Great skill and you make it look so easy. I've got the inspiration, now I need to work at it. I have plenty to go on after viewing this tutorial. The architecture of your house has an air of the Balearic Islands. Am I correct? Such relaxing scenery. Thanks for sharing. You have earned yourself a good cup of coffee. ☕
Thank you SO much, Nick. Yes, this is in Mallorca where I used to live - now I am on the mainland of Spain. Have you already seen my free trackstand course on my coaching site? THANK you in advance for the coffee
Trent from California. A 58 year old MTB enthusiast that spent far too many years simply climbing and going for distance. I’m making up for lost time and finally working diligently on manuals, wheelies, track-stands and the rest. Thank you for your awesome high quality channel and coaching skills. Magnifique 😘
Love practicing these while riding with kids around the neighborhood or trail. 2 more are the no handed and feet on front tire. Neither are particularly helpful, but fun tricks regardless.
Great video Roxy! Love the voice over while you are showing the skill. As for the downward facing track stand, I'll try it and see if actually doing (trying) it makes the answer more evident. I'm thinking the brakes will be engaged pretty much the whole time and might prevent ratcheting but looking back I see you did some little micro ratchets. I'm also wondering if hubs with fewer engagement points might make it more of a challenge due to the greater rotation required to engage the hub. Definitely got me thinking, even if my thought train is wrong. Cant wait to try - just woke up. Watching as I drink my morning coffee, and yes, this video has certainly earned you a cup - One coffee coming your way!
Hi Jason, thank you so much for the coffee. I really appreciate it 😍 Here are my answers: 1. Downhill: The brakes are engaged the entire time. What you see as ratcheting moves are adjustments to maintain balance. In a Trackstand you will actually never always maintain balance, it’s more a constant adjusting to re-gain it. 2. Yes it is easier with faster engaging hubs. Which is why I love my Nobl wheels :-) Enjoy practicing and always feel free to reach out for tips!
Trackstands had been the thing this summer. Thank you so much for your videos, I may actually manager the 360. What I have struggled with up to this print, is the backwards movements, because my front tire seem to "stick" at times, because I haven't applied enough force. I now pland on binding my knees a bit, to get a heavier jerk, when I tilt my toes upwards, to get rolling back, to overcome the backwards rolling resistance. I have also some Work to do with braking control, I tend to brake too late, when rolling forward. I have learned hat there is a technique to save the track stand when that happens but I prefer to brake in time. Over the course my balance on a bike has improved wildly.. And my joy of riding correlates with that. I think your negro science video is the greatest one. If I hadnt sees it I'd be "naah" to stuff like the trackstand. Your 10 minute balancing skills video has also been important to me, at the start I reckognized how much easier it was to do the trackstand excercises arter I had done the balance excercises. I also apply general study technique; I am happy with the last trial, I take a break! Thank you so much Roxy, if I win the lottery, I'll hire you for some weeks at Mallorca. 😃
Hehe thanks Tommy! So happy to hear. Do share your insights and my videos with others. There are so many people who don’t know this yet :-) and then they keep automatizing their Fundamental errors by practicing too advanced skills. Keep up the great practice morality!
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire 😃 Its fun. Actually trackstanding and similiar exvercises, are meditative experiences, can't think of much else. 🙂 And I really want to get back into the rock gardens, and be able to work the coming days, of course. Keep up the good work and thanks alot. One trackstand variation I work on and find coop, is to get up onto my bike and directly trackstand. .
Such great stuff Roxy! I love these kinds of skills drills and especially like your riding position video, which covers essential material. For some reason other instructional videos skip over some of the critical points that you address. Wish I had seen your videos a few years ago so I would be that much better. Bought you a couple coffees to say "thanks"
Thank you so so much, Eben! So happy to help 😊 Well, many years of full time coaching flow into these videos - many years of “deliberate practice” as a coach, finding mini steps to help my clients progress faster. We can learn it the hard way or profit from the experience of a coach and make it easy on ourselves. 😅 And I just want to share my own errors to help people avoid them.
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire Great to hear back from you! You have so much great content. There are a couple of questions I have that might make good videos. First, you have a pretty big bike for your size, but handle it with ease. Could you talk about bike sizing and fit? You must be quite fit and strong even though you are slender and not bulky or muscular looking. Could you talk about fitness for mountain biking? A related topic is strength versus technique -- where do you need to have real strength and where is technique the key? Leg strength seems pretty obvious, but how about forearms and back?
@@ebenf6768 thanks for these ideas, Eben! I will think about how I can make content about this that is not too specific but still specific enough to provide value 😊
very cool Roxy - my eyes opened on #6 that is going to be tough to sustain - BTW if you find a nice an easy way to explain and teach manuals that would be awesome - you have a very effective and approachable way at describing things.
