I’ve been to a lot of skills training camps but it was the first one that I ever went to over 10 years ago that really had the biggest impact on my riding. It’s funny how you can look back on certain moments and see how they changed your riding forever.

And the funny thing was, it wasn’t even me that the coach was working with.

I was actually standing on the side watching the coach work with a rider on getting into their low “attack position” on the bike. A lot of coaches consider this an essential part of good body position on the bike, which is important for all of your other skills.

This rider was struggling to apply what the coach was telling them and it suddenly hit me…this guy was being asked to do a movement on the bike that he most likely couldn’t do off of the bike. I had realized that the “attack position” is the same basic body position you want at the bottom of a Deadlift or Kettlebell Swing, also known as the Hip Hinge.

I also knew from working as a strength coach that most people struggled with this movement and that you had to progress them into more complex movement tasks if they did. Taking someone who couldn’t touch their toes and having them do Deadlifts or Swings in the gym was just asking for trouble because they would end up placing stress in the wrong areas, resulting in injuries.

And riding your bike counts as a complex movement task. Taking someone who can’t touch their toes – like the guy I was watching struggle – and asking him to get into his “attack position” was also asking for trouble. You can’t teach skill in the presence of dysfuntion, you just end up teaching people compensations instead of quality, balanced movement.

It was that insight all those years ago that changed the direction of MTB Strength Training Systems and how I looked at helping you improve your performance on the trail. How you move on the bike is directly influenced by how you move off of the bike so if you want to improve your skills you need to make sure you know how to move efficiently.

Over the last 10+ years I’ve identified 3 core movement skills you need as a mountain biker that underpin everything you do on the bike. In this webinar I share those 3 core movement skills you need on the bike and some drills you can do off the bike to improve them.

Until next  time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson