Take Your Mountain Bike Skills to the Next Level
Lessons by top coaches that will have you riding faster and smoother
Lessons by top coaches that will have you riding faster and smoother
The end of the school year might be approaching for the kids, but for you, class is in. Are you comfortable out on the trails, but want to add more speed and flow? Well, a few of the country’s top coaches and I have some lessons and homework that will get you riding better. First, you should assess the technique you have. You need to make sure your foundational skills are dialled and always be working to progress them and build consistency and variation. If these skills are up to snuff, you can then take on the pump track, jumps and wheelies.
Assessing Your Mountain Biking Foundation
READY POSITION The ready position is simply standing up on your pedals in a balanced fashion. I like to assess standing while pedalling and while coasting in ready position (pedals at 3 and 9 o’clock). If you can stand, pedal and coast around a field – perhaps with a few small log-overs – for five minutes without sitting down with burning thighs or crashing, you are ready to progress. If you can add track stands into the mix, that’s also a good sign you have figured out balance in a standing position.
CORNERING While you’re in the field assessing your standing, you can check your cornering ability. Set up two pylons (or jackets, water bottles, etc.) about four to five bike lengths apart, and then ride in a figure eight. If you can do this drill in a balanced and smooth manner, with minimal pedal strokes, then your cornering skill is ready to progress. If you find it hard to stay with other riders in twisty trails or hit your shoulder on trees, often the figure-eight drill, or simple slalom drills, will help you touch up this skill.
WHEEL LIFT The final skill you need to gain entry to the master class is a wheel lift. You want to be able to stand in your ready position and shift your hips back with firm arms and cause the front wheel to come off the ground, usually to clear a log or unweight over an obstacle.
Top-level Skill Progressions
PUMP TRACK Riders of all levels benefit f rom time on the pump track. If you aren’t able to work with the terrain to produce speed, independent of your pedalling and fitness, then you are missing out on free speed. Watch an experienced bmx athlete ride a pump track and you will be amazed at how fast the rider will go without pedalling. I like to think of the pump track as a place to hone many skills without the rider even knowing. It forces you to develop or improve flow, wheel lifts, jumping and cornering.
“Pumping is weighting and unweighting the bike before and after obstacles,” says Brendan Arnold, our bmx coach. He’s from Australia, where bmx is very popular, and now helps young Ontario riders achieve medals at high-level competitions. His advice will help you, too. “To be effective, the movement is very dynamic and requires a tight core and co-ordination of the entire body. Although it sometimes sounds straightforward, it is a difficult skill if a rider doesn’t have good spatial awareness and co-ordination. The key to pumping is to find rhythm using the entire body. When the terrain goes up, you get light. When it goes down, you get heavy.”
Don’t have a pump track handy? Arnold says you still have options. “Anywhere there is terrain that goes up and down quickly, you can practise shifting of weight,” he says. To practise, play around with letting yourself pedal and also refusing to pedal. “I think trying it slower will help show weaknesses and body position. It’s always easier to do it with speed, so sometimes it is key to go slow to get fast,” he says.
How will you know if you are doing it right? “Pumping is a weird thing,” Arnold says. “Like many other skills, there is a sweet spot and when you hit it you can feel it. Being able to do a section of trail or a lap of a pump track without pedalling is a good indication you are getting it.”
“If you aren’t able to work with the terrain to produce speed, independent of your pedalling and fitness, then you are missing out on free speed.”
Top-level Skill Progressions
JUMPING Once you can pump, the next step is to progress to jumps. Our jumping coach is Trish Bromley, the first female to compete in the Crankworx Dual Speed and Style event and perhaps the most upbeat and smiley person you will ever meet.
Bromley says once you can ride laps of the pump track as Brendan has instructed, you can start your jump progression with a whoop (a bump like the ones in a pump track or on a trail) or on a tabletop, a jump with no gap that you can land on top of. Your goal with the tabletop is not to clear it, but to practise pushing (preloading) into the jump and feeling the weightlessness after. We are going to use this same heavy/light timing to more aggressively pop off the lip, or peak, of the whoop or jump. I like to encourage my clients to think of the jump like a trampoline and really push into the jump to maximize the air they get at the lip.
To maximize your practice time, Bromley recommends having a bike that fits you, “Too many new riders are on borrowed bikes that make it hard to move the bike around,” she says. Dropping your seat to make sure you have lots of room to move will also boost your confidence. Your gearing is important too. “You want a harder gear so you aren’t spinning wildly and so you can maintain balance,” she said. Your pumping should take care of much of your need for speed.
If you are nervous about getting air, go back to your practice field and work on your log hops. The bunny hop is the foundational skill for jumping, so make sure you can get air over some sticks. Remember, the front wheel lifts first and lands first. Once you can get some air over sticks, you can go back to a whoop in the pump track and try jumping sticks or a line in the dirt at the very top of a whoop.
Bromley says that when she has worked with people in the bike park, they often try to pull the bike up too much. “It is less work than you think,” she says. “The work is in the approach, the setup and at the lip. Then you just need to feel how the bike comes up underneath you.” More than anything, Bromley says don’t go too big too soon. Spend time getting smooth and adding style on the smaller jumps before you consider sending the pro line. For most mountain bikers, a little bit of air will let you be smooth and add some line options to your everyday rides. But, do wait a few years before shooting that rad video for the web.
“It is less work than you think. The work is in the approach, the setup and at the lip. Then you just need to feel how the bike comes up underneath you.”
WHEELIES Who better to teach wheelies than the man who popularized trials and street riding in Canada? You have seen him at bike shows, in videos and even teaching yoga classes. He has an online community dedicated to learning new bike skills and balancing the intensity of our sport with yoga practice. Ryan Leech is very big on process. His wheelie program has 30 steps that you work through in a month. I am fond of his approach to not focus on the final result of the endless wheelie, but rather to look at small steps toward understanding the movement and getting frequent wins through frequent practice and progression. A wheelie is a tricky and often risky manoeuvre to master.
Leech suggests setting yourself up with a functioning rear brake, flat pedals and a saddle height that is 3 to 7 cm lower than your normal XC riding height. Once you’re set up, your first task is to focus on using your drivetrain to lift your front wheel. It’s not a yank with your arms or back that does the work. You should pedal smoothly,
Class Dismissed…for More Practice
Now you are equipped to develop your skills. Pick one skill and set aside some time to go to a local field, pump track or flow trail and work on just a small element of one of these skills. Set small goals. Heed the cautions, setups and progressions suggested in this master class and you will see success frequently. Consistent practice and success are the secret to building your bike skills; there are no instant fixes. Now that you know what you need do, it is all about reps. Enjoy the practice. in a moderate gear, and “kick” the front wheel up while you lean your weight back and maintain tension on the bars. “Once you can use your drivetrain to lift the front wheel off the ground for just one pedal stroke, practise applying your rear brake to throw your front wheel back down to the ground,” Leech says. “The most dangerous misstep while learning the wheelie is flipping backward and landing on your tailbone. It’s not fun. If you know how to use your rear brake during a wheelie, it will prevent that flip back from happening.”
Once you’ve developed trust with your rear braking, the next step is to set goals around the number of pedal strokes. Aim to hit the desired number, and then set your wheel down. Counting helps you focus. Don’t aim too high. Master reaching you set number consistently and stopping your wheelie. Count three pedal strokes, and then grab the rear brake. Next, hit five pedal strokes. Then go back to three. This type of gradual and intentional practice will help you understand the wheelie. There’s no need to rush it.