Photos: Jack Fletcher, Mike Blewitt
Whether you're an XC goat or a gravity gremlin, there's no denying that mountain biking in its current form is as technical as it's ever been. While we understand the need to prepare our bodies for these races, figuring out how and when to fit in trail-based technical sessions can be difficult.
This probably goes without saying for all riders; gravity groms and downhillers in particular play well on their bikes. For time-strapped commuters, however, their primary ride may be commuting to work and weekend mates, and practicing volunteer skills may fall by the wayside. Sometimes cross country or gravity athletes who enjoy the hassle of watching wattage and long miles more than the joy of achieving that big drop may miss important aspects of performance by ignoring skill development.
Looking for more skills? Check out our complete skills section for top tips.
So let's look at ways to incorporate skill-based timing into your weekly schedule, to make sure you can be the fastest rider you can be: whether that's racing your friends or lining up in the middle of the tape!
Take time to make jibs
Making time within your weekly training schedule for a dedicated skill development trip can significantly increase the speed of your skill development. For many of my athletes this means planning the agenda before the ride before getting out there, and going out to achieve progress in a certain area or adding 10-20min of dedicated skills in the park, pump track or parking skills on the side of the weekend trip. and partners.
Photo: Nick Waygood
For those with children, pump tracks can be a lifesaver. Fun for all ages and a great way to work on your pumping, handstand and jumping skills, a few hours at the pump track can mean you can improve your skills while hanging with the family: win win!
Choose your focus
It's one thing to go out and say you're going to do a skills session, but going out with the goal of 'practicing skills' but not focusing on what and where you're going to practice can lead to just trying to rush. each route as hard as possible. While this is fun, this approach is inefficient and can instill bad habits when compared to spending time dedicated to specific skills.
Photo: Nick Waygood
Instead, choose a specific skill to work on (curved corners, flat corners, rock gardens, stairs etc) and identify the areas of your choice to work on. Do you agree with Dave on the long straight chundery technique but drop it like a potato in the corners? It may be a sign that repentance is an important skill you need to work on. To begin with it may be one berm, then work on connecting corners and good form and focus on important parts of the skill such as braking to control the speed of entry to exit quickly, choosing and setting the line, body position and foot position and vision. . From here, try to use these cornering skills throughout the route. Don't stress if you go back to old habits, or include a few things tucked into the corners: the golden rule of skill development is progress! If you can nail 4 corners in 6 critical moments on the track but before you ride all 6 really badly, that's a big improvement.
If you're ready to do some skill training, but aren't quite sure how much skill to use, check out reputable skill stations online or even better: get professional feedback from a mountain bike skills coach.
Use video feedback
Sometimes what we do and what we feel like doing are very different. Think about that time your friend made a video of you struggling and you look back and realize that while it felt big it was actually 50cm long. Similarly, our understanding of what our body is doing may be wrong.
Enter the smartphone. We all have an amazing skill feedback tool that we take with us on every ride. Simply set up your smartphone using a very high-tech set of stones, sticks and sticks, hit the record and do your thing. Review the video, fix any obvious mistakes by thinking about what you're trying to accomplish, and try again. Take another video and compare, have you improved? What can you take away from the program?
The beauty of video is that you have a sealed record of your progress, and once you get to know yourself and the discomfort of watching yourself on video, it's amazing to see the process of developing a skill over months or years. Make this easier by riding with a compliant friend or buying a cheap bendy tripod for extra camera stability.
Use the right technology
We've got watts, heart rate, cadence and a whole host of cool cycling fitness data, but we don't have much other than record times (thanks Strava!) to track skill development. The problem with Strava is that you can make little progress with a bad technique if you're really brave or fit.
Enter BrakeAce, a brake power meter designed in New Zealand that allows you to track your braking performance on a track or part of a track. As we know that the main function of the brakes is to slow down, reducing braking and using the brakes effectively leads to a significant gain in lane speed.
After using Brake Ace for several months, it was an amazing tool that evaluated the intensity and duration of braking events, identified important opportunities for improvement, allowing you to experiment with the best brake behavior and see how that affects the overall track time. Check out my BrakeAce review online.
For those who don't have access to more technology, there's always Strava and video, but don't forget about all the other technologies we know and love: tubeless tires, tire inserts, suspension settings (and ShockWiz!), variable geometry: these are all aspects of your bike's design which can increase or decrease the speed of the route. Keeping a note of your default settings then, for example, changing a click or two and running, or changing your tire pressure 2psi (one at a time) is key to understanding your optimal settings for traction and speed on the trail.
FUN SKILLS SESSIONS YOU CAN TRY
Rollie Runs
Key skills: Track performance with a focus on pumping, active braking and line selection
Why? Efficiency is very important in all aspects of mountain biking: if we can use the trail effectively at free speed we can often generate more speed than simply pedaling and braking hard and inappropriately. Think how much better you'll ride at the end of a long enduro if you save the legs and reduce all that pedal mashing.
-Go to the top of the track that you think you CAN roll and get down without stepping on it.
-Lower the lane, focus on maintaining lane speed by pumping the lane, slow braking and open corners/choose fast lines: without pedaling.
-When you come to the nearest stop on a flat or low surface, count the number of pedal strokes you need to enter the lane and check why: can you control more speed in that section?
-Try again: can you pass without pedaling or at least with a few pedals?
Getting used to simulated lessons
Skills are important: A line option, covering the run in the short term
Why? When we come to events or new directions, we often have to acquire a lot of new information quickly. By practicing the process of breaking down a trail into its essential parts, we can learn about which parts will bring us speed, which lines we need to navigate the trails quickly and safely and how to best use our time on the trail.
Course recon is best kept on route networks you haven't ridden or are less familiar with, but you can apply this to your own routes by thinking critically about line choices and the decisions you make automatically.
-Go to a new route, and give yourself a time limit of ~45min (ie this should be for one long downhill run or key features on the XC lap).
-Stop and look at the important features, note where they are available (ie: check-in and check-out: free speed claim) and what line options are available, and what is best for you.
-For each feature, commit to trying the row within 5 minutes, then move on: time is of the essence.
-If possible, try multiple lines.
-Continue throughout the lap/descent until you finish running, then complete the lap with the selected lines.
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