Weekend before last I spent at Whiteface Mountain doing race support for a group of guys planning on attending the Leadville 100 agin this year.
The weather was all over the map, but everyone finished a really tough course with style. They were all riding for Kase's Corner. A charity dedicated to raising awareness for those battling diabetes. Check them out!
When I'm scanning people's form to look for areas that could use corrections it's often easiest to start from the top and move down. Head, eyes, shoulders, chest, elbows, hands, hips, knees, feet.
The funny thing is much of my instruction starts from the feet, so why would I scan top down when the feet are often the foundation of the rest of a persons riding. Pressure control, wheel lifts, and descending all are very dependent on happy and loose feet and ankles. Learning the importance of activating your bike riding or driving the bike from the feet can change your riding immensely.
If you want an illustration of how the feet effect your balance and control try this.
Stand up straight with feet flat on the ground.
Keeping feet flat and on the ground, try to bounce. not jump
Now try with the heals a little off the ground.
Does the second way feel more fluid?
Here is another demonstration.
Standing with feet flat on the ground.
Reach forward like you have you hands on your bars.
Start to squat.
Try pushing your butt back like you might have it going down hill.
Try to keep the balls of your feet on the ground.
It's hard isn't it? The heals naturally want to drop. Let them when riding! Especially when descending and braking!
How about another....
Standing again with the feet flat on the ground.
Try to jump off the ground without pointing your toes down. Keep the feet flat in the air. Activating from the knees and hips only.
Now try allowing the balls of your feet to push you off the ground like a normal jump with knees and hips activated. Toes pointing to the ground as you jump.
Hopefully you'll feel the difference between getting a smoother lift-off and a softer landing. For landing, when the feet are pointing down it's like your suspension is extended and you can absorb more.
So what is the lesson here? Think of it like this. When you load the bike with pressure, allow the heals to drop, when you want to unweight the bike, push off with the balls of the feet. You don't have to go to extremes pointing or dropping every time you load or un-load the bike, just be aware of your range of motion and think how your feet effect your control over the bike. This allows greater finesse on the small stuff and bigger moves in the gnarly! It broadens your whole range of what is possible.
When do you load?
Braking, Pumping, Adding pressure for traction, Pre-loading for logs, jumps...etc..
When do you unweight?
Exploding to get over logs, absorbing terrain, jumps, floating rock gardens, transitioning between corners....
Happy trails!
*** A note: Not all have the same range of motion! Use what you got, and try to improve on it!
Notice the dogs feet as it takes off over the gate!
This past month has been a busy one. People are really starting to catch on to the benefits of skills sessions.
I've worked with the Delaware Trail Spinners, the women of Wooden Wheels Racing, and several new clients getting solo lessons. Really exciting was the four days I spent in Ohio getting IMBA's International Coaching Program certification. I rode in a video for a commercial last weekend and just put together a three week skills session catered to the National Championships at Bear Creek.
Dirt Fest!
I'll be a Dirt Fest next weekend May 17-19th! There will be three days of great riding, friends and fun. It's on a lake and the trails are really different for Pennsylvania. For three day's I'll be giving one hour clinics.
Here is the schedule. http://www.dirtragdirtfest.com/schedule/
Friday:
2 p.m. Skills clinic: Take Aim Cycling Hour To Empower: Cornering I. Meeting at the Skills Area. Note: these are co-ed clinics.
4 p.m. Skills Clinic: Take Aim Cycling Hour To Empower: Drops. Meeting at the Skills Area. 5 p.m. Skills Clinic: Take Aim Cycling Hour To Empower: Wheelies and ManualsMeeting at the Skills Area.
Saturday:
1 p.m. Skills Clinic: Take Aim Cycling Hour To Empower: Drops. Meeting at the Skills Area. 2 p.m. Skills Clinic: Take Aim Cycling Hour To Empower: Cornering II. Meeting at the Skills Area. 3 p.m. Skills Clinic: Take Aim Cycling Hour To Empower: Wheelies and Manuals. Meeting at the Skills Area. Sunday:
10 a.m. Skills Clinic: Take Aim Cycling Hour To Empower: Log Hopping. Meeting at the Skills Area.
11 a.m. Skills Clinic: Take Aim Cycling Hour To Empower: Wheelies and Manuals. Meeting at the Skills Area.
