Fear when mountain biking is good. Probably never thought of it that way but often fear can save you from injury and it can create a great feeling of accomplishment when you overcome it (through practice and baby steps) and fear can make you step up your game!
Fear can hold us back or it can be a big motivator to learn, improve and evolve. Facing/overcoming fear when done smartly is very rewarding and empowering. Think back to the many fears who have had in life and how good you felt you conquered each fear! Fear often means it is time to step up our game and grow, become stronger, smarter, more confident! Fear can be like a teammate that brings out your best performance, because anything less than your best could end up hurting you. Always listen to your fear and decide where it is coming from as some fears are good at saving you from harm while other fears keep you from reaching your potential.
Mountain biking can be anything from a really fun experience to outright terrifying depending on the rider’s skills, experiences and perspective. Of course skill is the number one factor in overcoming fear, imagine our students who race World Cup downhills like National Champions Luca Cometti, Mitch Ropelato and Jackie Harmony riding your local trails. I doubt they would be scared of that section that scares you on your local trail (as World Cup Tracks are gnarly!). They have worked hard on ingraining the correct riding techniques so they are riding in balance and in control consistently so while they may have less “nerve” than you they have great skill. I’m not trying to sell my coaching though, here are some ways to overcome fear with the skill you currently possess.
Fear has me gripped when riding trails like King Kong! So much that I get a little out of position (too far back) but I quickly get centered again do to years of deliberate practice. Fear forces me to focus and bring my A game!
1. Go at your own pace and take “baby steps” when progressing. Taking a big leap over your comfort zone is not a good way to improve. This is a case of fear being good! A big leap over comfort zone likely means you don’t possess the skills to do it! Have you ever been goaded into doing something that you felt was way above your skill level? Even if you make it you often don’t feel like you have gotten better, you feel like you got lucky. Feeling, “Holy cow, I nearly died, that was sketchy!” does not improve your confidence! If you don’t make it, the crash will often set you back, decreasing your confidence and raising your level of fear. So be gentle with yourself and progress at a pace that is comfortable to you.
3. Focus on what you want to do, not what you don’t want to do. This sounds simple but pays off big. Our brains don’t understand “not” and “don’t” very well. If you are focusing on not falling your brain has to focus on the concept of falling and then quickly try to refocus on “not” doing what you are thinking about. It is much easier to focus on “getting to that tree” or “ride this section smooth and light” than telling yourself “don’t fall”.
4. Live to ride another day! If you are more focused on “not falling” than you are on getting to where you are going, get off your bike and walk that section. Who knows you might go right through it the next time when you are more warmed up and/or focused.
After/while walking that section figure out what about that section is scaring you then “baby step” your way up to doing it.
Example: If a four-foot drop on an exposed trail is scaring you find a one foot drop with no exposure, get really good a hitting that, work your way up to a four-foot drop with no exposure, then an exposed trail with a one foot drop working all the way to a four-foot drop on an exposed trail. This builds on a series of successes, increasing your confidence!
5. Breathe, relax, breathe and smile it is just a bike ride. Breathing and smiling releases tension which improves our balance, coordination and confidence. I mean deep, belly breathes from your diaphragm which are very calming. Smiling releases endorphins which relax you. The simple act of lifting the corners of your mouth, even if it is a grimace it will release those endorphins and relax you!
6. As you improve make sure you update your self concept to match. Remember that the past doesn’t equal the future. You may have wrecked or not made a section last week/month but if your skills have improved since then the section may be easier for you now. (more on this in the next article on fear as this is very important!)
7. Wear knee pads and elbow pads when practicing a tough section are learning a new skill. I have found that having padding on really increases your confidence when learning or trying to push your limits. As a matter of fact I never ride without knee pads anymore, knees are too valuable and easily damaged!
8. Debunk your fear/s. Is your fear realistic? Often fear is not based in reality and when we realize this the fear goes away.
9. Learn from your mistakes. If you mess up or wreck do your best to figure out why it happened and correct that mistake or improve your technique so it will not happen again.
Stay tuned for part two which will cover why/how/when we feel fear and how this affects us and a few of these techniques in more detail.
I relaxed, saw the line I wanted to take, found my balance and went through the section very controlled – it was great!
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