I think track stands are way under-rated. I've been practicing these constantly. I take turns having a different foot forward. Now I'm doing them and then ratcheting my pedals a bit and moving on, all without losing my balance. It's crazy fun and it's starting to give me really incredible balance on my bike. Also, because I'm diligently practicing with both feet, I'm way better at getting on my bike and starting off again if I've had to stop on a hill or in soft snow or something. I have balance now, so even if my bike doesn't move much on the first pedal stroke, I'm not nervous or unbalanced. Also, and this is HUGE, all of the falling off I did while learning the track stand, taught me how to get off my bike in a million different ways which took away most of my fear. I can stop and put a foot down from anywhere now. Sooooo highly recommend track stands!
Thanks ever so much for sharing, Laramie. Absolutely agreed!! If you’d like access to dozens of drills that will make you even safer on your bike and allow you to progress faster by following a structure, do check out www.Roxybike-Coaching.com Keep up the awesome practice! ~ Roxy
Roxy ... I'm trying, i promise I'm trying but I'm still useless! LOL Your videos are just the best at explaining simply how to do things .. shame I'm hopeless. Richard x
Another great video, Roxy! I've been subscribed to your channel for a couple of weeks now and have seen most of your videos. I always enjoy them. I've been riding bikes for a while, but I've never practiced anything until recently. I haven't been able to do a track stand yet, not even against a wall, but I'm hoping that I will eventually improve and gain some balance. I can see how being able to track stand can help with so many other things, so I see it as a foundation. Thank you for your wonderful videos. I love seeing your cats in the background!
Thank you so much, Alex. So happy you like my videos and have taken them as inspiration to practice and gain confidence. You will get there :-) just take the time and dedication to practice. Sunny greetings, roxy
Hi Roxy. Really been enjoying your videos. Love your skills and spirit! Maybe before too long I could travel to Mallorca. One can hope. So...I have been struggling with my RLC track stand progression. Stuck on good old "Brakethrough" lesson. I see from comments on that lesson that others have been challenged there as well. Also, RLC specific, I want to thank you for doing the "shorter rider" lessons on RLC. Very, very much appreciated! My question has to do with body type (and for me strength and fitness as well) as pertains to track stands. I really looked carefully at both your track stand videos for some clues that might help me, but one problem encountered is that its rare to see you shot in profile doing one. Mostly the angles tend to be from the front so its hard to really look at your "body language" to see what is happening. However, I happened to catch an intriguing profile of you in a track stand in one of your other videos, the one about hopping. I hope you don't mind, but I made a little video study aid for myself by capturing that and putting it in split screen of Ryan in profile. I'm not sure if its a fair comparison though because this track stand was just spontaneous. You weren't really demoing it specifically. It is just so dramatic to me how the upper body proportional differences (arm length!) between you and Ryan are so extreme and it seems to me that your body postioning/movement patterns for executing this skill are different as well. Perhaps in a causative way? I notice for example that you emphasize heavy feet in your videos, whereas Ryan, if I recall correctly, does less so. Could that be in part because as shorter armed folks we have much less ease and efficiency in weighting/controlling the bars and front wheel? So if we weight the bars too much, we lose connection with the pedals? You even seem to prefer unweighting your bars? It's so interesting to me to see how at the very end you kind of go up onto your fingertips. Is that for fun, or does it somehow serve a purpose? I have quite a few more thoughts, having to do with bike setup, bar width, and hand position for slow speed situations as respects control of the front wheel. I really struggle in many situations, feeling kinda overpowered by the front wheel. First though, want to check in with you and get your thoughts on this side by side video, and also make sure you don't mind me using your video in this way. Here is a link to the split screen comparison. ua-cam.com/video/jzW2Re-2IZ0/v-deo.html Maybe would be useful on RLC, maybe not? Thanks!!!
