I want boardwalks, bridges and rock gardens

Old Bob's skills areas. Three of them, and between them they cover berms, rollers, bridges, boardwalks and rock gardens. Built for beginners, but genuinely useful for anyone wanting to drill a specific skill without pressure.
 

I want to work on climbing

The Freeminers switchback climbs. They're the hardest sustained climbing on the waymarked trails, and technical enough that it's a skill rather than just fitness — picking a line up a rooty switchback is its own discipline.

The Verderers climbs steadily but never brutally — good for building endurance.
 

I want a session, not a lap

Three options, all of which let you repeat rather than ride through:

• The pump track — laps as long as your legs last

• The skills areas (Old Bob's and Freeminers) — session a feature until it clicks

• The downhill tracks — push up takes 10–15 minutes, so a run every 20 minutes or so
   

Quick index
 

I want to work on                                      Go to

Berms                                                         Pump track → Verderers → Boneyard

Drops                                                          Freeminers skills area → skills areas → GBU

Jumps                                                         Freeminers skills area → Launchpad/Countdown → black DH

Roots & tech                                              Freeminers, especially the Adit extension

Cornering at speed                                  Verderers, Dragon's Tail

Boardwalks & rock gardens                     Old Bob's skills areas

Climbing                                                     Freeminers switchbacks

Repeat sessions                                        Pump track, skills areas, DH tracks

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Or get someone to teach you

Everything above assumes you're figuring it out yourself. That works — most of us learned that way. But it's slow, and you'll bake in bad habits without realising.
 

A couple of hours with a coach will do more for your riding than a season of laps. That's not a sales pitch, it's just true, and most people who've done it say the same thing afterwards: why did I leave it so long?
 

What actually changes:

• You stop practising your mistakes. You can session a drop fifty times, but if your body position's wrong you're just getting very good at doing it badly. A coach spots in ten seconds what you can't see from the inside.

• You get the fundamentals sorted. Body position, looking ahead, braking, weight distribution. Unglamorous, and they underpin absolutely everything else. Most riders who plateau have a fundamentals problem, not a bravery problem.

• You unlock things faster. Features you've been walking past for a year often turn out to be well within your ability — you just didn't have the technique or the confidence to commit. Having someone watch and say "you're ready, here's how" is worth a lot.

• It's safer. Learning to jump or drop properly, with someone who can break it into steps, beats hucking it and hoping.
   

Who it's for: genuinely everyone. Beginners get a foundation instead of a habit to unlearn later. Intermediate riders break through the plateau that comes from riding the same lap for two years. Experienced riders get specific things fixed — cornering, jumping, steep tech.
 

One more thing worth saying: coaching and bike setup work together. A well-taught rider on a badly set-up bike is still fighting the bike. If you're investing in your riding, sort both — a setup session does the other half of the job.

Where to find it: Local coaches operate in the Forest of Dean, and Pedalabikeaway run sessions from the Cycle Centre. See our Friends page for names.
 

Forestry England run an approved coaching provider scheme at the Cycle Centre, so you're not guessing at who's legitimate. Between them the providers cover 1-1 sessions, group courses, kids' classes and women-only rides — jumps, drops, berms, tech and flow. You book directly with the coach, and prices vary, so check their sites.

Forestry England's coaching page lists the approved providers.
 

Mr recommendations are;
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Wye MTB — based at the Cycle Centre. 1:1 private coaching (same rate for 1:2 if you want to bring someone), plus a big kids' programme: Little Fodders for 5–14s, holiday sessions, Fodders Academy and a Gravity Youth Camp for kids already happy on the DH tracks. All British Cycling qualified — they also train and assess other coaches, which tells you something.

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Katy Curd Coaching — monthly progression sessions at Cannop, 10am–1pm, each one taking a single skill and working it across different trails and speeds until it properly clicks.

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Pro Ride — Coaching in the Forest of Dean and Cwmcarn (and Hafod near Brechfa from 2026). Fundamental skills courses, focused single-skill sessions, race-focused coaching for adults and under-18s, kids' courses from intermediate up to racers, and 1:1 / 2:1 / private groups. They also run MBCUK training and assessment for people wanting to coach or guide themselves. Gift vouchers available if you're buying for someone.

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