All great tips, but having a jump that is low risk that you can session is huge, at least it was for me. I spent a lot of time learning how to handle a steep lip on a step up, now im clearing 20' gaps. All this at 55.
Awesome man! Just turned 52 today (or 13😂) and got back into it this year after 30 years off and back to jumping smaller stuff and it feels great. At least til my back stiffens up that evening 😂
remember the saying "keep it simple stupid" still aplies learn basics then go practice till you can go to next step, nice you never gave up riding keep burning rubber not your soul. 31 and i will ride till i die.
my first bike was a old banana seat pedal back brake, learned to downhill on a bmx frame I put together, now I have a Marlin 6 entry level bike and already have the skills to become advanced in level on a mountain bike, and easily shred the black and double black single track trails in my city. even can freeride downhill, I owe it to learning the basics and the mechanics of the center of gravity...
Sic breakdown! So in essence, vector lean the opposite way on the landing, yes? I had a Honda XR100 I used to ride in the woods with my friends. Build jumps. Land back-wheel-first all the time. It was fun. So was shotgunning Old Milwaukees in the power-lines. And while I haven't had an ol' Mill in 30 years, I still land wheelie first all the time.
Thanks for this technical breakdown and solid advice. Just when I think I've seen every how to jump video, I find this gem! So I'm about 2 years into my jumping journey and although the knowledge and foundation are important, nothing will work but getting out on the trails and practicing. The part you mentioned about weekend warriors (or 3 month warriors as you say) is so true. So many of us are so busy, getting to the trails every weekend is tough but repetition is the key. If you want to jump confident, safe, and fun you have to be on it weekly. If you really want to jump as bad as you say you do, then get your arse to the park or trails and practice!! Over and over.
I’ve been off mountain bikes since 2000. Got back into it with my kids a few months ago. This past weekend I tried a jump and ended up going over the handle bars. Busted my helmet and received a moderate concussion and some stitches in a few places. My Dr. told me to lay off for a month before I tried jumping again. Any way I did exactly what the last guy did in your video. Compressed to far back and was not sure till now why it happened. Awesome video. I am signing myself and the kids up for a jump clinic though. 😂
I managed to figure out something like the vectored lean by trying to reverse the bucking motion so I could get air at a minimal speed. It's cool that I'm actually doing something correctly. I still need to work on landing angle though.
Another great video and I am already looking forward to your next one. I find your channel to be actually the most educational in skill training as I came to the same conclusions myself the hard way trough frustrations & injuries. I whish I had this info years back, but then again if I consider my lack of experience I would probably not believe the "hard truths" spoken on the channel. I would like to point out and hear your thoughts (could be a topic for another video) on how cockpit setup (stack and reach mainly) affect jumping and maybe other skills or techniques. I found that incorrect bike size - stack/reach/handlebar rotation is the the most dangerous mistake you can make when trying to progress jumping skills. For example increasing stack and reach too much can get you to a point where you are so stretched out that you can go over the handlebars "even if you try" and you are landing rear wheel first all the time or reducing them both too much can make you OTB on every jump along with washing out in corners that are not very steep.
Dont worry if you struggle. As the video said. Jumping is not about knowledeg, its about the skill. There is so many things happening. you cant think about what you doing when you hitting a jump. Even if you seen this video, and everything sounds plausible. still, you race towards a jump, you wont convert all this with full confidence. You will struggle and it will feel like its not working. Its still can take time. It feels like you not progressing. But there will be a moment when its klicking. The moment, when the first time you jump and its the muscle memory doing its job. Its a eureka moment. Its the first time you dont need to focus on your body movement but more onto the jump itself. Thats the first time its feels like you doing it the proper way. and than progress goes fast. So train these things, and wait for the moment its becomes muscle memory.