Hi Lisa, thank you so much for your detailed analysis and text. Yes, I over-exaggerate the light hands by going on to my fingertips. This is just for demo purposes - you don’t need to be able to do this :-) Ok ... so the answer to this will be longer :-D 1. Difference in body language. Of course there will be a huge difference in how things look at 186 and 158 cm height - so Ryan vs. me. The physics behind it, however, is unchanged. What I mean by this is - if we actively weight our front wheel, this may be helpful/necessary for some skills (e.g. nose pivots) BUT the huge disadvantage is that our front wheel rolls over obstacles MUCH harder. So we get caught with the front wheel. A pro rider like Ryan will have the balance and strength to overcome this feeling of “getting caught” - but most hobby riders won’t. Years of coaching have taught me to find solutions that work for my clients - not for me ;-) Therefore the light hands approach - it places you on the STRONG muscles of your body (we are used to walking/standing) and allows you to work in harmony with your bike. If you watch my video about riding position and steps you will see that my body is stable and the bike is moving - this is only possible if my weight is balanced on my feet and my hands are light. Otherwise the handlebars will pull and push my body around. 2. I wouldn’t stress too much about looking exactly like anyone during the Trackstand. Trust your feeling. Because just as you’re saying we all look different and this only means we have different weight distribution- eg if some one has more boobies, they won’t be able to be as far forward as Ryan. Does this make sense? So trust the balanced feeling on the legs with little weight in your hands. 3. The brakethrough lesson is a hard one. Also in this Video you can probably see that it is much more unstable with the brakes locked, than when you can work with pedal pressure. It is not necessary to perfect the Trackstand with the brakes on, in order to be able to use it on the trail. I hope my explanations help. Always feel free to send me a video to correct :-) Roxy
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire Thanks for such a speedy and thorough reply. What resonates most for me is your statement to " trust your feeling". It is a challenge to set "reasonable" goals, especially when there is so many gorgeous video images out there. Eye candy. I am 59, relatively new at mtb, with some fitness deficits. So, I need to be careful to not set myself up for "failure" by aiming too high. But, on the other hand, I love to learn and stretch and grow. I have a strong desire to do so. And... I just love my bike and what it does enable me to do - even if I don't ride like a superhero. So that's a journey and a process for me to ponder. Good to not get lost in the woods of obsessing on a particular skill. Better to just ride, and get lost in the woods, yes? Also, totally agree about the trail utility of a less than perfect track stand. Overall balance developed by doing the exercises leading up to "brakethrough", hugely helped my confidence on trickier switchbacks, etc. Wonderful! Track stand "mastery" seemed relatively attainable, and certainly lower risk goal than some others, so I kind of hate to give up, but it may be time to step away for awhile. Having said that, I wonder if you might have time to consider a couple more questions. I think some things that struck me from the video may apply to general trail situations as well as to track stands. First, feet: Seems to me, that in the video, you get a lot of effect out of some quick, rather big moves involving your lower leg and foot. Do you agree? Seems key in maintaining fine control of drivetrain tension and hence that beautiful platform for your standing balance? You have amazing ankle range of motion which I envy! I have some problems in that part of my body, both involving flexibility and coordination/strength. If you have any thoughts on the subject of improving foot/ankle 'touch" and effectiveness on the bike, would love to know. Second, on the subject of hands, I notice that in addition to your "trick' of extending your fingers, you also seem to narrow your grip at one point, moving your hands toward the stem. It seems to me that may be of some help in these kinds of slow speed situations, that require some steering finesse, front wheel placement? I am in process of fiddling with my cockpit setup to try to provide most possible options for moving my hands for various situations. Have tried to get help from local bike shops but difficult. Before I go too wild, (hacksaw to bars!) wondering if you have any wisdom to share. I like my bar width for downhills, but for slow speed stuff like track stands, or, most frustratingly, on the trail, for long, obstacle laden bumpy climbs, I feel like the wide (760) bars especially, with a hand position at the very ends, makes more work? Physics wise? Does that make any sense? I realize asking for bike setup help via youtube comments is ridiculously impractical. So, the general question for you is more one of technique: Do you move your hands around on the grips in your regular riding, depending on the task? OK, that is a lot! I think I owe you mucho, mucho coffee...
@@Motio3 Hi Lisa, thank you for your thorough reply. I am happy to hear that my answer resonates with you. Yes, trusting our own feeling is something SO important and that is really one of the key aspects I try to convey with my UA-cam channel. We are all unique and finding our middle, finding out WHAT we want and how we want things to feel and trusting this feeling is SUCH a valuable lesson learnt in life. Range of movement in the ankles is actually a very underrated "skill" - so great you noticed this. I think there is a lesson in the RLC library - learn.ryanleech.com/products/physical-fitness In the live sessions Jeff answers the feet issue, I just can't recall in which one. My bars are 760 mm wide - I would really recommend doing what you said. Gripping the grips on the inside and seeing how it feels for you. And then choosing what's right for you.. So you see the feeling-topic is a reocurring topic ;-) I hope this anwers your question. And thanks a bunch for the coffee! Roxy
Wanted to thank you for all your thoughtful advice and share some things that resulted from that advice. I backed away from that frustrating brake through lesson on RLC and have been focusing more generally through all my riding on noticing weight distribution between pedals and bars and experimenting with lightest bars possible. I *thought* I had gotten away from a “death grip” but I see there’s a lot of nuance to explore. Going back to basics. Also, a really fun thing: Some kids in my neighborhood are now enjoying the wall contact exercise from your video. I demoed it to one of them and he seemed uninspired at first. But... a week or so later, he wanted to show me how good he had become at it and informed me he was teaching it to his friend! They like seeing how far they can get riding backwards from the wall. I also noticed him spontaneously using a track stand on the trail. Pretty cool and interesting how these skills have a social aspect as well.
