Dealing With Fear?

[fivebrick]

In which year (first year for me) of your riding did you start to get frightened of the obstacles (if any)? Anyone have tips on how you conquered obstacles that you thought were out of reach? Just more practice? Use of spotters? Mental strategies/tricks? Did you just decide to stay at that level and move up no further?  I am getting to the point where stuff is getting bigger and a little scary. My desire is not to be the big obstacle rider, my wish is to progress to the higher levels and with that comes necessarily riding bigger stuff. Cheers all.

Edited November 17, 2015 by fivebrick

[lineaway]

I always rode with 110% confidence that I was going to make it. No spotter was the best for me. It`s funny you ask about what year that fear set in. It was last months trials and I`ve been riding since `72. I can no longer get off my bike very well. I had several rocks that were hard and one that I found an alternate line to go around, even though I`ve always made it up this wall. Having spotters is good when you are trying to learn certain techniques to boost your level of riding. But if you are talking just the large do or die rocks in Arizona trials, I would still just approach it with full confidence. Good luck. Some of this is just so mental.

Edited November 17, 2015 by lineaway

[joekarter]

About 18 years ago we had my grandson staying at the house with us.  He was just learning to get around, and we had a glass patio door that had about an 8" step from inside the house to the back porch.  Every day he'd just wander over and work at stepping inside and then back out....over and over again.  The first bit he'd make it about one out of every ten times without wobbling around and falling on his butt, but by the end of the third week he had the thing mastered and moved on to bigger and crazier stuff around the house. What was funny, was how he'd be considerably better the next morning than he was just the evening before.  It was almost as if his brain needed to think on it a bit before he could really process the necessary moter skills.

 

It hit me that he was showing me something that we all pretty much forget as we grow older, and that's the way we learn how to do the most basic of tasks. While it may seem really simple, the best learning technique is just continual repetion until we master the skill.  How does this apply to trials you ask?  I'm not at all adverse to punching out of a section that I think is beyond my skill, but if I have to take the five out of fear of getting hurt I make a mental note of what the section looked like, and exactly what it was that had me scared to give it a go.  Later while I'm out practicing, I try and find something similar that is just enough less intense that I feel comfortable and practice that until I'm confident I have the basic concept down.  And then I go home and let my head process the technique.  The next time I go out I try and use the same "section" but rework it to up the difficulty on the parts that gave me pause at the trials.  Almost always, most of the fear is gone, and what seemed scary just a couple days before becomes managable.

 

Hope this helps

 

Joe

[lineaway]

My son, my god son and  his little brother all cleaned the wall that got my goat. I`ve probably been up this 50 times over the years!

[s.e.lucas]

I'm always scared because I hate scratching my bikes.

 

If I'm just play riding/practicing (which is all I ever do anymore) sometimes there will be an easier part to ride first like a lower height/smoother launch/more grip. Often there's no other option so I might ride up to it a couple of times to see how it looks on the bike. If you can't ride the section first then visualising helps; feels, noise, real-time, as accurately as possible.

 

After that there's nothing left but to go for it. If I crash I'll get up and do it again if I'm able to. If I'm not hurt and my bike is rideable I'll know it wasn't so bad and convince myself I was close. Can't let it put the fear into me for later.

 

 

[tony27]

Can't say I've ever really gotten over it, I hate big rocks especially those that have nowhere to foot if it goes wrong or a very small place to place the front wheel without finding a hole. Give me a tree root infested bank to launch up any day, coming back down sometimes is a different story

[goudrons]

If you are fearing obstacles you might need to revise what you are taking on for the time being.

 

Most rider learning curve will be a bit "testy" (and quite a bit of "faily").

 

They learn the techniques then put them into practice, building up confidence in those techniques while pushing themselves on a little at a time to bigger and better.

No one goes straight to biggest and best right from the start.

 

The last bit, pushing themselves on is probably where you're finding it hard.

You've more than likely learned enough to know how, but yet to have enough confidence.

 

You're trying stuff you're less than sure you can get away with, failing and no quite knowing why and it's becoming a bit of a worry.

This isn't a happy place to be when trying these sorts of things and usually ends badly or you get fed up repeatedly hurling yourself at stuff and bouncing off in a heap.

 

It happened to me, so you aren't the only one.

 

Go back to the techniques and practise hard so you ace them.

Repeat them every time on everything so they become second nature, even on the smallest hop up where you normally wouldn't need to or bother with much effort, put it in.

Make sure you can nail them without even thinking.

 

Once you're on your way with this, you can start to test your skills, but build up to it a bit at a time.

A little nervousness is usual and falling off even more so, but it shouldn't frighten.

 

You'll be surprised once you're confidence in the techniques, but you have to put the work in.

For me it meant forgetting about competing for a short time and working from the bottom up again so I was happy I hadn't missed a trick somewhere.

 

If you're confident you can, you most likely will.

 

[jml]

This is a great video 

 

 

Personally I've identified riders who are slightly better than myself or of a similar skill level and copy what they make look easy and what they train on. If a rider a lot better than you is struggling on something then it might be out of reach, but if they are of similar or slightly higher experience/skill level and make it look like a piece of cake, have a go... or at least try and replicate it on an easier/smaller hazard. Be careful riding with experienced riders as they can egg you onto doing things way too difficult for your current skill set. I've found that resisting peer pressure and your own ego is really important in this sport and just chipping away at it and trying things slightly more difficult than you did last time pays off. 

Edited November 17, 2015 by jml

[cleanorbust]

Danger and delight grow on the same stalk.

[elusivemite]

Started riding trials about 6 years ago.had maybe 20 outings on my first bike before I had to sell it (van died) but I hit big wall after a wot over logs in a stream bed. knocked my confidence massively and was always hesitant to hit bigger obstacles.

roll forward 6 years and I decided another bike would be good. Opted for a 125 this time and it was a good choice.feel I'm able to ride the bike rather than being ridden and gave me the confidence to hit bigger obstacles.. Setting up the clutch and brake to allow one finger on levers at all times helped too.

I'll have a good warm up of body and bike when I ride before hitting stuff I'm confident on then ill start pushing myself..

best thing for confidence is riding with people better than you So you can see it's possible and have a go.

[rob214]

hi

 A - how old are you?

B - how fit are you?

C- if over the age of oh lets say about 20 and not world class fit. then you might need to view any attempt at an obstacle with the first thought of "if i fail at this obstacle will i be able to go to work on monday to support my family"

it's not fear it's wisdom. wisdom that comes from years of failing so many times that you now know better. the great thing about trials is you progress at your rate and try bigger when you feel it. i personally tried any and everything to the point of hurting myself and now that i'm older i know what to really not do or try.

most crashes in trials won't really be so bad but top level stuff will. but by the time you get to that level you won't be on this forum asking us for advice anymore..lol

rob

[michael_t]

I wear body armor riding trials I bought it to ride enduro but it has saved me enough times that I will most often toss it on and gives me a little bit of extra confidence. Being an old guy I have no issues with taking a 5 on a section if "I'm not feeling it". I find that some days I am braver than others and if I am at all nervous about something I just don't do it. Luckily I ride with a great group of guys that are great at encouraging me to give things a try but don't give me a hard time if I say - "maybe tomorrow". There is always a bit of fear it is one of the thrills of the sport but it is a matter of keeping it at a reasonable level as you progress that keeps it fun.