motobran

This takes me back to when trailforks was free. Good old days.

I think this is one of those scenarios where its easier to teach riders to try a few different positions and to explain that every rock roll is different then it is to actually spend the time to develop one simple approach that works nearly all the time. Personally I think every rock roll can be approached the same way. As you approach any roll down or steep descent we move from an athletic stance (fairly neutral position, knees slightly bent, slight elbow bend, spine should be upright, folding at the hips makes it very difficult to look up and see what is coming and reduces leg travel) as the rider approaches the roll down they move forward into the descent when the front wheel meets the "horizon" line of the steep terrain. The steeper the decent the farther forward. The faster the rider enters the faster and more aggressively they move forward. We can think about moving forward at the knees to create elbow bend so when the front wheel wheel rolls down our arms can extend. Riders often struggle on long undulating rock rolls because they start too far back and never move forward when the roll undulates to the next steep section. If you've ever got that feeling of being pull forward its probably because you were too far back or too tense to let your arms extend. It looks like pros dig their heels in but the pedals are staying level to sea level. That's the beauty of having pedals that rotate. We often see pros on super steep terrain so it looks like their heels are digging in but again, the pedals are relatively level to sea level. This process happens organically if a rider is carrying their weight over the bottom bracket. Locking the knees as shown in the video for the tall positions only hurts a rider's ability to absorb and move with the terrain. When a rider is centered over the bottom bracket the front and rear wheels move around the bottom bracket. This is why pros can go so fast. It kills me to see riders out practicing all these positions only to go over the bars on steep terrain. Then they blame themselves for not understanding a coaching video that tried to teach them every scenario is different so just practice a bunch of weird body position drills. Rant over!