- Right I'm here with legendary mountain biker
Leigh Donovan in downhill,
cross country?
- (laughs) Definitely not!
Definitely not!
(laughing)
- Dual slalom and all that goodness,
you're here to help us
show us a few things..
In mountain biking.
- Yeah, I'm going to do five skills.
One, two, three, four, five. That sounds good.
- Sounds good to me.
- Awesome.
(rhythmic reggae music)
- Alright, so first skill we're going to learn today
is the first skill I teach my riders
is the trackstand.
It allows the rider to find
their center position much more easily.
So Blake, the first thing I want you to do is
I want you to hold your brakes on,
front and rear,
and I want you to get your pedals level,
so parallel to the ground.
Once you've found your left pedal staying seated,
then stand as soon as you get the foot on the pedal,
and then you can kind of let off your brakes a little.
But I want to see you stand.
Try to be like a little bit straighter,
like arms and legs a little more straight.
Yeah!
We'll try it again.
Find that pedal, and then stand,
and you can let off your brakes when you stand,
and kind of roll forward to kind of help you find that position.
- Yeah. - Your a little bit more bent.
I think for myself it's a lot easier to be straighter.
- Okay. - So I find more success in
like a straighter arm and a straighter leg.
And then you know you kind of move it around,
like you know one's bending more than the other.
And, kind of just playing around.
And then this will allow you to kind of get more
comfortable with the balance on the bike,
and riding with level pedals.
I try to teach the riders that I'm working with
to try and have equal weight in both feet.
Of course that's not always going to be the case.
You are going to have a little more weight
in your front foot sometimes,
especially that's the lead foot.
But try to kind of bring that back as well.
- Bring it back on to the back foot.
- Exactly. Definitely.
- Equal. - So shall we try it again?
- Yeah let's try that again.
- Alright.
(laughing)
- It's a little harder on the saw dust, isn't it?
- Dig in that front wheel.
- Oh! Oh!
Oh your doing good though!
Your not even moving.
- My brake, my brake.
(laughter)
- So, trackstand! number one skill.
Alright, so skill two is bike and body separation.
Moving forward and back on the bike.
- Okay what do you mean by "bike and body separation?".
Is that like crashing? (laughter)
Are we crashing here?
- I like to think it's preparing a rider
how to move forward and back on the bike.
- Okay.
- Because I feel like riders tend to stay more in
a statue position when they're riding.
- I've seen that.
- And there's not a lot of movement.
- Right.
- And I believe with mountain biking,
requires so much movement consistently,
that you can either be a passenger, or a pilot.
And this will allow you to pilot your way
through riding.
Alright so the first thing is I just stand up
in a neutral riding position,
and then your going to move forward,
and back, and it's a really small movement,
it's not big.
- Okay. - Just to create momentum.
There we go, alright so,
you going to start neutral,
and then your going to rock forward and back,
forward and back.
- I can see where that comes from on a trail.
Forward, back.
- Yeah, so ya know how when your moving so far
forward that you have all that weight in your hands?
- Yeah.
- Try to just put the weight in the feet when you
move forward.
So we really want to keep the hands light,
because if we keep our hands light,
and we keep the center of gravity low in our feet.
It allows to have more control.
So, just forward and back.
See how the movements kind of small?
- Yeah.
- And my hands are really light.
- No weight on the hands.
- Yeah and back, yup!
And straighten those legs all the way back,
there ya go.
Nice.
Good! perfect!
And when you're moving forward,
try to keep the weight
more into
a flatter foot versus a weighted toe.
- Okay.
- Right so a flatter foot kind of like,
downward dog with yoga, right?
Where your pushing your heels down,
keeping a flat foot helps keep better balance
and center of gravity as well.
Now I notice a lot of riders,
because people ride typically like with clips,
they tend to pedal with their toe,
and then they start to ride with their toe.
- Yeah.
- So their toe in all the time.
The problem with that is,
is now you've put so much weight into the
front of the bike,
that you don't have any equal weight
in the back of the bike. - Ahh..there ya go.
- Our goal should always be to like
lower the center of gravity,
as low as we can get.
And so if we can keep all that weight in the feet
all the time, and use our bike from the feet,
and allow this to stay a little lighter,
it's just we're going to be safer, and probably better riders.
- Better rider.
- Yeah. - Right.
- Alright that looked good, should we do one more?
- Yeah, let's do one more!
- Alright, let's do one more.
- Let's do a train.
- Alright.
Alright.
Forward, back.
And... (screaming)
(laughter)
- That's alright, that was awesome.
- Nice!
Alright, so-- - Number three.
- Number three, manual lift.
- Oh, I love a manual!