I'm a heavy rider, at 230lbs. For me to clear a 10-15 jump I feel like I need a lot more speed than the guys that are 180-190. That being said, I've tried all kinds I'd advise, which can be mind numbing. Not to mention information overload. I had my AH-AH moment when I realized I can't be towed in by a much lighter rider. Gravity is real. The advise I didn't hear in this video is, absolutely do not add input into the bars in a way that you will become a dead sailor. There's nothing worse than having everything line up and you do something to make you lean to one side. Trying to correct this in the air is just about impossible.
I've been contemplating what you have described as a "vectored lean" for some time, some one else described this as a slight feeling like your feet coming forward of your hips slightly hanging off the bars, almost as if someone pulled a rug from under your feet. In practice it's springing off the feet perpendicular to the line drawn between the wheel axles at the point you need the wheels to take off from the lip. Pheew that was a long sentence. Personally the absolute hardest thing is standing up the whole way off the lip and NOT absorbing at all before the rear wheel is off the lip. Bearing in mind the biggest thing I have hit jumps wise is probably about 4-5ft height and about 10-12 across the flat table-top. I'm looking to progress to bigger jumps, but as you say, getting bucked is the number 1 fear. Great video.
Good awareness- yes that’s a clean description too! I don’t want people thinking about their axles too much but if you can good on you lol! IMO man… next level is coaching or riding behind riders you trust Come join us if you want me to do some vid coaching w you
Great advice. Drills not on trail are the only way to master correct fundamentals and build muscle memory. The thing that is counter-intuitive about jumping is that you must must push down with your feet and hands as you boost and pull off the lip of the jump. Pushing down to go up is hard to get the brain to grasp. It is the only way to keep the rider and bike as a connected package in the air. The other thing is you have to drive the heels down into the lip and transition to a toe point on the pull as you clear the lip... a lot of reps are necessary to get the timing and muscle memory down.
sure thing. It's different too for people with experience when younger who are returning, plus 99% of riders who are learning jumping are riding nice full sus bikes. IMO easier to learn on a twitchy hardtail + small, forgiving jump because the mechanics/movement are magnified. Thanks for checking it out!
@@mountainbikeacademy I cut my teeth manualing over 1-2' logs and white knuckling down steep on rigid frames on ungroomed hiking trails. It built-in natural trials skills to my game early. It was intuitive, but there is no substitute for parking lot work of fundamentals.
Hey there! Solid break down and instructions... I feel what i need to do, i know how to timely preload and make the slight angled hop to make a pefect jump. I am being held back as the lip gets higher and steeper to lean in the vector needed as i feel i will go into orbit. It is not the technique, it is the fear of going sky high....any tips on that other then repeat, repeat, repeat?? Fear originated from a nasty otb crash with neck disk damage, so it resides deep in my being. Cheers!!
Honestly that's a way deeper topic - super common though. I'm very sorry to hear about the disc damage, that's ROUGH! So there's a whole process I take people through in my membership (not trying to be like "buy my membership") but here's the basic steps: 1. fearsetting - map out what fears we are aware of and what we notice it's making us DO on the bike 2. goalsetting - identify one outcome that if achieved would eliminate complexity + get us at least to 95% consistency. This is the one that requires me knowing the person a bit to help them out, because riders tend to misdiagnose the actual thing that's stopping them. 3. drills that emulate the moves needed from #2 in a safe way 4. Gradual re-introduction of safest/most predictable jumps Plus you gotta practice with a measure of frequency with jumping - the timing required super punishes you for being off a bit. I hope that's somewhat helpful - but yeah if you want you can join the membership and I'll help you through it myself.