Lisa Sommer hi Lisa, that is so awesome! I am so happy to hear that you are focusing on the basics and obviously starting to feel more balanced. Way to go!! .... there is SO much more to mountain biking than mountain biking :-) And that is why I founded this channel ...! So great to hear about the kids and thank you so much for sharing.
Great video. I would never have thought of that many variations. I need to write them down. Thank you! Question. I feel the easiest when steering to the same side as my front foot so I instinctively tend to swap my front foot each time I change the direction of my front wheel. I wonder why...? Shall I try it the other way around?
Hi Thierry, I'd recommend sticking to your preferred stance for most of the practice, because probably this is the way you'll be using it on the trail. If you'd like to find out more (and "the why" to this), then I can tell you more in a online coaching session. You will find my coaching offers on www.roxybike-coaching.com Enjoy practicing! Roxy
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire thanks, what a quick answer! The more videos of you I watch the more I think about taking up your coaching. I'll certainly will check it out
Great video and l love black cats. Years ago I read a pro tips article in MBA and one that stuck with me and I actually followed through with was to rid yourself of favourite foot bias-ride for one month with your weak foot forward. Eventually it feels natural, now it doesn't matter to me which foot is forward they both feel natural and I don't experience that oh crap wrong foot forward moment. You have the best way of explaining how to Thank you. I will buy you coffee,is there a option to buy cat treats?
Hehe thank you, Moon Moon. I don’t have an option to buy cat treats yet, but I promise I’ll share my coffee money with my cats (I always do). Keep your open mind and playfulness and thanks for sharing!
i ended up doing a downhill trackstand yesterday by accident, i was riding on the road and had to stop for a car at a junction facing downhill it was actually not bad i can do uphill too but flat is impossible for me currently
I think the downhill facing track stand is difficult since you cannot ratchet forward and must be at complete stand still. Also weight is more on handlebars and not as balanced.
I see how front tire moves forward on pedal push, but i can't move it backwards - on pulling the handlebar it is my body going forward, not the bike backwards. Please help.
I'm trying to learn the no hands trackstand where you roll the front wheel with your foot for balance, I think it's the coolest variation. By any chance do you know the name of this variation? Can't find any tips on internet, cause I don't know what it's called...
Hi Roxy, I am practicing the track stand I can do in on the flat and on small slops with out brakes. But with brake and against a wall I fall to one side and I have trouble correcting my balance any ideas thanks.
Hi Stuart, awesome progress, way to go. 💪☺️ Unfortunately I can’t give you an answer without seeing you perform the skill, otherwise I’d be guessing… The problem with guessing is - I may be correcting an „effect“ and not the cause - which may then make the cause even worse, as you will concentrate on correcting the effect. So a professional coach will most probably not give you „guesses“ without having worked with you before. 😊
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire thank you for you reply I understand, I will continue to practice. I can not take coaching because my head injury as I can not travel and can only cope with an hour of lesson not in a group. I have only been watching your videos for a few weeks and can see lots of improvement and having great fun doing it.😀
@@stuartwoodburn2653 so so so happy to hear, Stuart. You will notice that you will improve steadily, if you keep practicing. With a head injury, equilibrium is usually a little tougher to master, but it’s EVEN more important to practice! If you’d like to work with me online, then do check out my Patreon channel 😊 because you don’t need to fly here to have me as your coach. Keep up the amazing practice mentality, Stuart. You are such an inspiration!
Great skill and you make it look so easy.
I've got the inspiration, now I need to work at it. I have plenty to go on after viewing this tutorial.
The architecture of your house has an air of the Balearic Islands. Am I correct? Such relaxing scenery.
Thanks for sharing. You have earned yourself a good cup of coffee. ☕
Thank you SO much, Nick. Yes, this is in Mallorca where I used to live - now I am on the mainland of Spain.
Have you already seen my free trackstand course on my coaching site?
THANK you in advance for the coffee
Trent from California. A 58 year old MTB enthusiast that spent far too many years simply climbing and going for distance. I’m making up for lost time and finally working diligently on manuals, wheelies, track-stands and the rest.
