 |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
BetterRider of the Month! A new feature I am adding to introduce you to some our students that I am inspired by! The July 2011 BetterRider of the Month is Jen Hanks. Jen took a camp from us last October in Fruita and her life has changed a lot in the last 9 months. A few months after the camp Jen faced a huge challenge and overcame it in stride. Her courage, passion and dedication to the sport inspire me. I am very proud of my cycling achievements, my career, and most recently my blog about my story as an athlete with cancer. I also hope to show that a return to high-level athletic performance is possible after breast cancer treatment. Look for my return in 2012! I will be checking her blog for updates and look forward to hearing of her continued successes both on and off the bike!
Lots of thank you posts on our facebook page! www.facebook.com/BetterRide Dana Hantel This turned out to be one of the best weekends of my life. Jackie and Dante are amazing coaches Michael Takahashi Gene, I keep telling everyone I learned more in your 3 day camp than I've learned in 20yrs of riding a mountain bike! Much better investment for your riding - instead of buying that new fork, wheelset etc. that we all think we need to be faster!
Great exercises from James Wilson! Top 4 Exercises for Better Body Position One of the most important movement skills for any mountain biker to posses is the basic "hip hinge". This is your ability to bend at the hips and not at the lower back and it is directly related to your ability to get into good body position on the bike. Without this movement skill you will always struggle to find balance and flow on the trail. No matter where you are on this exercise continuum, practicing the appropriate level of exercise for you will go a long way to helping you gain better command of this all important movement pattern. Without it you will struggle to apply all other techniques to your bike and quickly hit the ceiling on how fast you can go while maintaining balance and control. Add these exercises into your training routine and you'll see a marked increase in your balance and flow on the trail.
In 12 years of coaching mtb skills I still cannot get over how closed minded mountain bikers can be! "Oh, he is a single speeder, they always...", "damn downhiller's with 8" of travel, of course they can ride that section, no skill, the bike does all the work, bet he can't climb to save his life", "look at that idiot on that fully rigid bike doesn't he know...", etc. Well, we are doing the exact same spot! Riding bicycles off road and guess what? The Core, Fundamental Skills are All The Same no matter what kind of mtb you are riding! Why is this important to you? Because if you want to improve you can learn a lot from riders that are different from you. The skill it takes for Greg Minnaar and Mitch Ropelato to corner so well is the exact same skill all mountain bikers need, regardless of the bike they are on or the label they give themselves. So open your mind and stop labeling people/riders/things. You can learn from our examples/videos/coaching even if the example we us is on a much different bike that yours. We are fortunate enough to coach many of the best races in the world in all disciplines of mtb racing and we teach them all the same core skills (although in our downhill camps we don't teach climbing skills as climbing on a 40lb bike isn't much fun!). Yes, we taught singlespeed World Champions Ross Schnell and Sue Haywood the exact same cornering skills we taught World Cup downhill racers Mitch Ropelato and Jackie Harmony.