SHOOOT!!! You’re in Asheville ?????? Dude. I’m on beech mtn. So when can I get some private coaching?? I thought a part of this video was @ kanuga (sure looked like it)
I always did this instinctively but I learned on mt bikes with no suspension at all. LOL you had to pop the lip to launch. Basically suspension forks require an earlier motion than a rigid fork. LOL For the record, I suck at jumpimg, but there was one time I launched a little too huge on a jump and one of the best riders I've ever seen, who was a junior world champion in 97, told me it was the biggest jump he'd ever seen. LOL I was freaked in the air but I just imagined I was on my three wheeler and I landed pretty smooth. Might have been 80 or 90 feet to a nice long landing slope. I was on a Foes with a Risse fork. That stuff was bombproof
I find if you hit a jump ANY size doesn’t matter l find that if you load the suspension and then if you think it’s going wrong just pull the bike up towards your body, it’s hard to explain but it basically kills your speed and the jump at the same time so you can just ride away , until you’re ready to jump 👍🏾trust me it works
@@mountainbikeacademy yeah I hear ya, no I meant like once you’re past the point of no return to gain control of the airtime I just pull the bike up to my body and then push it down, I’ve seen a lot of people go dead sailor mid air which is a bad idea, by pulling the bike level towards your body it’s easier to get it back under control 👍🏾
More or less. Idea is the same how you influence the bike is different. Wait later to standing spring Do standing spring mush more rapidly IMO it’s mainly a timing difference
No, because if the rear doesn't spring down there's no chaos to control on the way up. IMO it's WAY easier to learn on a hardtail because there's far less going on, but man is it way harder on your body if you aren't used to landing lol.
@@mountainbikeacademy I live on Beech Mountain. I’m 53, raced dh years ago. Actually won a couple of sea otter dh’s. Quit riding in 2009. Started back up in 2022. Dive right back into racing. Won the gonuts dh series. But, I was racing against other old farts. I want to get back to where I was. I can’t jump, my cornering sucks and I ride scared (4 knee ops in same knee).
@@bullit4x I know the knee story myself that’s rough! Yeah stay on the channel I may open private 1-1 lessons where I travel to your area - I’ll announce it later this summer
i feel like you should be teaching jump basics on a hardtail to teach the rider how to absorb some of the impact not just brute forcing it with suspension
13:26 roflmao oh boy childhood memories of so many cooffin jumps yes way different method for these jumps do not do without proper advice.... and years of basic skills in jumps.
All great tips, but having a jump that is low risk that you can session is huge, at least it was for me. I spent a lot of time learning how to handle a steep lip on a step up, now im clearing 20' gaps. All this at 55.
That’s epic and I agree 1000 percent.
Awesome man! Just turned 52 today (or 13😂) and got back into it this year after 30 years off and back to jumping smaller stuff and it feels great.
At least til my back stiffens up that evening 😂
That’s so rad Bro I’m 43 I’m trying to do what ur doing
remember the saying "keep it simple stupid" still aplies learn basics then go practice till you can go to next step, nice you never gave up riding keep burning rubber not your soul. 31 and i will ride till i die.
my first bike was a old banana seat pedal back brake, learned to downhill on a bmx frame I put together, now I have a Marlin 6 entry level bike and already have the skills to become advanced in level on a mountain bike, and easily shred the black and double black single track trails in my city. even can freeride downhill, I owe it to learning the basics and the mechanics of the center of gravity...
I've been riding 30+ years and I'm getting SO much out of your videos. I'm binging you hard. Thanks!
Sic breakdown! So in essence, vector lean the opposite way on the landing, yes? I had a Honda XR100 I used to ride in the woods with my friends. Build jumps. Land back-wheel-first all the time. It was fun. So was shotgunning Old Milwaukees in the power-lines. And while I haven't had an ol' Mill in 30 years, I still land wheelie first all the time.
If you can do it with control totally fine
And sounds all American ‘muricuh
Thanks for this technical breakdown and solid advice. Just when I think I've seen every how to jump video, I find this gem! So I'm about 2 years into my jumping journey and although the knowledge and foundation are important, nothing will work but getting out on the trails and practicing. The part you mentioned about weekend warriors (or 3 month warriors as you say) is so true. So many of us are so busy, getting to the trails every weekend is tough but repetition is the key. If you want to jump confident, safe, and fun you have to be on it weekly. If you really want to jump as bad as you say you do, then get your arse to the park or trails and practice!! Over and over.