Thank you for your awesome high quality channel and coaching skills. Magnifique 😘
Thank you so much for your comment, Trent. Welcome to my channel 😍 have fun working on your skills!
Richtig schön erklärt, wie alle Videos!!
Danke, Martin!
Happy to have bought you a coffee. Some great tips on your vids & easy to follow. Thanks, Neil
Thank you so so much, Neil 😍🥰
Great videos. You're a good instructor. Thanks from BC Canada 🍁
6:32 Yeah baby!!
Love practicing these while riding with kids around the neighborhood or trail. 2 more are the no handed and feet on front tire. Neither are particularly helpful, but fun tricks regardless.
Great video Roxy! Love the voice over while you are showing the skill.
As for the downward facing track stand, I'll try it and see if actually doing (trying) it makes the answer more evident. I'm thinking the brakes will be engaged pretty much the whole time and might prevent ratcheting but looking back I see you did some little micro ratchets.
I'm also wondering if hubs with fewer engagement points might make it more of a challenge due to the greater rotation required to engage the hub. Definitely got me thinking, even if my thought train is wrong. Cant wait to try - just woke up.
Watching as I drink my morning coffee, and yes, this video has certainly earned you a cup - One coffee coming your way!
Hi Jason, thank you so much for the coffee. I really appreciate it 😍
Here are my answers:
1. Downhill: The brakes are engaged the entire time. What you see as ratcheting moves are adjustments to maintain balance. In a Trackstand you will actually never always maintain balance, it’s more a constant adjusting to re-gain it.
2. Yes it is easier with faster engaging hubs. Which is why I love my Nobl wheels :-)
Enjoy practicing and always feel free to reach out for tips!
Trackstands had been the thing this summer. Thank you so much for your videos, I may actually manager the 360. What I have struggled with up to this print, is the backwards movements, because my front tire seem to "stick" at times, because I haven't applied enough force. I now pland on binding my knees a bit, to get a heavier jerk, when I tilt my toes upwards, to get rolling back, to overcome the backwards rolling resistance. I have also some Work to do with braking control, I tend to brake too late, when rolling forward. I have learned hat there is a technique to save the track stand when that happens but I prefer to brake in time. Over the course my balance on a bike has improved wildly.. And my joy of riding correlates with that. I think your negro science video is the greatest one. If I hadnt sees it I'd be "naah" to stuff like the trackstand. Your 10 minute balancing skills video has also been important to me, at the start I reckognized how much easier it was to do the trackstand excercises arter I had done the balance excercises. I also apply general study technique; I am happy with the last trial, I take a break! Thank you so much Roxy, if I win the lottery, I'll hire you for some weeks at Mallorca. 😃
Hehe thanks Tommy!
So happy to hear. Do share your insights and my videos with others.
There are so many people who don’t know this yet :-) and then they keep automatizing their Fundamental errors by practicing too advanced skills.
Keep up the great practice morality!
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire 😃 Its fun. Actually trackstanding and similiar exvercises, are meditative experiences, can't think of much else. 🙂 And I really want to get back into the rock gardens, and be able to work the coming days, of course. Keep up the good work and thanks alot. One trackstand variation I work on and find coop, is to get up onto my bike and directly trackstand.
.
Such great stuff Roxy! I love these kinds of skills drills and especially like your riding position video, which covers essential material. For some reason other instructional videos skip over some of the critical points that you address. Wish I had seen your videos a few years ago so I would be that much better. Bought you a couple coffees to say "thanks"
Thank you so so much, Eben!
So happy to help 😊 Well, many years of full time coaching flow into these videos - many years of “deliberate practice” as a coach, finding mini steps to help my clients progress faster.
We can learn it the hard way or profit from the experience of a coach and make it easy on ourselves. 😅
And I just want to share my own errors to help people avoid them.
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire Great to hear back from you! You have so much great content. There are a couple of questions I have that might make good videos. First, you have a pretty big bike for your size, but handle it with ease. Could you talk about bike sizing and fit? You must be quite fit and strong even though you are slender and not bulky or muscular looking. Could you talk about fitness for mountain biking? A related topic is strength versus technique -- where do you need to have real strength and where is technique the key? Leg strength seems pretty obvious, but how about forearms and back?
