- Today, we're gonna be looking at body positioning.
It's the core skill that ties all other skills together
which means if you're doing this wrong,
everything else will be wrong.
(laughs) Okay.
(upbeat techno music)
(bike whooshing)
Body positioning is the most important thing to get right.
Nailing it unlocks levels of control, grip,
and speed that just aren't consistently possible
with poor form.
The flip side of that coin
is that poor body positioning gets you
into so much trouble without you even realizing it.
Getting bucked out of control, washing out the front end,
going over the bars and the drop, even just to an off lane,
the cause, more often than not, is bad body positioning.
No great riders have exactly the same body position
which is why, with experience, you can always recognize
riders by the way they look on the bike regardless
of the kit they're wearing.
That means there are many variations of body position
that work well, but there are a few key things
that all great riders do.
Right, let's get one thing out of the way.
First, there is no one physical body position
for me to teach you.
You don't just
(suspenseful music) assume attack position
and then squid your way down the trail
like a mannequin with a death wish.
Attack position!
(suspenseful music) (bike rustling)
You may laugh but I have genuinely seen people doing this.
Body positioning is a fluid and dynamic thing
that is always changing depending on what you are riding
making it difficult to put into words.
We'll try though.
I'm sure most of you are well-versed in the traditional tips
of eyes up, elbows out, knees bent, heels down,
weight centered, that are commonly used.
These are all great and remain relevant
for beginners all the way through to advanced riders.
I like to go through these points to make sure
that we're all on the same page and also discard
a few misconceptions.
Keeping your eyes up refers to looking ahead
to read the terrain before you're knee deep in the action.
It's really important as you have to give your brain time
to process what it's seeing so you can make decisions
on where you're going and what you're doing.
How far ahead is related to speed but it's something
that we'll tackle in detail in a later vid.
Elbows out is an interesting one
as a beginner encourages riders to lower the center
of gravity and bring their weight centered.
There are arguments that there's also a biomechanical
advantage for strength and manipulating the bike,
but I know some excellent riders who have their elbows in
and it doesn't seem to hold them back.
I say, let your elbows sit where they feel comfortable
and worry more about the important things.
How much bend depends on situation and the terrain.
As a default, I use just a little bit of a bend
and then go farther when I'm being more aggressive
or trying to be aerodynamic or dodging branches
'cause they're my big long unit. (giggles)
Knees slightly bent allows you to easily absorb any bumps
and maintain efficiency.
I see so many people with really bent legs hovering
over the back wheel with what must be an unhealthy amount
of lactic acid in their thighs.
It's like running your suspension at 50% sags.
What waste.
Don't do that.
The straighter your legs are, the more efficient they are.
Running them straighter more often
will save you a lot of energy.
The key thing is to only bend them when you need to.
Like when the track is steeper or you're absorbing features.
Fully locking them out is actually a good trick
to give the pens a rest mid descent
but only do that when it's safe to do so.
I do it a lot and but maybe don't recommend
you do it all the time. (giggles)
I've heard some people mentioning
that they purposefully bow their legs out.
(calm upbeat music)
(music screeches)
Don't do that. (giggles)
You're just putting your legs into a weaker position
for no real benefit.
And equally, don't hug your knees into your seat
and top tube.
Keep them in line with your feet by default and move them
in or out to balance, or when allowing the bike
to move as needed.
Heels down is an important one for flat pedal riders.
It helps keep the feet planted on the pedals
through rough ground by keeping the forces acting
on your foot perpendicular to the pedal.
Nothing is worse than the dreaded foot bones or pedal flip
and then duck foot in your way down the next section
of track in your heels.
Dropping the heals benefits all pedal types
by getting a bit of suspension from the pivot of your ankle
helping to smooth things out.
I see a lot of people stressing about this tip
as biomechanically, they physically can't move their heels
lower than the tools once they're in a good central
body position without feeling like the hamstrings are just
gonna snap like an elastic band.
Don't worry, if you look closely,
most riders' back feet don't actually have the heel bent.
The key thing here is that your calf is relaxed
allowing your ankle to pivot to absorb bumps
and keep your heels planted on the pedals.
I'm a bit of a unicorn with mega flexi calves.
You gotta be good at something.
Weight centered is a trickier one to define
but the reasons why are simple.
The tires on your bike grip thanks to weight going down
through the bike and into your rubber of choice.
When your weight is centered between them,
grip is evenly spread between the two wheels
which is good for cornering and braking.
Due to the way our bodies and bikes are shaped,
it's rare for people to have their center of gravity forward
of center but it's very common
for people have it too far back.
When you lean back and put your center of gravity
behind the bottom bracket, you have to grip on tight
to the bars to stop you falling off the back.
If you never get back to that magical center position,
you can never relax that grip.
The trick I use is to find a center position is focusing
on finding a gentle way in my palms.
I relax my grip in the bars and slowly creep forward
until I feel my palms pressing lightly down into the grips.
That means my center of gravity is in front
of the bottom bracket which is around about the center.
What you don't let your knees bend and creep forward
as you're doing this, make sure you keep them just
with a small amount of bend and hinge forward at the hips.
Other riders use sticking their elbows out
and getting ahead over the bars to achieve this.
Just whatever works for you.
I've heard some people see to get your hips
over the bottom bracket.
