How To: Track Stand

The track stand is a tricky maneuver that will help you in technical, steep switchbacks or anything that is technical in which you can not just power through whether that be uphill or downhill. You can also use it to win a bet against a friend!
For those who are not familiar with the track stand, it is a trick that allows you to balance somewhere for an extended period of time, that being either two seconds or two minutes. It will help your riding tremendously in case you are stuck in between two rocks in a technical section or a tight switchback on the mountain. To do the track stand you will need a few basic things. 1. Helmet. It is important to wear a helmet in case of falling. 2. An area with a surface that your tires grip well to. This will help you learn the track stand better than if you did it on the trail. 3. The shoe/pedal combo that you usually wear on rides (if you ride two bikes, use the pedal/shoe combo on the bike that you will be doing the track stand on). This will help you become more comfortable with the track stand while riding. You want to practice like you play. So do not practice it in clipless pedals/shoes and then ride and try it with flat shoes/pedals. This will throw your whole balance off and it will mess up your track stand. 4. (OPTIONAL) If you are a fragile rider that breaks easily, then I would suggest using armor. It will be easy to catch yourself if you begin to fall, but you may not be so quick. Do what you think is right.
The track stand is one part. There are no divisions of it that you will have to practice to perform it, like the last How-To video that I did, the wheelie. You just hop on your bike, and do it. But it is much more complicated than you think. To start, just ride and use your regular foot positioning, left or right foot forward. Slow down until you stop. Do not slam on the brakes. This will throw you forward and mess your balance up before you start. Whichever foot is forward, make sure the bike's front wheel is facing the opposite way. This balances out the weight evenly. To get a great start, stand up and then brake. You have more room to maneuver than if you were sitting down. All you want to do is try and stay as still as you can, keep the bike's wheel facing opposite your foot, and move with the bike. If you try and move the bike opposite the way it is going by jerking it, you will be thrown off balance, resulting in you losing the track stand. If you do not understand any of the techniques/maneuvers shown above, just watch the video and you will see what I am talking about.
I hope that this helped and that I will see you out on the trails rocking this trick!