MTB Skills

I started a mountain bike course back in May and today was the next stage. The first one was life changing and I discovered how to properly ride my bike. It's subsequently cost me a great deal of money - new bike, gear, race entry fees, more courses. But all well worth it!

Today's course was Trailmaster I, focussing on 2 things; the Defensive position and the Aggressive position.

Defensive positions are for when that ?oh shit? feeling happens. Typically you are going downhill and braking heavily. The goal is to counter the downhill momentum by:
* Doing all the things we learned in the first lesson, but importantly
* Stability - Tilt your ankles so your heels are down - imagine you are a horse stopping and trying to throw the rider. Your feet should be pushing against the pedals to brace
* Balance - Weight back slightly over the saddle trying to ensure there is equal weight on both wheels and avoid skidding
* Height - have a straight back and be titled forward, almost parallel to the ground.

Doing all this gives you a centred stable riding position that is suited for aggressive braking and will help control skidding. Also important, both feet should be parallel to the ground, not one up one down, with your favoured foot forward.

Next we moved on to an aggressive position for when you want to go faster. As all the brake forces have been removed you can readjust your position forward. The easiest way to image this is imagine the defensive position, and then rock forward on the pedals, so in effect you are rotating forward.

An easy way to do this is to "bounce" several times on your toes and then "assume the position", most importantly moving your arms in to a press-up position so that you have strong arms and shoulders for steering. Key things to think about:
* Strong arms, in a press-up type position
* Body further forward slightly
* Legs maybe a little straighter.

We then added a further movement to turns. Instead of just driving thru a turn, instead throw a quick flare in the opposite direction and then drive into your turn. Instead of fighting the centrifugal forces the quick dummy turn will help control them and you?ll be able to turn faster and sharper. We didn't have a lot of time to try this, but it makes sense - you do it when driving, or at least I do.

So another excellent day, if you live in NZ and are into mountain biking, then it's hard to beat a course from these guys.

Mrs PS and Barking are on the course tomorrow - hope it goes well guys ;-)

And, just signed up for another race next year, the Motatapu Challenge (it's said to be fantastic), I might have recovered from the one in 2 weeks by then!