If you can successfully tell where your hips are
in relation to your BB when riding,
then congratulations. (giggles)
I certainly can't 'cause I don't have eyes in my butt
but you know, whatever works for you.
So those are the generally accepted basics of body position.
So far, so simple.
But as things get more advanced in terms of speed
and technicality, one of the above points becomes
way more important than the rest.
Any guesses?
That's right, weight distribution is so, so, so important
and this video has just been an elaborate set up
to talk about it.
So being centered in the bike is simply trying
to put your center of gravity right in the middle
of the two wheels.
You absolutely 100% do not want to do this all of the time.
(suspenseful music)
This should just be your default position which you start
and then just depending on what's happening
on the trail you're riding.
When you set off down a trail, you should be there.
When you need the front tire to grip, you should be there.
When you recover from a steep section,
you know where you're recovered to?
That's right, slap, bang, in the middle.
I describe this as being like a tennis player,
always returning to center core after each shot
so they are ready for whatever the opponent hits next.
Being an egotistical YouTube weapon,
I had to come up with a name for this way of thinking
about body position for your consideration,
The Boss Stance.
Trademark, it's trademarked. (giggles)
So hopefully, this default position is starting
to not only come together in your head, but make real sense.
Alright, one more thing to this pile
of things I've already mentioned,
once you've got into this position and you got it dialed,
relax, loosen the grip on the bars,
switch off those stiff muscles and just get comfy
and centered.
Sure, when stuff gets real, you need to hold on tight,
shift your body weight and do what needs to be done
but always, always come back
to this default position and chill.
So many riders don't, they just stay pants and rigid
and end up diamond-hard, massive fatigued,
and cramping muscles at the bottom.
The boss stance works an absolute treat on flatter trails
and although things will always be dynamically moving
and changing this technique for corners, breaking,
lumps and bumps are applied,
the core aspects are still there.
Looking ahead, small bend in the knees,
calves relaxed, light pressure in the palms, stay in loose.
(calm upbeat music)
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
This is an advanced body position video, isn't it?
Shows us the good stuff, shows us what body positions
using the proper gnarly (beep).
What's the secret?
There is no secret.
There's none.
Seriously, advanced versions of most techniques are just
doing the same basic techniques
but faster and a gnarlier terrain.
There's no magic technique here.
The hardest thing is just doing the basic techniques
even when your brain is saying, "Screw that."
Let's quickly mention the main situations
where you don't actually need your weight centered.
Nasty holes, really rough straights, square edges,
drops and jumps, these are all situations
where you want your front end actually unweighted
to varying degrees.
I'm not gonna go into like detail about these situations
otherwise, we're gonna be here all day.
Probably are going to be held here all day, anyway.
Don't worry, future vids will cover these things.
I'm gonna go ahead and assume everybody knows
that when you ride steep sections of trail,
you shift your weight back.
I'm pretty sure everyone's heard that,
"Yeah, lean back."
- [Man] Lean back, lean back, lean back.
- Whoa.
- [Man] Lean back!
- Yeah, we all know that?
Wrong.
When riding steeper section of the trail,
you actually pitch your bike down by straightening your arms
and bending your legs but your weight should still
be pretty close to centered over the bike.
If you are breaking on this steep section then yes,
you will have to shift your weight back a bit
for those break and forces.
The most common mistake I see with body positioning
is people creeping into a seemingly safe, comfortable,
defensive position, the bum behind the seat,
and the hands just tugging on the bar,
just a little bit.
It's not their fault.
At some point, they've gone over the bars
and the brain has gone, "Well, screw that.
Ain't gonna do that again, time to lean back."
I call this defensive position, passenger mode
because once you're in it, you're just along for the ride.
This is where there is a strong correlation
between confidence and body position.
(calm upbeat music)
I know when I'm not feeling confident,
I can feel my weight creeping back and I've got
to really battle with myself to keep things centered.
You'll know when it's happening 'cause it feels
like the bike is just running away from you
and it's hard to stay on lane.
The issue is usually not because
of your arms pushing you back,
it's actually because your legs bending too much.
I have to consciously straighten them a bit to get back into
that center position and feel that light pound pressure.
I think that's it.
I did warn you at the start,
this was gonna be really detailed.
So to recap, here's the main points.
Use the boss stance as your default position.
Focus on that small bend in the legs,
light pressure in the hands, and relaxing.
Let the bike move underneath you to fluidly follow the
terrain and shift back only when it's really required.
Always try to return to this position
whenever the track allows.
Watch out for those passenger moments
when the weight creeps back and the bike feels
like it's getting away from you.
And finally, be a boss.
Trademark. (giggles)
Hopefully, you learned something today and if you did,
I'd appreciate every sneaky thumbs up,
let the bosses know I'm doing my job.
If you've got any questions, I'm gonna be hanging around
in the comments for about an hour after this goes live
and I'll try and answer them all.
Now it's up to you, do not just carry on with your life
until the next video in this subject pops up.
Seriously, next time you're out on your bike,
just think to yourself, "Oh heck, I guess we'll see if
that lanky Scottish guy was actually talking sense
about that boss stance stuff."
What have you got to lose?
All right, that is it.
Stay tuned for the next episode,
subscribe so you don't miss it or not.
I'm not your boss.
Let's go.
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