@@ebenf6768 thanks for these ideas, Eben! I will think about how I can make content about this that is not too specific but still specific enough to provide value 😊
very cool Roxy - my eyes opened on #6 that is going to be tough to sustain - BTW if you find a nice an easy way to explain and teach manuals that would be awesome - you have a very effective and approachable way at describing things.
tlfreek thanks a lot :-)
I think track stands are way under-rated. I've been practicing these constantly. I take turns having a different foot forward. Now I'm doing them and then ratcheting my pedals a bit and moving on, all without losing my balance. It's crazy fun and it's starting to give me really incredible balance on my bike. Also, because I'm diligently practicing with both feet, I'm way better at getting on my bike and starting off again if I've had to stop on a hill or in soft snow or something. I have balance now, so even if my bike doesn't move much on the first pedal stroke, I'm not nervous or unbalanced. Also, and this is HUGE, all of the falling off I did while learning the track stand, taught me how to get off my bike in a million different ways which took away most of my fear. I can stop and put a foot down from anywhere now. Sooooo highly recommend track stands!
Thanks ever so much for sharing, Laramie. Absolutely agreed!!
If you’d like access to dozens of drills that will make you even safer on your bike and allow you to progress faster by following a structure, do check out www.Roxybike-Coaching.com
Keep up the awesome practice!
~ Roxy
Super helpful!
Thanks a lot!
Roxy ... I'm trying, i promise I'm trying but I'm still useless! LOL Your videos are just the best at explaining simply how to do things .. shame I'm hopeless. Richard x
No you’re not!!! I know you can do it and so do you :-) it’s a matter of practice and motivation. And believing in yourself :-)
Excellent!!!
Nice
Great
Thank you so much, Tomasz!
Another great video, Roxy! I've been subscribed to your channel for a couple of weeks now and have seen most of your videos. I always enjoy them. I've been riding bikes for a while, but I've never practiced anything until recently. I haven't been able to do a track stand yet, not even against a wall, but I'm hoping that I will eventually improve and gain some balance. I can see how being able to track stand can help with so many other things, so I see it as a foundation. Thank you for your wonderful videos. I love seeing your cats in the background!
Thank you so much, Alex. So happy you like my videos and have taken them as inspiration to practice and gain confidence.
You will get there :-) just take the time and dedication to practice.
Sunny greetings, roxy
Hi Roxy. Really been enjoying your videos. Love your skills and spirit! Maybe before too long I could travel to Mallorca. One can hope. So...I have been struggling with my RLC track stand progression. Stuck on good old "Brakethrough" lesson. I see from comments on that lesson that others have been challenged there as well. Also, RLC specific, I want to thank you for doing the "shorter rider" lessons on RLC. Very, very much appreciated! My question has to do with body type (and for me strength and fitness as well) as pertains to track stands. I really looked carefully at both your track stand videos for some clues that might help me, but one problem encountered is that its rare to see you shot in profile doing one. Mostly the angles tend to be from the front so its hard to really look at your "body language" to see what is happening. However, I happened to catch an intriguing profile of you in a track stand in one of your other videos, the one about hopping. I hope you don't mind, but I made a little video study aid for myself by capturing that and putting it in split screen of Ryan in profile. I'm not sure if its a fair comparison though because this track stand was just spontaneous. You weren't really demoing it specifically. It is just so dramatic to me how the upper body proportional differences (arm length!) between you and Ryan are so extreme and it seems to me that your body postioning/movement patterns for executing this skill are different as well. Perhaps in a causative way? I notice for example that you emphasize heavy feet in your videos, whereas Ryan, if I recall correctly, does less so. Could that be in part because as shorter armed folks we have much less ease and efficiency in weighting/controlling the bars and front wheel? So if we weight the bars too much, we lose connection with the pedals? You even seem to prefer unweighting your bars? It's so interesting to me to see how at the very end you kind of go up onto your fingertips. Is that for fun, or does it somehow serve a purpose? I have quite a few more thoughts, having to do with bike setup, bar width, and hand position for slow speed situations as respects control of the front wheel. I really struggle in many situations, feeling kinda overpowered by the front wheel. First though, want to check in with you and get your thoughts on this side by side video, and also make sure you don't mind me using your video in this way. Here is a link to the split screen comparison. ua-cam.com/video/jzW2Re-2IZ0/v-deo.html Maybe would be useful on RLC, maybe not? Thanks!!!
Hi Lisa, thank you so much for your detailed analysis and text.
Yes, I over-exaggerate the light hands by going on to my fingertips. This is just for demo purposes - you don’t need to be able to do this :-)
Ok ... so the answer to this will be longer :-D
1. Difference in body language. Of course there will be a huge difference in how things look at 186 and 158 cm height - so Ryan vs. me. The physics behind it, however, is unchanged. What I mean by this is - if we actively weight our front wheel, this may be helpful/necessary for some skills (e.g. nose pivots) BUT the huge disadvantage is that our front wheel rolls over obstacles MUCH harder. So we get caught with the front wheel. A pro rider like Ryan will have the balance and strength to overcome this feeling of “getting caught” - but most hobby riders won’t. Years of coaching have taught me to find solutions that work for my clients - not for me ;-)
Therefore the light hands approach - it places you on the STRONG muscles of your body (we are used to walking/standing) and allows you to work in harmony with your bike.
