I have enough space/land to set up a little practice/obstacles section/course to practice skills safely. I have no idea where to start or what to do, what tools I need, and my skills are pretty basic. The question is: starting from basics, how would you set this up?
Hi Griff. I am John Harris, a 68 year old mountain bike rider from Northern Michigan. I do a lot of cross country races but this year I spent a lot of time working on technique. It is obviously a lifelong journey. The more I learn, the more and more there is to go back and practice. How do you continue to practice everything? I have stated to chart out the many drills I now do so that I can keep rotating though, doing some each practice. But I also spend much of each practice on a new skill I am trying to master. Am I on the right track?
Hello! I am Patricia, a 66-year-old mtb/gravel rider from France. I will not be available for this first AMA but I'd like to share something I have noticed about my mtb practice. Each time I take 5 mn to practice the most basic skills like tight cornering before setting out for a ride, everything will flow during the ride. If I don't, things will take quite some time before getting flowy, like one hour. If ever you have some light to shed on that, Griff or anybody else? I am quite content to just know that this before-ride practice works wonders, but also get that there might be some insight to gain there that can be helpful in other areas.
Oct 14, 2022·edited Oct 14, 2022Liked by Griff Wigley
Hi I am Mark in my 60s and I ride Mt bikes & dirt bikes learning to play guitar and many other hobbies. How do I stay motivated to practice after missing several days ? I went to Whistler and was riding everyday for 7 days straight then came home and have been riding my motorcycle dirt bike and now I have not been back on the bicycle in a week. Its a strange feeling of losing momentum and then trying to figure out a way to get the ball rolling again.
Hello! I am Renee a youthful 60 something mountain biker whose siblings keep telling her she needs to pick up a new sport!
NEVER!!
My question is when practicing visualization for a skill is it helpful to create a verbal mantra to key specific movements through the skill or would that become a mental distraction?
Oct 14, 2022·edited Oct 14, 2022Liked by Griff Wigley
I'm 66 with no inherent athletic ability.
Trying to learn to manual is frustrating because I can not get up high enough to even find the balance point. I have no fear of looping out; in fact, I'd love to loop out so I know I am progressing.
No video yet (maybe this weekend). Is anyone else stuck at Step 1? Has anyone been stuck there and managed to break through?
Hi Griff. I am a very passionate mountain bike at the age of 66. Recently retired. My issue is that often I only have 3 hours or so of play time available to me. In order to make the most of it, I spend the majority of the time riding trails instead of dedicating some time to skills building. What I need is some sort of motivation to turn my free time into maybe a 50/50
I've been riding for over 30 years and coaching/instructing for 10. One of the challenges I'm facing with one of my own skills development projects is around jumping. The nearest source of consistent jumps is an indoor bike park located 2h drive away. With a 4h round trip, I want to spend a lot of time at the park working on my jump technique. You've recently mentioned some of the challenges our brain experiences when we spend prolonged periods of time working on a new skill. This aligns with my experience at the park. It took me two visits to build up the confidence and technique to hit the black/advanced line with 55º lips. it wasn't until I'd spent 3hr+ on the third visit that I had the a-ha moment and found the flaw in my form that was preventing clean jumps on the black when my blue line felt mint. After finally nailing a clean run through the jumps I said "great! let's call it a day and end on a solid run". I figured I'd pick up where I left off on my next visit. about 3 weeks later I was back at the park and I didn't have it! it took 2hr+ before I found the movement pattern again – certainly faster, but it was surprising to take so long. I'm heading there today, I have been visualising the movement pattern and timing, and practicing the pattern on my RIpRow machine so it will be interesting to see how quickly I find the flow today.
The question being, when the practice facility is such a great distance from home, going for just an hour a bunch of times versus 3-4 hours less regularly isn't practical. How can we maximize the learning and retention in this sort of scenario given the 10minute scenario you brought up recently?
How long should one spend making attempts on a difficult move or pattern before taking a break and how much time should be left between attempts?
