Been riding only 2 seasons so still learning. I am clearing jumps well from what others have told me but I'm very much about wanting to avoid bad technique to not create the wrong habits/muscle memory.
So I watch a lot of tutorials to see which techniques repeat as that helps ingrain certain things in my mind. Proper speed, preloading, standing up to the jump, and pushing out with my arms are all things I see on repeat and so I do them.
But then I see this vid and realize I might not know what to do with my hips, legs, and feet when leveling the bike to match the landing. NB I do not use clips.
https://youtu.be/V3WhJCwM9qk?t=148
I have been pushing the bike out with my arms so that is fine. But In this video, he also says curl your feet to bring up the rear wheel. Oh cool. Makes sense. But then states don't use your legs, use your hips.
I don't understand or even see the motion his hips are doing there. Is it basically just pushing your hips and therefore also your ass back a little so the curl on the feet pulls the bike up just a little bit?
THREE THINGS THAT ADDED TO MY CONFUSION
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In the vid at 2:52 he literally shows his legs pulling up while talking about the technique the first time but I understand, he's not on the bike so maybe that? When he is in the air I don't really see his hips doing anything.
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I went to a skill park and tried curling and lifting with my legs a little while in the air. It felt really good. Like like I had more control over the the bike. Like I was getting longer air time. Yes, if I pulled too much I'd over do it and throw the rear up too much, but feeling it out got to a point where I knew how much pull. It also felt like it helped me align the bike better to the slope of the landing instead of just relying on the arm push.
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Other people at the park told me to "lift my back up more" when I stopped lifting so I could feel the difference. These weren't experts, but they rode better than me. Sadly, when I tried to drill down to the exact issue/confusion I had, they all went off on different rants so I gave up because again, not coaches or experts just self-taught dudes who might also have bad technique just I'm not aware of it.
There is another vid from GMBN where he talks about this and calls it a Spud Jump.
https://youtu.be/gQjzMa-LShg?t=152
There is also this vid where he has proper technique vs bad technique side by side
https://youtu.be/CLutgpYeec8?t=199
I understand the issue of pulling that far up. But even on the proper technique, it looks like his knees are doing a slight lift to bring the back up. The dude goes on to say the right way is using your body weight to the lift, yet nowhere is it explained what he is doing exactly to do this…
So basically:
- Is using my curled feet plus a small leg / knee lift to better position the bike really that bad?
- What is the motion I am meant to do with my hips and using by body weight to lift the back instead?
by The_Ham_of_Rum