If you watch my video about riding position and steps you will see that my body is stable and the bike is moving - this is only possible if my weight is balanced on my feet and my hands are light. Otherwise the handlebars will pull and push my body around.
2. I wouldn’t stress too much about looking exactly like anyone during the Trackstand. Trust your feeling. Because just as you’re saying we all look different and this only means we have different weight distribution- eg if some one has more boobies, they won’t be able to be as far forward as Ryan. Does this make sense?
So trust the balanced feeling on the legs with little weight in your hands.
3. The brakethrough lesson is a hard one. Also in this Video you can probably see that it is much more unstable with the brakes locked, than when you can work with pedal pressure. It is not necessary to perfect the Trackstand with the brakes on, in order to be able to use it on the trail.
I hope my explanations help. Always feel free to send me a video to correct :-)
Roxy
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire Thanks for such a speedy and thorough reply. What resonates most for me is your statement to " trust your feeling". It is a challenge to set "reasonable" goals, especially when there is so many gorgeous video images out there. Eye candy. I am 59, relatively new at mtb, with some fitness deficits. So, I need to be careful to not set myself up for "failure" by aiming too high. But, on the other hand, I love to learn and stretch and grow. I have a strong desire to do so. And... I just love my bike and what it does enable me to do - even if I don't ride like a superhero. So that's a journey and a process for me to ponder. Good to not get lost in the woods of obsessing on a particular skill. Better to just ride, and get lost in the woods, yes?
Also, totally agree about the trail utility of a less than perfect track stand. Overall balance developed by doing the exercises leading up to "brakethrough", hugely helped my confidence on trickier switchbacks, etc. Wonderful! Track stand "mastery" seemed relatively attainable, and certainly lower risk goal than some others, so I kind of hate to give up, but it may be time to step away for awhile. Having said that, I wonder if you might have time to consider a couple more questions. I think some things that struck me from the video may apply to general trail situations as well as to track stands.
First, feet: Seems to me, that in the video, you get a lot of effect out of some quick, rather big moves involving your lower leg and foot. Do you agree? Seems key in maintaining fine control of drivetrain tension and hence that beautiful platform for your standing balance? You have amazing ankle range of motion which I envy! I have some problems in that part of my body, both involving flexibility and coordination/strength. If you have any thoughts on the subject of improving foot/ankle 'touch" and effectiveness on the bike, would love to know.
Second, on the subject of hands, I notice that in addition to your "trick' of extending your fingers, you also seem to narrow your grip at one point, moving your hands toward the stem. It seems to me that may be of some help in these kinds of slow speed situations, that require some steering finesse, front wheel placement? I am in process of fiddling with my cockpit setup to try to provide most possible options for moving my hands for various situations. Have tried to get help from local bike shops but difficult. Before I go too wild, (hacksaw to bars!) wondering if you have any wisdom to share. I like my bar width for downhills, but for slow speed stuff like track stands, or, most frustratingly, on the trail, for long, obstacle laden bumpy climbs, I feel like the wide (760) bars especially, with a hand position at the very ends, makes more work? Physics wise? Does that make any sense? I realize asking for bike setup help via youtube comments is ridiculously impractical. So, the general question for you is more one of technique: Do you move your hands around on the grips in your regular riding, depending on the task? OK, that is a lot! I think I owe you mucho, mucho coffee...
@@Motio3 Hi Lisa, thank you for your thorough reply.
I am happy to hear that my answer resonates with you. Yes, trusting our own feeling is something SO important and that is really one of the key aspects I try to convey with my UA-cam channel.
We are all unique and finding our middle, finding out WHAT we want and how we want things to feel and trusting this feeling is SUCH a valuable lesson learnt in life.
Range of movement in the ankles is actually a very underrated "skill" - so great you noticed this. I think there is a lesson in the RLC library - learn.ryanleech.com/products/physical-fitness In the live sessions Jeff answers the feet issue, I just can't recall in which one.
My bars are 760 mm wide - I would really recommend doing what you said. Gripping the grips on the inside and seeing how it feels for you. And then choosing what's right for you.. So you see the feeling-topic is a reocurring topic ;-)
I hope this anwers your question. And thanks a bunch for the coffee!
