Training For Trials

[wayne thais]

What type of training do you participate in to prepare for the trials season?

What I am wondering is, do you run, bicycle, lift weights, set up sections and make them harder and harder as you learn to ride them.

Just curious, would especially like to know what the guys/girls do who ride nationals.

Wayne

[mich lin]

Well Wayne, everyone has differnt needs! To say that one training program is best for every athlete is a stretch.

If your a sportsmen, learning to ride is paramount but when you reach that stage where you are looking for every edge to beat Raga or Geoff a very scientific approach is needed.

[gasgas]

I gradually increase the difficult level during my training sessions. I also try to ride as often as possible, even when it is just for 30/45 minutes. Just feeling the bike underneath me , during the week, helps me when i go for a long training session in the weekend.

I see a lot of my riding clubsmen just fooling around when they train. I don't think that is wise. You have to have a plan when you practice. That way you are better focused hence you train more intense.

The things you do during trainigs depends on yr skill level.

When you are like me... you focus on offcamber turns, body position(very important), using the suspension the right way, finding grip, doing small 2ft jap zaps smooth, 3ft roll ups, small drop offs within your fear limit .

Try to run/bicycle during the time the weather sucks as stamina helps you always and ever.

You hear, i know it all, now i have to do it myself

Btw i ride trials for one year now, i am a former soccer player/bicycle/atb racer.

[dman]

Ride with people that are at your level or above. Then you find out how much more fun and challenging a training or riding day can be. Not only do you have peer pressure, but you can ask someone to spot for you too just in case. Plus nothing beats riding with friends...

As for everything else...

bicycling

onroad- only good if you don't cruise and if you really exert yourself

offroad- haven't tried this for training

trials bicycle- excellent cross trainer and tons of fun

running- depends if you like running or not and plan to do it nearly everyday

Otherwise, go to the gym or workout at least 2-4 times a week and that'll build up muscle strength and make the bike easier to handle. Plus it'll help your physique lol.

[mich lin]

GASGAS, excellent insights! Also it's a great point to ride with riders better than you when you can, sadly living in the USA a strong young rider quickly outpaces everyone around him. There simply is not very many good riders in the USA anymore.

I've deturmined over the years of study of the sport that there are several areas that someone can improve- One, Riding ability, two, machine preperation and design, three, mental conditioning and attitude and lastly physical conditioning.

Each of these can be broken down even further sub catigories but those are the main bullit points. The next important insight is peaking at the right time! Which simply means being at your best game when there is an important event.

Overall this requires a very sceintific approach to the sport and some very good oversight and accountability to your training. This is something I lacked in my personal training in the day, both Bernie and Marland had steady hands behind and with him to help bring these four factors together at the proper moment in time.

Overall even without good oversight I really can't complain to much with the excellent results I attained, even without a mentor. I will say I did have some excellent mechanical mentors in my day, which went a long way to making my bike always the very best in the trial.

I often wonder if there had been someone in the USA to help me in the mental and timing part of my training, just how far I could have gone?

[ev..]

this all does not seem much different from what I did for enduro training

as long as I was competing

weekdays:

run, pump iron, pedal to work and back

get the bike back in shape

weekends:

race or practice

if you want to compete little disturbances like the flu or a broken rib or a broken bike are no excuse

take a handful of dayquils, grid your teeth or race your pitbike

[mich lin]

Your right about all top sports riders needing the same winning mindset. One of the guys I work with is a mechanic for Team Suzuki and does a lot of training with their off-road team. He even just did a session with Knight even though he is on KTM.

Hearing the intensity of their training brought back a lot of memories of my national and world championship days. Being US naitonal champion but not world champion creates a lot of problems. First off you have nobody better than you to train with unless your off to Europe, which I did a lot of.

Then you face the homesick problem, the fact that the Euros really don't want you there and a host of other issues. I took the scientific approach to training, so much so that I wrote a book on technique and training for trials. Did a bunch of schools and week long training camps and generally tried my very best as national champion to bring up the US riding levels to international standards.

The program was a great success, so much so that one year at the US world round 6 of the top ten riders at the US world championship round were from the USA. My book also revealed the foundation of championship riding for the very first time for the normal rider to understand in plain wording and concepts. Raising the standard of clubmen riders worldwide which I'm very proud of.

Today in the USA we have nobody working to raise the bar for American riders on any level.

[mich lin]

Gee. I'm a little surprised that nobody has responded to this tred or asked me to break down the four areas of developement even more! Well, guess that's why we are in the state we are in here.

The sceintific approach is dealing with each of these four areas of possible improvement and fight for success, betterment and progress in each one. Every inch of progress creates a higher level of rider in any of the four.

My advice is idenify the weakest link in the chain yourself like I did or if you can have a great mentor help you do it with you.

[feetup]

Mitch,

I'd be very interested in hearing more about your thoughts on the topic of training. Also, you mentioned a book you wrote? Is it available for purchase?

cheers.

[wayne thais]

Lane,

I am really disappointed that there has been very little response to this post. I think that the reason is that most American riders don't train; they just go out and ride.

I have several books on how to train for bicycle racing, and they all teach that if you are going to compete at the highest level you must train scientifically. I have not seen your book but I have the one written by Bernie and Len Weed, I also have Ryan's video and one by Andreu Codina. Bernie does talk about training; he recommends racquetball as a good cross training activity in addition to running, weights, aerobics and stretching. He also emphasizes time on the bike practicing specific skills.

After spending two years in the National pits, my impression of most American riders is that Trials for them is more of a Hobby than a Sport.

I like your four points: One, Riding ability, two, machine preparation and design, three, mental conditioning and attitude and lastly physical conditioning. For most riders today I don't think that machine disign is much of an issue, the bikes today are pretty darn good. Now machine preparation is another story. I have seen guys come to a national and it looked like the bike had not been touched since the last national.