Everyone loves to learn a manual.
- Everyone loves a manual.
We're going to just do a manual lift so,
it's like an introduction to a manual.
- It's a good stepping stone to
getting into the manual.
- Definitely! We're going to just
it's kind of like the basics. - Yeah.
- And I think its really important for riders that
come across obstacles
on the course that, seem a little intimidating,
and sometimes they might walk over
or like go around. - Yeah.
- The manual lift allows you to effortlessly
get over those obstacles,
un-weighting the front just enough to
have it light enough to just roll right across obstacles.
Alright so, same as we just did with the
bike and body separation. - Yeah, forward and back.
- Forward and back, but the back's going to be like
twice as fast as the forward. - Okay.
- So we going to just kind of load
a little bit forward,
and then we going to explode back.
And let me give you the example.
Alright, always cover rear brake for safety,
I don't care about front as much,
but I always do both,
but rear brake definitely for safety,
for the manual. Okay?
Alright, so coming in.
Forward, back.
And getting the extension.
right?
Making sure your getting the legs,
but not dropping the chest.
Still keeping the chest strong.
- I see you get straight to straight legs?
Like straight legs.
- Yeah, straight legs.
I've done it for myself as a woman.
Maybe it's different for a man?
I can't really pull with the arms.
But it's easy if I use my body for the whole weight.
- Whole weight.
- Yes!
- Right. - Let's watch you go.
Your pulling, your weighting the hands,
and your going into the toes all at the same time.
So let's go back up, keep the feet a little more...
level.
You know doing that hinge at the ankle,
versus weighting the toe,
and lighter on the hands,
utilizing the body straight back.
Yes!
Absolutely perfect!
And you got that rear brake covered for safety,
so you're not going to loop out.
That was beautiful!
Alright, so let's do one more together.
- You're a great teacher Leigh.
(laughing)
- I try, I try,
I enjoy it!
Alright, here we go.
And bunny hop.
- I held a little bit of a manual there.
- Ya! Woohoo! I can't really hold manuals,
but-- - You can't?
- [Leigh] I can do a manual...
No I cannot! I need to learn how to manual.
- I'm ready. - Are we ready for skill four?
- Yes!
- Cornering, outside pedal down though.
So we're going to learn how to lean the bike,
not the body, and do a corner.
You ready for it?
- I'm ready for it.
- Alright, so first thing is,
that I start with,
is I have my riders just put their foot straight down.
So they understand what I'm talking about,
weighting the foot.
So since this is a left handed corner,
we going to be weighting the right side.
So I just have my riders kind of stand over the bike,
and lean the bike to the left,
so getting ready for the left corner,
and just kind of standing on the...
Yeah straightening that leg,
allowing all that weight to go into the pedal,
and straightening that inside arm
so we're leaning the bike, just not the body.
You kind of see that?
- Yeah.
- Perfect - Like that.
- Perfect you're kind of like a dancer.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. And when we're moving,
we don't want to move too far off on
the side that we're weighting,
cuz we're going to allow the weight of the foot
to balance the bike.
- Balance the bike, okay.
- Alright, we ready?
- Ready.
- Alright, let's go do it.
- Did you know I struggle going fast in corners?
- Alright well let's start slow,
and then we'll go fast.
Outside, leaning the body.
Steve Peat style.
- That is Steve Peat style.
(laughing)
- Okay, so that was pretty good.
I think that you could weight that outside pedal,
a little bit more.
- I felt like I was more like--
- Yeah, you were like weighted front.
- Yeah.
- And kind of like how you would ride
almost level pedal.
- Yeah, yeah.
- This way we want just the weight
to be in that outside pedal.
Just like literally-- - Just drop it.
- stand on that outside pedal.
And lean the bike to the left,
kind of how we were standing on the ground,
just lean it. Keep that inside arm straight,
not both arms bent, just one arm bent,
and all the weight in that right foot.
Let's try it again.
Weight that outside foot, lean the body.
Yeah! Like, how much easier was that?
- Way easier!
- And it was perfect!
And I think the more you practice that,
it just allows you to get more comfortable
with the speed, that you're going.
- I felt comfortable, and fully weighted.
- Yes, fully balanced, yeah.
- Didn't feel like there was too much weight
on the front, so it felt like it was going to wash out or,
the rear, or ya know it's not squirrely.
- Right! And it's a simple exercise you can do.
And, I a lot of times will just do it in a parking lot
and create a little figure eight with my riders,
and then just like kind of play around,
and have a little competition
and try and build the speed as we go.
I think learning if you can weight the outside pedal,
and you learn it early.
You know everyone knows how to ride level
it seems like - Yeah.
