I live up in the Sierra Nevada mountains and pretty much all the trails around here have pretty chunky rock gardens (rocks probably stick up between 4 and 6 inches). Usually they are weaving through large boulders on either side. These scenarios are everywhere up here and they give me a pretty hard time. Since I am new to riding I tend to ride a little slow anyway, but then you add in narrow trails and super chunky turns and I cant actually make the turn a lot of the time. Is speed the biggest benefit here?
as a 26 for lifer I would disagree on wheel size but, this is deffo one of those the faster you go the easier it is type things. This is THE most valuble lesson I learned in MTB, That and stay off the brakes ;D
Keep your head/eyes up. Try and look around or through the corner. Try and ride with someone that can pick a good line and fallow them until you learn how to pick a good line for yourself. Momentum does help a lot. Sometimes using a higher/harder gear or two helps also. It slows your legs down so you’re not trying to spin at 1000 RPM while bouncing off the rocks.