Bear Creek Skills Sessions for National Championships
First off I want to announce the three Tuesday's of skills clinics at Bear Creek Mountain resort. These will be on May 28th, June 4th and June 11th. Each clinic will focus on a specific skill that will benefit riders the most on the technical trails of BC. I scheduled them to be in the evening from 6-8pm so that people can get there after work or maybe leave a little early. On May 28th we'll work on Descending since Bear Mountain has a lot of rocks that require good line choice, staying light and balanced on the bike and good braking techniques. The last one might be counter-intuitive but it's important to remember that control is confidence and if you understand your braking power better that leads to great confidence for staying in control while going faster. June 4th will be dedicated to Cornering or more specifically the Switchbacks of Bear Creek. You'll encounter them going up and down and if you have problem with these it can slow your race down and frustrate your overall progress. By the end of the session you'll be able to enter and and exit these smoothly with confidence. The final session will be dedicated to Rock Gardens on June 11th. Line choice, a balanced body position and good pressure control add up to a smooth flow through those momentum robbing sections. Save your energy for the climbs by flowing through these sections.
IMBA Instructor Training
A couple weeks ago I went to Ohio to take IMBA's ICP coaching program. It's new to IMBA and run by veteren skills instructor Shaums March. Last year I went to British Columbia to get instructor training through Endless Biking who were part of the PMBI organization. At the time I researched the various companies who were offering training for skills coaching and it seemed the four companies out there were on the same program. IMBA didn't have the ICP program then.
Endless was great and I'm glad I went, but it was a little disappointing to find out that IMBA was now offering a program very similar to the one I just invested in taking. I felt I now had to invest more time and money in something I already had. I knew there would be some variation but the difference seemed small enough to make it hard to justify the cost. Ultimately it was worth it. I learned more techniques for teaching I can bring to clientele and it made it easier for me to get insurance.
So now I'm certified by the Professional Mountain Bike Instructor program and IMBA's International Coaching Program.
Ultimately I like to learn and working with new instructors is always beneficial for expanding the knowledge set. I'd recommend anyone to go take these programs. Just because IMBA has a stronghold on mountain biking in the US doesn't mean you should ignore other options. If you want to coach a lot and have the benefits of IMBA insurance go to IMBA. If you want to learn how to ride and come away with a solid grasp on teaching techniques go to Endless Biking. You'll learn a lot from both programs.
Saturday was a great day to be outdoors and have a skills session with one of the most well known mountain bike teams in the area. BikeSport super Woman Jill Newman go the ladies of the BikeSport team together and we spend half a day dialing in among other things, logs, turns, and drops. We had an honorary male, but it was okay cause he learned new things too! Thanks Jill, Audra, Kristin and Ryan!
Everyone improved and I even got a message after the session from Audra about her first ride out with her new skills.
"Today was EXCELLENT! Stop at VF to practice what I learned today and it was GREAT!!! Did almost every log over and did one three times to try to get the timing right; chainrings kept catching but I made it over!"
It's great to know people are getting more out of their riding after a few hours of work!
On March 16th I'm putting on two clinics in Delaware.
One is a cornering clinic for two hours and the other I'm really excited about because it's a class on Racing Fundamentals.
It's for anyone interested in racing or racers with experience but want to hone some skills and strategy.
See below for full descriptions!
All classes can be signed up for on the MeetUp Site or contact me directly and I'll add you to the list.
The trails of the entire Trail Spinner territory are an amazing collection of corners coming at you in rapid fire. Let's do a 2 hour clinic to bring new joy to your experience of cornering. In the process you'll get more speed with less work!
Corners come in a variety of shapes and sizes and how you enter and exit them can equal free speed and more flow. In this clinic we'll work on all the parts that equate to fun and confident cornering.
1. Body position is critical to gaining maximum traction and control. Do you counter-balance your weight, look around the corners, carry the magic speed in and out of a corner? We'll work on that!
2. How are your line choices? Do you chop early and scrub speed resulting in needing more energy to get started again?
3. Always putting an outside foot down? Maybe what you do on the road doesn't equate to the trails!
4. Braking in that corner? Lets find that predictive braking intuition!
This will be a two hour clinic for anyone who's been riding a bike for more than a year and feels comfortable riding on the trails of the Trail Spinner region. The time will be spent doing cornering drills in a field and on a piece of trail. You don't have to be a hot shot racer or even a daily ripper. Both those people are welcome and can benefit but since we aren't going on a "ride" there will be no one getting dropped.
Are you curious about racing or have been doing it for a couple years now but still haven't gotten comfortable with the start line nerves or the stampede when the gun goes off? Maybe you are just looking for an edge? This two hour session will not only increase your confidence at the races it will make the experience safer for everyone involved!
Racing a mountain bike is extremely exhilarating and few other sports can mimic it's feel of adrenaline while pushing yourself to new heights! It can also be dangerous when the mind is lacking oxygen and decisions need to be instinctual when things are happening quickly. Come out and let me guide you through some confidence building exercises that mimic different aspects of racing.
In two hours we'll cover a variety of topics.
Race starts. From how to push off at the gun to how to deal with some rubbing of elbows and wheels!