A similar scenario comes up at my local trail network. there's an obstacle at the start of one of the gnarlier trails that is particularly difficult. I usually get through the obstacle, but I range between a couple attempts and dozens. I've spent 30minutes seasoning the obstacle at times, then finally I get it, my brain registers a couple of points of difference that lead to success, I rejoice (loudly!) and continue the trail. I think to myself "yes! I got it. it'll be easier next time" only to find myself working for 20-30minutes at it the next time I'm there and sometimes not cleaning the obstacle. On one occasion, I cleaned it in relatively few attempts so I decided to try to burn it in and make a second pass before finishing the trail only to spend the next 20minutes arguing with it before cleaning it again and saying "got it" and moving on. Clearly I'm not burning in the pattern necessary and having relearn every time I'm there, and maybe it's only luck that I get it in the end?
I'm not sure what my question is here, but it occupies a lot of my thought processing so perhaps it would be a worthy discussion point.
Hi Griff. I'm curious if you have a suggestion about a set of basic skills that you'd practice consistently, which you ideally always keep tuned up. I tend to jump around with different skills, and am thinking there are probably some basics that are universally valuable, so just keep those tuned. But of course there's a limit to how much a person can squeeze in. So are there two or three or four skills or techniques that you always keep tuned, and that are useful as a baseline for lots of other skills.
I've done far less than I should have, for some personal reasons. But hope springs eternal....
After I broke a rib and tore a rotator cuff (this has to be a couple of years now) going OTB on one of the early Manual lessons, I have been very hesitant to go back to it. I actually got the crash on video! After many viewings, freeze frame, slo-mo etc, the video revealed the reason for the OTB; One of my arms was straight, the other bent, so when the front wheel came down, it was at an angle. The bike cut right while I did the Newtonian thing and flew forward onto the asphalt....
Since then I have been VERY nervous about wheel lifts. But there is hope. MANY reps of the basic drops technique have taught me to straighten BOTH arms (once or twice, I didn't, and the landing was...exciting. I hope to revisit the RLC manuals module soon, but might do drops first as I aspire to jumps....
This weekend I spent Saturday recovering from the ill effects of a double vaccination, and just did a casual ride on local singletrack on Sunday.
I have enough space/land to set up a little practice/obstacles section/course to practice skills safely. I have no idea where to start or what to do, what tools I need, and my skills are pretty basic. The question is: starting from basics, how would you set this up?
Hi Griff. I am John Harris, a 68 year old mountain bike rider from Northern Michigan. I do a lot of cross country races but this year I spent a lot of time working on technique. It is obviously a lifelong journey. The more I learn, the more and more there is to go back and practice. How do you continue to practice everything? I have stated to chart out the many drills I now do so that I can keep rotating though, doing some each practice. But I also spend much of each practice on a new skill I am trying to master. Am I on the right track?
Hello! I am Patricia, a 66-year-old mtb/gravel rider from France. I will not be available for this first AMA but I'd like to share something I have noticed about my mtb practice. Each time I take 5 mn to practice the most basic skills like tight cornering before setting out for a ride, everything will flow during the ride. If I don't, things will take quite some time before getting flowy, like one hour. If ever you have some light to shed on that, Griff or anybody else? I am quite content to just know that this before-ride practice works wonders, but also get that there might be some insight to gain there that can be helpful in other areas.
Hi I am Mark in my 60s and I ride Mt bikes & dirt bikes learning to play guitar and many other hobbies. How do I stay motivated to practice after missing several days ? I went to Whistler and was riding everyday for 7 days straight then came home and have been riding my motorcycle dirt bike and now I have not been back on the bicycle in a week. Its a strange feeling of losing momentum and then trying to figure out a way to get the ball rolling again.
Hello! I am Renee a youthful 60 something mountain biker whose siblings keep telling her she needs to pick up a new sport!
NEVER!!
My question is when practicing visualization for a skill is it helpful to create a verbal mantra to key specific movements through the skill or would that become a mental distraction?
I'm 66 with no inherent athletic ability.
Trying to learn to manual is frustrating because I can not get up high enough to even find the balance point. I have no fear of looping out; in fact, I'd love to loop out so I know I am progressing.
No video yet (maybe this weekend). Is anyone else stuck at Step 1? Has anyone been stuck there and managed to break through?