Jumping is a looong journey lol. Other stuff like cornering, drops, downhill riding IMO is a weekend with the right instruction plus lots of practice.
bit.ly/3I0Tl3T -- Join us for fitness, coaching, and community!
You got me at Bermbino 🧨👌
My biggest mistake is bailing out whenever I don't feel in control. Idk if it served me well or if it's a nuisance 😂
Jeez was wondering if anyone would get the sandlot reference
I’ve been off mountain bikes since 2000. Got back into it with my kids a few months ago. This past weekend I tried a jump and ended up going over the handle bars. Busted my helmet and received a moderate concussion and some stitches in a few places. My Dr. told me to lay off for a month before I tried jumping again. Any way I did exactly what the last guy did in your video. Compressed to far back and was not sure till now why it happened. Awesome video. I am signing myself and the kids up for a jump clinic though. 😂
lol! Def listen to your doctor. Concussions are not to be fooled with :)
And yes a jump clinic is the way to go!
I managed to figure out something like the vectored lean by trying to reverse the bucking motion so I could get air at a minimal speed. It's cool that I'm actually doing something correctly. I still need to work on landing angle though.
NICE! That gets me fired up. Lots of things I discovered the same way too.
Great job dude, well explained
Glad it resonated!
Definitely good advice, thanks for the simplification, the standing tall has saved me many a time !!!
Super!
Another great video and I am already looking forward to your next one.
I find your channel to be actually the most educational in skill training as I came to the same conclusions myself the hard way trough frustrations & injuries. I whish I had this info years back, but then again if I consider my lack of experience I would probably not believe the "hard truths" spoken on the channel.
I would like to point out and hear your thoughts (could be a topic for another video) on how cockpit setup (stack and reach mainly) affect jumping and maybe other skills or techniques. I found that incorrect bike size - stack/reach/handlebar rotation is the the most dangerous mistake you can make when trying to progress jumping skills. For example increasing stack and reach too much can get you to a point where you are so stretched out that you can go over the handlebars "even if you try" and you are landing rear wheel first all the time or reducing them both too much can make you OTB on every jump along with washing out in corners that are not very steep.
www.loom.com/share/a97735731b4f4744a1707c42cee98337?sid=ccb3688c-1938-496f-b893-f0b95908a903
This is pro -advice right there.
I’m mean you’re pro in explaining things David 🤗
Thank you :)
Dont worry if you struggle. As the video said. Jumping is not about knowledeg, its about the skill. There is so many things happening. you cant think about what you doing when you hitting a jump.
Even if you seen this video, and everything sounds plausible. still, you race towards a jump, you wont convert all this with full confidence. You will struggle and it will feel like its not working. Its still can take time. It feels like you not progressing.
But there will be a moment when its klicking. The moment, when the first time you jump and its the muscle memory doing its job. Its a eureka moment.
Its the first time you dont need to focus on your body movement but more onto the jump itself. Thats the first time its feels like you doing it the proper way. and than progress goes fast.
So train these things, and wait for the moment its becomes muscle memory.
I'm a heavy rider, at 230lbs. For me to clear a 10-15 jump I feel like I need a lot more speed than the guys that are 180-190. That being said, I've tried all kinds I'd advise, which can be mind numbing. Not to mention information overload. I had my AH-AH moment when I realized I can't be towed in by a much lighter rider. Gravity is real.
The advise I didn't hear in this video is, absolutely do not add input into the bars in a way that you will become a dead sailor. There's nothing worse than having everything line up and you do something to make you lean to one side. Trying to correct this in the air is just about impossible.
I've been contemplating what you have described as a "vectored lean" for some time, some one else described this as a slight feeling like your feet coming forward of your hips slightly hanging off the bars, almost as if someone pulled a rug from under your feet.
