You are not alone LLB! This is all great advice. I had the same problem, big-time, when I started mountain biking last year. Yikes - who knew that a left turn could be so much harder than a right turn, and why? I didn't get it at all, but I could never make tight left turns and always ended up in the woods b/c I didn't turn tight enough. Somehow without really even trying, left turns this year on the mtb are not significantly harder than right turns. I don't know why; I guess just doing them more helped, but it's like now I wonder what I was so jacked up about last year (fear of falling and failing can also do a real number on our skills), when it came to left turns. I still have to work pretty hard on u-turns on my road bike but am better on my mtb now.

Good luck!

Emily