Every week a new video chapter will be released : straight lines, braking, climbing, climbing a step, jumping, drop off and line choice. This week we focus on cornering and the straight line.
Your cornering position is the one that will provide you the maximum gain of time. If you manage to completely integrate the movement instinctively, you will be able to throw the bike around in no time with tons of grip.
The straight line position will allow you to have more amplitude with your arm and leg ready to absorb. Look forward will help you to anticipate obstacle and prepare your bike to brake or corner.
The main goal is to provide you a position where you feel relax and stable to save energy.
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Fabien Barel's Facebook Page, and check out Fabien Barel's Training camps at Les Gets Mtb resort - more info at
trainingcamp-lesgets@barel.co
fluidride.com/product-category/dvds
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHsR-cY7L4A
www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html#leaning
Is it a matter of personal preference or something?
When a coach tells a rider that in this turn you were doing this or that and should do this and that, the rider must be aware of his body and bike's positioning in order to change and modify. When a rider tells a mechanic or engineer that the bike is doing this or that in order to make modifications to the bike or it's components he needs to have that awareness, analytical ability and good communication in order for those people to understand what is "wrong" and needs changing.
Just my $.02 fwiw
What you're doing is re-defining --for your own purpose-- what I suggested as analytic skill, good communication, and conscious body awareness.
I'm saying that merely being a pro athlete doesn't mean possessing analytic skill, good communication and conscious body awareness AT THE LEVEL A TEACHER WOULD NEED THEM. If you watch Steve Jones's "Fundamentals" video you can see that the riders vary in their abilities to teach. In that video, I would say that Steve Peat, Eric Carter and Chris Powell are excellent teachers, and the other pro riders are merely acceptable, and perhaps even deficient, at teaching the things they are excellent at doing.
Riding DH at a top level requires only top level riding skill and strong self-confidence. It doesn't require any skills at communication or analysis of physical movement. Communication is not even a required skill. Analysis of physical movement can happen without thought in an instinctive athlete. I've known many who are that kind of athlete.
Good communication requires knowing the audience, keeping things brief enough to hold attention while detailed enough to be meaningful, and being able to explain complex ideas in various ways -- because people learn in various ways.
Anyone can open their mouth, form words from sounds, and link words to make a sentence. Whether the words and sentences are interesting, informative and entertaining all at the same time -- that's a rare skill. From my experience watching top DH racers being interviewed, most of them are clearly more skilled at riding bikes than they are at communicating.