The advantages and disadvantages of the hole shot (aka starting as hard as you can)! When to stay and when to go!
Passing on the trail. Calling your pass, letting the pass happen. This can be done so smoothly there is very little momentum lost for either rider!
Marking your competition and pacing. Playing to strengths and weaknesses.
How to use your peripherals with eyes and ears!
Randoms: Eating, equipment to carry, clothing, bike set-up.
This class is limited to 15 people so sign up today!
In the span of three days I drove down to hang out with the Trail Spinners. Sunday I was invited to give a clinic to their ride leaders and last night I got to give a meager presentation about teaching skills to see what the interest would be from the general membership. Despite my off-the-cuff speech the reception was warm and promising for future clinics with this great group of riders.
The Trail Spinners have a long history and an even longer network of trails that spreads out into many parks such as White Clay, Fair Hill, Middle Run, Brandywine, Judge Morris and the list goes on. These particular parks are so easy to connect it's hard to tell where they begin or end and you need some instinctive animal sense to know when you've crossed into another land managers territory.
If you are a Trail Spinner or want to become one, look for upcoming clinics at one of these great parks. On topic are clinics for Intro to Racing, Cornering, and more advanced racing. It can change topics, but chances are these will happen in the next few weeks!
Of course there is a limit to everything, but until it reaches a certain depth or consistency, riding in snow can leave you with some memories to carry through the entire summer. Maybe you'll even be excited for winter to return!
When it snows the traction can get better in some places but you will definitely have to up your game on riding with the bike sliding around underneath you. This seems contradictory but what you soon realize is that even though you might be sliding around in the corners, it's predictable and consistent. That consistency is key to being comfortable on a new surface. The more you begin to trust what will happen in given situations the more comfortable you can be expanding your comfort range.
How to ride the snow? Stay loose on the bike keeping the elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles, and shoulders active. You have to be ready to let the bike choose it's own path sometimes and counter-balance becomes key to survival. Angling the bike underneath you is critical to keeping yourself out of the snow. For a good counter-balance drill go into a field and practice riding slowly around in circles changing directions to transfer weight and the angle of the bike. When I say slow I mean agonizingly slow. This might be best to do on flat pedals or without your mtb shoes so you can put a foot down easily. Try starting to slow down to a stop then pedal away without putting a foot down. Do all of this while staying out of the saddle.
A counter-balance drill that benefits snow riding!
1. Choose a gear in the middle front ring middle rear cog region.
2. Go flat pedals or non clipless shoes if you're afraid of falling over.
3. Choose a place with a small incline.
4. Pedal as slow as you can. I call it the slow game.
4.5. Be sure to do most of this out of the saddle.
5. Counter-balance your weight by angling the bike but keeping your hips above your feet.
6. Practice slowing to a stop, then starting again without putting a foot down. Try pausing at that stop longer and longer while staying balanced.
7. Change directions frequently.
8. Do this with a friend, playing slow follow the leader. Try to trick them into putting a foot down.
This is the philosophy behind doing skills and drills in parks. If we were to try and practice on the trail there are constant variables that effect your attempt to practice that one skill you are trying to dial. In a field we can set up an obstacle and eliminate almost all of the variables so that we can get down to the business of learning the key movements needed to perform certain skills. Consistency is key! The snow is a big variable, but you soon realize it's an equalizer that blankets your trail. Don't be afraid of the snow, ride it and learn new things you'd never have the opportunity to practice over and over again without it.
Why ride in the snow? There are several good reasons to go out when the conditions get weird! For one it's good to change up the routine and introduce our bodies to new problems and experiences. Without having to drive some extra distance the snow changes your regular riding trails into a completely new place. The corners have a different dynamic, snow has filled in some choppier sections and smoothed out those spots that normally suck your wheel into momentum blackholes. I often find myself taking new lines in the snow I would never use on regular dry days. Contrary to surface logic, traction can get better, depending on the snow conditions.
Two factors effect the possibility of riding in the snow on the ground. Depth and consistency. A light fluffy snow that's freshly fallen can be ridden in at depths up to 5 or 6 inches, sometimes more depending on your leg strength and tolerance. That fresh snow will part nicely for your tires as you plow through. As the flakes get bigger and wetter and the depth grows a fun ride can quickly turn into a slog.
On the far end of that consistency range is the deeper snow that has been through a warm day then frozen to form a crust on top that can actually support the weight of you and the bike. This is a rare but magical event you'll never forget. When the snow is like this you'll soon find yourself leaving the trail riding through the woods in places never imagined.
When the snow gets to deep, be happy because it's a good chance to play on the cross country skis. If you're a mountain biker and you haven't given the XC skis a chance you owe it to yourself to try. Imagine having the ability to go places your bike never went because there were no trails? A whole world of exploration awaits!
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