- It seems like everyone,
doesn't know how to weight the outside pedal,
and that might be a 90's kind of thing but,
it seems to still work for me so I'm going to go with it.
- Yeah, it's good.
- Yeah, alright, awesome!
Going to number five. Skill five.
So I don't typically get to
this skill very often in my clinics.
It's a much more advanced skill.
It's the bunny hop.
Personally my favorite.
Because I think it makes you look pretty cool
when you can do it correctly.
- Yes.
- But it requires a lot more movement,
a lot more power from the body,
and the technique has to kind of be spot on
to do it correctly.
A lot of people jump, use the suspension with their bike,
bend their legs.
- And use their clips, I've seen.
- And they use their clips.
Best way to learn is with flat pedals,
because you will
require you to learn how use the feet
and the body in the motion that it requires you
to do the skill properly.
The first thing is it's going to be similar
to the bike and body separation
we'll create momentum
we're going to be working on a flat spot here.
Get a couple of pedals in, momentum kind of does help
with the bunny help movement a little bit.
But you don't need tons of momentum.
So I'm going to give you an example first.
It's easier to show it, people teach this
all different ways.
For me, my experience has been that I teach
people how to kind of move on the bike first,
and then I teach them how to jump.
So the beginning movement will be like
where I load down, then I'd pull back,
kind of like into that manual lift,
and then I go to stand back up.
You'll be standing, then you'll load
and then you'll come back and circle around.
Kind of like a half circle back.
- Okay - Okay?
So sitting, kind of coming back and circling.
Let's first see you do that.
- See you do that, drop it.
Seating, down.
- There ya go. Get the weight off of the toes.
Make sure you have those feet kind of yeah there ya go!
Much better. Much better.
- I was pointing my feet there.
- Now I'm going to just have you watch me,
attempt at it. Don't claim to be get the highest,
but I definitely have...
So,
I see this a lot
with the jump,
people do this,
they pull it up.
You see that?
And so getting the body to be
straighter in the air,
kind of the hips almost meeting the handle bar,
you can get it higher.
- I see where you do it wrong.
Like your toes are really, like you're
pulling too much. - Yeah you can kind of see
I scooped right?
And keeping the feet connected the whole time.
Not pulling with the feet, not pulling with knees.
Pushing! With the feet.
- Yeah, pulling with the knees, pushing with the feet.
- Yes, pushing with the feet, not pulling with the knees.
- I'm not pulling. Okay. Cool.
- you want to try it? - Yeah I'm going to try it.
- I find the more you play around with
the easier it is.
There's a lot of people who do front wheel,
rear wheel lifts.
I always find it so difficult to teach it so
I just say go play a little.
There we go.
Nice.
So now try it again.
Try to get the legs more extended.
Obviously we know that you know how to
ride a bike very well. - Yeah
But now try and even
straighten those legs even
a little bit more as you're in the air,
and then when the front wheel touches
now re-absorbing,
so you come back to gravity by absorbing the ground.
Even straighter legs. Try and keep those legs straight.
There we go.
Alright, I'm going to give you one more example from me.
(laughing)
- That was good.
- And this is just good for beginners to try.
They can try this in their front yard
or its something fun to learn.
And if you video yourself.
- Yep, that's even better.
- Like we have videos today. - Yeah (laughing).
- So we can go back and critique it later.
I'm sure all you haters out there
will critique me but that's okay.
(laughing)
- What are you getting in air?
Alright, come on go ahead and just
lets watch you shred it.
Nice, oh yeah and that land!
You couldn't even hear you land.
That was perfect!
And that's the other thing the bunny hop has so many
aspects of skill involved with it that
it's not just from the lift or from being in the air,
it's even from the landing right?
- It's executing the landing.
- And I believe that if you can't bunny hop
you should never try and jump,
because you can't execute a landing.
- Yeah.
- And jumping is to me more about a landing,
then it is about the take off.
- Yeah.
- And you should always learn to mountain bike
with a goal of being a pilot, and not a passenger.
You're always going to be safer,
probably ride you bike longer
and visit the doctor a lot less, hopefully.
(laughter)
- That's wise words, coming from the legend Leigh.
(laughing)
Thank you so much for showing all these moves,
they're so, so good. - Thank you for including me.
(mumbles)
Thank you so much.
- Well, thank you very much.
Hopefully you guys understand and girls understand,
these five basic skills are going to help you
out there on the trail keep you a little bit safe.
- Yeah, I mean for me,
my business is all about safety first.
So the longer you're on your bike
the more you're going to be invested in the heart industry
and your going to spread the love.
So keep spreading the love out there because bikes are cool.
- Give us a thumbs up like,
if you want to see another skill video, click over here.
See ya.