Hi Griff. I am a very passionate mountain bike at the age of 66. Recently retired. My issue is that often I only have 3 hours or so of play time available to me. In order to make the most of it, I spend the majority of the time riding trails instead of dedicating some time to skills building. What I need is some sort of motivation to turn my free time into maybe a 50/50
Hi Griff,
I've been riding for over 30 years and coaching/instructing for 10. One of the challenges I'm facing with one of my own skills development projects is around jumping. The nearest source of consistent jumps is an indoor bike park located 2h drive away. With a 4h round trip, I want to spend a lot of time at the park working on my jump technique. You've recently mentioned some of the challenges our brain experiences when we spend prolonged periods of time working on a new skill. This aligns with my experience at the park. It took me two visits to build up the confidence and technique to hit the black/advanced line with 55º lips. it wasn't until I'd spent 3hr+ on the third visit that I had the a-ha moment and found the flaw in my form that was preventing clean jumps on the black when my blue line felt mint. After finally nailing a clean run through the jumps I said "great! let's call it a day and end on a solid run". I figured I'd pick up where I left off on my next visit. about 3 weeks later I was back at the park and I didn't have it! it took 2hr+ before I found the movement pattern again – certainly faster, but it was surprising to take so long. I'm heading there today, I have been visualising the movement pattern and timing, and practicing the pattern on my RIpRow machine so it will be interesting to see how quickly I find the flow today.
The question being, when the practice facility is such a great distance from home, going for just an hour a bunch of times versus 3-4 hours less regularly isn't practical. How can we maximize the learning and retention in this sort of scenario given the 10minute scenario you brought up recently?
How long should one spend making attempts on a difficult move or pattern before taking a break and how much time should be left between attempts?
A similar scenario comes up at my local trail network. there's an obstacle at the start of one of the gnarlier trails that is particularly difficult. I usually get through the obstacle, but I range between a couple attempts and dozens. I've spent 30minutes seasoning the obstacle at times, then finally I get it, my brain registers a couple of points of difference that lead to success, I rejoice (loudly!) and continue the trail. I think to myself "yes! I got it. it'll be easier next time" only to find myself working for 20-30minutes at it the next time I'm there and sometimes not cleaning the obstacle. On one occasion, I cleaned it in relatively few attempts so I decided to try to burn it in and make a second pass before finishing the trail only to spend the next 20minutes arguing with it before cleaning it again and saying "got it" and moving on. Clearly I'm not burning in the pattern necessary and having relearn every time I'm there, and maybe it's only luck that I get it in the end?
I'm not sure what my question is here, but it occupies a lot of my thought processing so perhaps it would be a worthy discussion point.
cheers,
Michael
Hi Griff. I'm curious if you have a suggestion about a set of basic skills that you'd practice consistently, which you ideally always keep tuned up. I tend to jump around with different skills, and am thinking there are probably some basics that are universally valuable, so just keep those tuned. But of course there's a limit to how much a person can squeeze in. So are there two or three or four skills or techniques that you always keep tuned, and that are useful as a baseline for lots of other skills.
I've done far less than I should have, for some personal reasons. But hope springs eternal....
After I broke a rib and tore a rotator cuff (this has to be a couple of years now) going OTB on one of the early Manual lessons, I have been very hesitant to go back to it. I actually got the crash on video! After many viewings, freeze frame, slo-mo etc, the video revealed the reason for the OTB; One of my arms was straight, the other bent, so when the front wheel came down, it was at an angle. The bike cut right while I did the Newtonian thing and flew forward onto the asphalt....
Since then I have been VERY nervous about wheel lifts. But there is hope. MANY reps of the basic drops technique have taught me to straighten BOTH arms (once or twice, I didn't, and the landing was...exciting. I hope to revisit the RLC manuals module soon, but might do drops first as I aspire to jumps....
This weekend I spent Saturday recovering from the ill effects of a double vaccination, and just did a casual ride on local singletrack on Sunday.
Sorry for my delayed answer, Griff! Indeed, I find 'good' problems are the best!
This is it- the "here-and-now mental state" that allows me the ease and flow I so love on the bike.
It takes me out of judgment too!
Thank you. It helps when someone has the words to explain something.