In practice it's springing off the feet perpendicular to the line drawn between the wheel axles at the point you need the wheels to take off from the lip. Pheew that was a long sentence.
Personally the absolute hardest thing is standing up the whole way off the lip and NOT absorbing at all before the rear wheel is off the lip.
Bearing in mind the biggest thing I have hit jumps wise is probably about 4-5ft height and about 10-12 across the flat table-top.
I'm looking to progress to bigger jumps, but as you say, getting bucked is the number 1 fear.
Great video.
Good awareness- yes that’s a clean description too! I don’t want people thinking about their axles too much but if you can good on you lol!
IMO man… next level is coaching or riding behind riders you trust
Come join us if you want me to do some vid coaching w you
Great advice. Drills not on trail are the only way to master correct fundamentals and build muscle memory. The thing that is counter-intuitive about jumping is that you must must push down with your feet and hands as you boost and pull off the lip of the jump. Pushing down to go up is hard to get the brain to grasp. It is the only way to keep the rider and bike as a connected package in the air. The other thing is you have to drive the heels down into the lip and transition to a toe point on the pull as you clear the lip... a lot of reps are necessary to get the timing and muscle memory down.
sure thing. It's different too for people with experience when younger who are returning, plus 99% of riders who are learning jumping are riding nice full sus bikes. IMO easier to learn on a twitchy hardtail + small, forgiving jump because the mechanics/movement are magnified. Thanks for checking it out!
@@mountainbikeacademy I cut my teeth manualing over 1-2' logs and white knuckling down steep on rigid frames on ungroomed hiking trails. It built-in natural trials skills to my game early. It was intuitive, but there is no substitute for parking lot work of fundamentals.
"The great Burmbino"!!!!! That was the best!!!! LOL
lol thanks
Great vid. How do you find the time while you’re touring with greenday? 😂
Teleportation through enlightenment
Said enlightenment attained by communing with bike gods wade Simmons and Brett Tippie
Hey there! Solid break down and instructions... I feel what i need to do, i know how to timely preload and make the slight angled hop to make a pefect jump. I am being held back as the lip gets higher and steeper to lean in the vector needed as i feel i will go into orbit. It is not the technique, it is the fear of going sky high....any tips on that other then repeat, repeat, repeat??
Fear originated from a nasty otb crash with neck disk damage, so it resides deep in my being. Cheers!!
Honestly that's a way deeper topic - super common though. I'm very sorry to hear about the disc damage, that's ROUGH!
So there's a whole process I take people through in my membership (not trying to be like "buy my membership") but here's the basic steps:
1. fearsetting - map out what fears we are aware of and what we notice it's making us DO on the bike
2. goalsetting - identify one outcome that if achieved would eliminate complexity + get us at least to 95% consistency. This is the one that requires me knowing the person a bit to help them out, because riders tend to misdiagnose the actual thing that's stopping them.
3. drills that emulate the moves needed from #2 in a safe way
4. Gradual re-introduction of safest/most predictable jumps
Plus you gotta practice with a measure of frequency with jumping - the timing required super punishes you for being off a bit.
I hope that's somewhat helpful - but yeah if you want you can join the membership and I'll help you through it myself.
Subscribed!!
Nice! Cool user name too m’friend
oh ! stand up to the jump
SHOOOT!!! You’re in Asheville ?????? Dude. I’m on beech mtn. So when can I get some private coaching?? I thought a part of this video was @ kanuga (sure looked like it)
Yeah I ride wnc area when I’m not riding near Greenville. I got into it at Clemson.
I always did this instinctively but I learned on mt bikes with no suspension at all. LOL you had to pop the lip to launch. Basically suspension forks require an earlier motion than a rigid fork. LOL For the record, I suck at jumpimg, but there was one time I launched a little too huge on a jump and one of the best riders I've ever seen, who was a junior world champion in 97, told me it was the biggest jump he'd ever seen. LOL I was freaked in the air but I just imagined I was on my three wheeler and I landed pretty smooth. Might have been 80 or 90 feet to a nice long landing slope. I was on a Foes with a Risse fork. That stuff was bombproof
Risse fork was an absolute legend
@@mountainbikeacademy You know it. IOt ended up on a super Vee that we modifird to double the travel and I won two races with that bike
I find if you hit a jump ANY size doesn’t matter l find that if you load the suspension and then if you think it’s going wrong just pull the bike up towards your body, it’s hard to explain but it basically kills your speed and the jump at the same time so you can just ride away , until you’re ready to jump 👍🏾trust me it works
Could be a good way to scrub some speed but what about the habits it’s building?
@@mountainbikeacademy yeah I hear ya, no I meant like once you’re past the point of no return to gain control of the airtime I just pull the bike up to my body and then push it down, I’ve seen a lot of people go dead sailor mid air which is a bad idea, by pulling the bike level towards your body it’s easier to get it back under control 👍🏾
@@Cartsp70 oh yeah ! I know what you mean now. Yeah I’m not sure why but that seems to buy you some time!
Hey mate, do the techniques in this video work on hardtails?
More or less. Idea is the same how you influence the bike is different.
Wait later to standing spring
Do standing spring mush more rapidly
IMO it’s mainly a timing difference
@@mountainbikeacademy Thanks bro
If you had to chose
Landing flat or casing the jump 😊
Landing flat at least I can absorb the impact without a knuckle destroying everything
Is that loading the same with a hardtail? Does the nose springing up but the tail not cause issues?
No, because if the rear doesn't spring down there's no chaos to control on the way up. IMO it's WAY easier to learn on a hardtail because there's far less going on, but man is it way harder on your body if you aren't used to landing lol.
So how do you jump DJ lips? Was thinking of learning to dirt jump as it will be a faster way to get good
good q here's my answer www.loom.com/share/d1867bc3272a4c3cb9522fee570892f0?sid=5372f316-8a1a-4f0e-8a4f-0e678aeb59b3
Glad I found your channel recently , my last name is Davidson also maybe we are related
Maybe my whole family is from Scotland and wales and moved to Tennessee
Wish you were in my area for some private coaching. I just won a literal fu@k ton of money playing the lottery.
lol. Where are you exactly?
@@mountainbikeacademy I live on Beech Mountain. I’m 53, raced dh years ago. Actually won a couple of sea otter dh’s. Quit riding in 2009. Started back up in 2022. Dive right back into racing. Won the gonuts dh series. But, I was racing against other old farts. I want to get back to where I was. I can’t jump, my cornering sucks and I ride scared (4 knee ops in same knee).
@@mountainbikeacademy beech mountain
@@bullit4x I know the knee story myself that’s rough!
Yeah stay on the channel I may open private 1-1 lessons where I travel to your area - I’ll announce it later this summer
@@mountainbikeacademy awesome! I can hook you up with buddy passes for some shuttles. I work bike patrol.
What about is poorer hardtail riders?
Not understanding the question but hard tails are awesome I have one
I am going to practice this tomorrow for sure. Great instruction.
Ok, I tried it, but only my front wheel is lifting. To get my back wheel to lift I have to push forward on the bars. Is this normal?
I’d have to see it to give you insight tbh
But sounds correct though
Practice on stepups, lf you screw it up it's less distance to fall. Of course you're not going to screw it up...right?
I agree
Yeah don’t screw it up!
if you carry your bike uphill, it will carry you in the air.
I will carry you to the comment consistency hall of fame
i feel like you should be teaching jump basics on a hardtail to teach the rider how to absorb some of the impact not just brute forcing it with suspension
Nah
13:26 roflmao oh boy childhood memories of so many cooffin jumps yes way different method for these jumps do not do without proper advice.... and years of basic skills in jumps.
Good times eh