Seeing yourself practice a feature I think is vital to improving your skills! What you FEEL like you’re doing and what you actually ARE doing can be two different things. Watching yourself sessioning gives you a better understanding of what you need to do in order to perfect a skill IMO. Great tip Rich!
Great tips! When I ride, I try to keep in mind that I’m not a passenger… I’m the Pilot. I also stay attentive to where the bike is and how to move my body. The old saying “practice makes perfect” is only true when you deliberately/mentally practice with set goals in mind and how to achieve them. Practice makes permanent.
Just to say I really like your videos, they feel welcoming and easy going. Keep at it and growing the channel, your easily one of the best MTB youtubers out there.
It’s all about deliberate practice. I know a lot of riders who focus more on getting in as many miles as possible on a ride - which is great, everyone loves a long back country ride… but if you really want to improve your skill set, you need to pick out one or two things to really focus on during a ride. You can either do you mentioned in the video, and session a section over and over.. or, something I like to do on a long ride, is focus on using as little brakes as possible and cornering as fast as possible… or maybe focus on pumping the terrain as much as possible to gain or maintain speed.. whatever you choose to focus on, just keep that focus for your entire ride. It has to be a conscious objective.
Absolutely! I think it’s challenging to develop a skill in the same way while on a ride, though I definitely agree that being intentional on a full ride is a good way to continue to hone in any skill you’ve been working on. It offers the opportunity to take what you’ve practiced and put it into action on varying terrain. If it’s a ride you do on a somewhat regular basis, you can work on improving all those areas that challenge you the most. If it’s something new or less frequented, it can help challenge your ability to read and adjust on the fly. Anytime I’m out for a ride and feel a bit off in any particular area, I’ll slow things down a bit and put my focus on the skill until I’m back into the groove of it.
So true, sessioning and intentional practice are the best. I know it isn't always possible, but I wish trail builders more frequently considered sessioning by riders when building trails. We had a local trail that actually built a perfect section of trail for sessioning, that even had easy return and re-ride access. Then they posted signs forbidding sessioning and built obstactles to prevent return and re-rides. The strange thing is only about another mile away they built a return loop and sign to encourage sessioning a different section. I'm sure they had a reason, but it wasn't obvious.
Yes! I have some very strong feelings around this. I know a lot of people stuck in the loop of chasing Strava times, and it’s actually holding them back from truly improving.
Glad you like them! The glasses are the Smith Wildcats. They are much more expensive than what I typically have used over the years, but I really do love them.
I don't even ride trails anymore. All I do is live at the pump track and jump lines. Trail rides bore me and to me is a waste of time. You stay so much more sharper and improve much more dramatically by hitting berms, pumping and jumping. These skills translates way more directly into riding downhill parks vs lame trail riding.
@@tonwhelan I live on long island so my local trails only have like 200 feet of elevation. I am not too far from some smaller mountains but those trails are more Enduro type which matches the easier tech trails at the local bike park. I prefer the free ride/ flow trails with berms and jumps. You are not getting practice for those types of trails at the local trail period. I am blessed to live near a pump track and 6 jump lines. Most people don't have that kind of luxury.
@@antondiaz8547 if you are in long island and NYC area, Cunningham park has 2 pump tracks, and 3 jump lines even though 1 out of the 3 are straight BMX dirt jumps, and there are 2 big jump lines at graham hills skills park. The biggest one they just added rivals lower dominion at mountain creek. Check out my RU-vid to see see videos on them.
@@s14tat I go to Cunningham a lot for trail rides. I’m gonna try to spend more time on the pump tracks to practice. I’m a beginner and planning to go to bike parks like Mtn Creek so you’re right spending more time on pump tracks and jump lines would make more sense. Thanks!