I also really agree with your point about mental attitude. I would ask a rider if he was going to podium and his response was, "I hope so". What I wanted to hear was, "That is why I am here".

When I was on the starting line of a bicycle race I was there to win the race. I had done the training and knew that I was ready. I did not win many races but one year I finished second or third at nearly ever race I entered.

When my son plays basketball he is there to win, not just play and have a good time. Mental prepartion is just as important as machine, and body preparation, maybe at the highest level it is the most important element.

I am confident that when you entered a trial you were there to win, not just to ride and have a good time. If you have applied your four principles you will undoubtedly have a good ride, place well and have a good time.

I hope that some of our young riders take heart and decide to make Trials a real sport and not just a hobby.

Wayne

[jackman]

I just wanted to add a little comment to this topic!

I'm 18 and ride a ty 175 which isn't by any means a heavy bike, but it is definatly not light. haha. I weight 120 pounds (not tall by any means) but I've been lifting weights for about 4 years now which has helped tremendously! When I first started riding the bike, I couldn't move it around at all (I stepped up from a honda xr 80! at 12 years olf). After the lifting weights for quite a while I can jump the bike around quite a bit now. I found curling, bench press and peck workouts were great for pushing the bike around.

My riding stamina has gone up and I don't feel sore/weak/tired at the end of a full day of riding as much as before when I was scronny. I know leg excercises are essential for trials aswell, but with the upper body workouts, I've noticed my ability to trow the bike around has improved a lot.

As for practicing on the bike, I just go out into the bush (at the cottage) and ride up hills, down hills, up ledges, down ledges, up the creek, down the creek etc. I think the best way to practice is just ride at what ever looks interesting off the trail ..then again, I'm not training to become a pro, just for fun hehe

[mich lin]

My book sold out years ago, it was the prequel to the Bernie book and Len went with Bernie because he seemed like a good sales angle bringing in the new world champ. The books never sold out and they are still for sale today.

The Len Weed/Lane Leavitt book revealed the foundations of championship riding! It for the first time in history revealed in plain English the fundamentals that unlock everything to come later. If you watch E-Bay the book comes up for sale once in a while. Hey, if you have a copy, I'll even sign it.

The information today is now common knowledge but in the day it was a revolution. Nobody had ever revealed it before, which raised the level of clubmen riders worldwide.

Actually Wayne, I consider bike set-up and design as vital! I was shocked at the poor state of the set-ups I found on everyone's modern bikes when I returned to the sport. Geoff Aaron does a good job for himself but I've not seen anyone else that really understands what they really need but please understand that I've not spent time with ALL the top American riders.

My two nationals I rode this year gave me tremendous insights on todays US pro riders. It was my plan to compete in this class and watch and learn where and how each of these riders sized up. Learn their mental and physical strong and weak points, plus study their bike set-up and minder interaction. Sadly this plan had the rug pulled out from under it by our short sighted national organizing body.

I was also doing research on physical conditioning for the sportsman rider, having already great insights on how to train as a pro. This also was blown out of the water by the NATC! Since I've not trained a single day since having a call from the head of the NATC banning me from the US nationals.

So the sportsman training project was put on hold,perhaps never to be picked up agian. I feel this would have been as big a revolution as the riding techniques that I revealed in the Trials Techniques and training.

Sadly I feel that one of the biggest handicaps for American riders reaching their full potentual is the US national organizing body, the NATC.

[gasgas]

Actually Wayne, I consider bike set-up and design as vital! I was shocked at the poor state of the set-ups I found on everyone's modern bikes when I returned to the sport. Geoff Aaron does a good job for himself but I've not seen anyone else that really understands what they really need but please understand that I've not spent time with ALL the top American riders.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mich Lin, can you explain to me what you consider as poor set-up etc.

I am very much into bike set-up, but as i lack the years of trials experience maybe you can give some examples.

For example, since i come from a enduro bike i thought my rebound was too fast.

So i dug into the fork and got myself more damping only to figure out now, that the fast rebound is actually crucial for hopping the frontend.

[mich lin]

Again excellent point GASGAS! Your Enduro background serves you well and gives you a very broad perspective. Also look at all the set-up work that is done for MX today even though the production bikes are amazing compared to just a few years ago. There is a very large business for suspension set-up, in my town there is 3 shops that provide that service, not dealers but tuning shops.

Set-up, tuning and bike modification is a science! What you need right now is not the same as what you would need if you rode Pro. Likewise if most Mx riders tried to ride Bubba Steward's works Kawasaki they would fall on their head. So your indiviual needs are very unique, I can't say what you need without being with you, that's like practicing medicine over the internet!

Picture this in your mind however! When I came back to the sport, 120lb women riders rode the same set-up as full size men riders.

Overall here's where American trials riders are being shortchanged! Their national organizing body supports the sportsmen riders with 17+ classes at a US national. Yet the number of entries is something around one hundred, which means almost everyone entered gets on the podium. Todays National riders are not challenged to think or work their way up the ranks! They are handed a podium finsih without having to "work for it."

Simply, this allows Americans to get lazy! How? They always have another class they can move to where the competition is not too tough. Even our best Pros are not encouraged to step up and contest the world round against the world's best.

I agree with Dman's point, that you need to ride with riders better than yourself. How can the US Pros get better not contesting the world round and riding with those better?

[atomant]

A lot has been said about bike setup, but what makes a good minder? If i draw an analagy with golf, without a decent caddy you have no chance regardless of your talent so therefore, a good minder can make the difference between winning and losing!

Where do the good minders come from? Is there any training for them? etc etc