Where to Look for Mountain Bike Racers

Video Transcript

"Mountain biking is a lot more than just you know how to ride. It is a whole different way of looking at a trail. If I was walking down this trail right now, I would probably be looking pretty close right in front of my feet where I am walking. Because on your bike, it rolls over stuff. Instead of where you are looking at is the next section. It is too late to deal with whatever is under your tires. Your wheels will roll over it. So we are going to walk through this section and I am going to try to explain how I am looking at trail. So here we go. There's a right hand turn, a left hand turn, another right hand turn. They are all pretty gradual. So I am looking for the trail. I am looking for the end of this corner already and I am rolling over these roots. It doesn't really make any difference. So now I am looking at that left hander. I am looking at the entrance right now. As I am getting to the entrance, I am already looking all the way down the trail looking to where that log is caught. So this gives me all this time to basically relax, get myself composed and pedal. My eyes have seen this already. Even a little bit of a glimpse is enough for a properly functioning brain to process this stuff. And now we get to a more difficult section of trail where there is options to be made. I am going to stop and assess it right now but if I was riding I wouldn't be. We've got a smooth line to the left, we've got a smooth line all the way to the right, a bunch or roots in the middle and then there is actually a corner, a left hand corner right at the end of this. So we have to think about what is the right way to set up all that other sort of stuff. If we are thinking about that while we are there, we are going to get confused. So we've come through, our eyes have seen it, we know it is happening, we are going to look where we want to go not where we don't want to go, looking at an object that you want to hit called target fixation. They have studied it a ton with race car drivers, fighter pilots and if you look at an object that you don't want to hit, you are going to hit it. So what we are doing is looking ahead, keeping our head up because it helps with our balance too. This thing called your vestibular system, to bunch up bells and whistles and bottles of liquid and stuff in your head that helps keep your balance and figure out appropriate reception where things are. All about keeping your head up and looking forward. So my head is up and looking forward and as I approach a section of trail like this, I am already looking at the next corner. My bike is going to roll over as long as I remain like in the attack position, good clean braking and not over braking and you know letting myself flow through a section of trail the way my wheels want to do it. "