Mountain Bike Geezer Posts

Published December 19, 2018 by

Being an mtb student makes me a better coach

I’ve made considerable progress in my jumping skills this year. I’ve been taking Ryan Leech’s Jump With Confidence course via his Ryan Leech Connection (RLC) online mountain bike skills coaching website and practicing several times/week at a local skills park where I’ve built several beginner-level table tops.

Here’s a one-minute clip of some of my recent beginner-level jump attempts this fall.  Yes, I know, there are visible flaws in these attempts which I’m still working to correct even as the ground is now frozen and covered with a few inches of snow (I’ve been shoveling). But the cool thing is my confidence is solid. The course is aptly named.

In 2017, my skills focus was on learning to bunny hop and manual via Ryan’s Bunny Hop Master Class and his Manual Master Class. Here’s a one-minute of my beginner-levels skills:

 

In 2015-16, my focus was on track stands, hopping, and rocking via Ryan’s Baseline Balance Skills course. Here are two short videos of me putting those skills to use on technical sections of some local trails:

I also happen to be one of several RLC skills coaches who answers questions and provides online feedback to those taking the online courses at the Ryan Leech Connection (RLC) online mountain bike skills coaching website.… Read the rest

Learning to ride Video

Developing construction skills for a skills park: a work in progress
Published April 15, 2018 by

Developing construction skills for a skills park: a work in progress

I published a post yesterday to my local mtb club’s blog titled, CROCT’s Sechler Skills Park continues to evolve.

The skills park is my primary responsibility as one of CROCT’s many volunteer trail workers. My motivation to work on it?

  • Our in-town Sechler Park MTB Trail is a river bottoms trail and doesn’t have a lot of challenging terrain. So having a skills park in the middle of it is way for local riders to practice their skills and challenge themselves
  • It’s handy to have a local skills park for instructional clinics. Kids who live in town can ride their bikes to the park via the local network of paved trails
  • I’m always working on my own riding skills and being able to construct features that are appropriate for my own development is a treat

Last summer, my interest in learning to jump via Ryan Leech’s Jumping with Confidence online course (affiliate link) spurred me to learn how to build beginner and intermediate level table top jumps. I had the full-time use a tractor with a bucket, free street reclamation dirt from the City of Northfield, a budget from CROCT to have it hauled in, and labor from other trail worker volunteers to help me shape, learn, test, and rebuild the jumps until we got them ‘good enough.’

By the end of the season, I’d gotten to where I could consider myself solid at beginner-level tabletops.… Read the rest

Trail work

Sechler Park Trail skills park table tops