Looking beyond Body Position

If you’re already had mountainbike lessons, or you're a mountain bike coach or guide, you’ll be very familiar with the following cues:

Ride centred.
Heels down.
Light hands.
Elbows out.
Low centre of gravity.
Look ahead.
Lean the bike.
Follow the terrain.
Push into the curve of the jump, don’t pull.
Drop the outside foot to lean further in the turn.

And the list goes on...

But why do these cues work?
What is the physics behind them?

Take something as simple as “light hands.”

When should your hands be light? — and when do they need to be firm and active?

How can you push, pump, or drive the bike through a corner if you’re trying to keep your hands light the whole time?

The truth is that any basic "riding position" has limits. At a certain point, the rider has to understand what forces they are actually encountering, and how to manage them on purpose.

It’s these invisible, slippery-to-pinpoint forces that separate a very intuitive rider from a beginner.

The intuitive rider can feel what’s happening and respond instantly — but often that same intuitive rider can’t explain what they’re feeling to another person who is NOT feeling intuitive - especially in a method that the other person can repeat.

So the real question becomes: how do you take what you feel instinctively and translate it into something teachable? How do you break riding down into small, repeatable experiences — drills, reference points, and cause-and-effect explanations — so a less intuitive rider can find the root issue, gain control, and hold onto clear, precise "reference points" as the bike moves through rough, uneven ground, under braking, and in turns?

That is the layer the MTB Skills™ Method is built to teach.

The programme is designed specifically for mountainbiker's and coaches who are already fluent in the language of mountain bike dynamics and even instruction, but want to go deeper.

It turns the dial up — think of it as adding layers of comprehension.

Across two decades of teaching riders and training instructors, one observation has remained consistent: many riders understand the final outcome of a skill, - a corner should look like this, a jump should look like this, your legs and arms should look like this... and many people can perform it correctly in the "right" environment.

But when speed increases, terrain steepens, or the line becomes less predictable — or when a rider is dealing with fear, past injuries, or ingrained habits — underlying weaknesses begin to appear.

Without a clear understanding of the “why” and “how,” riders often revert to old patterns.

The MTB Skills™ Method equips coaches and rider's with the tools to recognise those weaknesses, understand the mechanical causes behind them, and uses drills and explanations that resolve the issue at its source, delivering a higher-quality, more professional learning experience.

Book in for a One on One or Private Group Session in Finale Ligure (Italy) or Rotorua (New Zealand) or keep your eyes peeled for online coaching coming soon.