Beginnings can be daunting, we get it! This is why it is important to learn how to learn, especially in extreme sports. Because an early unnecessary Fall or Accident can take away all the motivation, we put huge emphasis in taking steps at their tempo, when training with people new to the scene.

Simply put, there are two  realistic ways to approach a target goal: Overshooting slightly, or aiming slightly below. In both cases one would correcting afterwards, as it is unusual to get it right the first time. Understanding the difference between both approaches will help us be more effective when training on our bikes!  Sometimes we don’t give ourselves the chance to stop and to choose the right approach, but as discussed this may end up in unhappy faces and not wanting to ride again.

Simple solution

Let’s take a small jump as an example. If you choose the first method of learning and approaching your goal of clearing the jump, you will just try to do what everyone else seems to be doing. After accelerating to match the speed  of your buddies, you painfully get confronted with the reality of things. Sometimes overshooting just is not the way to go. When is this approach helpful you ask? When learning to drift for instance, you don’t want to be soft on the breaks to engage the drift (yes more advanced techniques don’t require this, but let’s stay at the basics for now). Rather you want that Top to Bottom Approach, slamming the rear brake until you eventually find the right amount necessary for traction or loss. 

Now if we take the same example and ride the small jump  at a slow pace 3 times without even thinking of jumping, this will make us more comfortable with the situation. By slowly increasing the speed, because it gets boring riding over the jump after a few times, you are still not jumping but so much closer! After yet another tries you finally get airborne, and thats when the training ends. Leaving you desperately wanting to ride again to jump a bit higher or longer. You have successfully created more motivation to ride while minimizing the risk of injury! If you are in a hurry to learn, even more so on advanced techniques, you should take your time. Being out for a few weeks because you did not take the Bottom to Top Approach is not worth it now, is it?

Stay safe and stay hungry! Learning All Day. Ever Day!