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An email from one of my mountain bike skills camp students. I am a fortunate man!
I have spent the last 15 years studying bike handling and how bike setup effects bike handling. In that time I have kept and open mind and experimented with bars as narrow as 22" and as wide as 32" and stems from 150mm to 30mm. I didn't invent a single skill or bike set-up theory myself I tired what other, "better riders" suggested. Everything I teach I have learned through others (world champions like Marla Streb and Greg Minnaar, motorcycle coaches, ski coaches, gymnastic coaches) and then personally tested out their ideas and had many of my top students (Pro racers like Ross Schnell, Chris Van Dine, Lynda Wallenfells, etc.) test these theories.
In mountain biking and other sports the most “talented” or “gifted” athlete is rarely the most successful. At the higher levels of competition most competitors have a similar combination of skill, talent and fitness. To out-perform competitors, you must be tougher than them. James E. Loehr, Ed.D, world renowned sports psychologist states, “Toughness is the ability to perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances”. If you are not racing to your potential it is time to get tough.
Often the best athletes in a sport don't make the best coaches. I was reading the book Blink the other day and it talked about Andre Aggassi's advice on how he puts so much top spin on the ball. When explaining it to his coach and other coaches he stated that by turning his wrist [...]