Roxy
Wanted to thank you for all your thoughtful advice and share some things that resulted from that advice. I backed away from that frustrating brake through lesson on RLC and have been focusing more generally through all my riding on noticing weight distribution between pedals and bars and experimenting with lightest bars possible. I *thought* I had gotten away from a “death grip” but I see there’s a lot of nuance to explore. Going back to basics. Also, a really fun thing: Some kids in my neighborhood are now enjoying the wall contact exercise from your video. I demoed it to one of them and he seemed uninspired at first. But... a week or so later, he wanted to show me how good he had become at it and informed me he was teaching it to his friend! They like seeing how far they can get riding backwards from the wall. I also noticed him spontaneously using a track stand on the trail. Pretty cool and interesting how these skills have a social aspect as well.
Lisa Sommer hi Lisa, that is so awesome! I am so happy to hear that you are focusing on the basics and obviously starting to feel more balanced. Way to go!!
.... there is SO much more to mountain biking than mountain biking :-) And that is why I founded this channel ...! So great to hear about the kids and thank you so much for sharing.
Great video. I would never have thought of that many variations. I need to write them down. Thank you!
Question. I feel the easiest when steering to the same side as my front foot so I instinctively tend to swap my front foot each time I change the direction of my front wheel. I wonder why...? Shall I try it the other way around?
Hi Thierry, I'd recommend sticking to your preferred stance for most of the practice, because probably this is the way you'll be using it on the trail. If you'd like to find out more (and "the why" to this), then I can tell you more in a online coaching session. You will find my coaching offers on www.roxybike-coaching.com
Enjoy practicing!
Roxy
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire thanks, what a quick answer! The more videos of you I watch the more I think about taking up your coaching. I'll certainly will check it out
@@thierrylerinckx1340 thanks, Thierry!
Great video and l love black cats. Years ago I read a pro tips article in MBA and one that stuck with me and I actually followed through with was to rid yourself of favourite foot bias-ride for one month with your weak foot forward. Eventually it feels natural, now it doesn't matter to me which foot is forward they both feel natural and I don't experience that oh crap wrong foot forward moment. You have the best way of explaining how to
Thank you. I will buy you coffee,is there a option to buy cat treats?
Hehe thank you, Moon Moon. I don’t have an option to buy cat treats yet, but I promise I’ll share my coffee money with my cats (I always do).
Keep your open mind and playfulness and thanks for sharing!
i ended up doing a downhill trackstand yesterday by accident, i was riding on the road and had to stop for a car at a junction facing downhill
it was actually not bad
i can do uphill too but flat is impossible for me currently
Way to go! If you’d like to learn it, get the course for free here: roxybike.podia.com/trackstand-challenge-drill-to-skill-with-roxy
I think the downhill facing track stand is difficult since you cannot ratchet forward and must be at complete stand still. Also weight is more on handlebars and not as balanced.
True!
Love your cat 🤭
👍
I see how front tire moves forward on pedal push, but i can't move it backwards - on pulling the handlebar it is my body going forward, not the bike backwards. Please help.
Then it’s time for this course:
roxybike.podia.com/trackstand-challenge-drill-to-skill-with-roxy
(It’s free) 😊
I'm trying to learn the no hands trackstand where you roll the front wheel with your foot for balance, I think it's the coolest variation. By any chance do you know the name of this variation? Can't find any tips on internet, cause I don't know what it's called...
Awesome, enjoy practicing! Unfortunately I don’t know the name, sorry
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire guess I'll have to figure it out myself, thanks anyway
@@andomare ua-cam.com/video/TyHynwb3TmA/v-deo.html maybe he can help 🙂
Hi Roxy, I am practicing the track stand I can do in on the flat and on small slops with out brakes. But with brake and against a wall I fall to one side and I have trouble correcting my balance any ideas thanks.
Hi Stuart, awesome progress, way to go. 💪☺️
Unfortunately I can’t give you an answer without seeing you perform the skill, otherwise I’d be guessing… The problem with guessing is - I may be correcting an „effect“ and not the cause - which may then make the cause even worse, as you will concentrate on correcting the effect.
So a professional coach will most probably not give you „guesses“ without having worked with you before. 😊
@@Roxybike_Ride.and.Inspire thank you for you reply I understand, I will continue to practice. I can not take coaching because my head injury as I can not travel and can only cope with an hour of lesson not in a group. I have only been watching your videos for a few weeks and can see lots of improvement and having great fun doing it.😀
@@stuartwoodburn2653 so so so happy to hear, Stuart.
You will notice that you will improve steadily, if you keep practicing. With a head injury, equilibrium is usually a little tougher to master, but it’s EVEN more important to practice!
If you’d like to work with me online, then do check out my Patreon channel 😊 because you don’t need to fly here to have me as your coach.
Keep up the amazing practice mentality, Stuart. You are such an inspiration!
Awesome video! I make simular content. Would be great to get your feedback