# Overcoming The Fear Of Gap Jumps



## Ramooska (Sep 19, 2016)

Hey!!!

So today I went to this place called Adel Woods and its got one trail with 2 tabletops and no gap jumps. At Adel Woods there are another 7 trails. But they all feature Alot of Gap Jumps. I'm ok at Tabletops but could be better. But whenever i see a gap jump I get scared Shitless. How should I overcome the fear of these jumps. I fear jumping and just missing the jump and ending like this:

Skip to see what happens 0:41





Idk why but I just can't overcome this fear. What should I do.

PS I do Have a full face helmet:thumbsup:


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## Procter (Feb 3, 2012)

1) Get to the point where you nail your table-tops cleanly 99 times out of 100. Meaning: 
- Pop the takeoff cleanly, like a trampoline jump. Balanced in the air. 
- Clear the lip (obviously)
- Hit the downside 50/50 on each wheel
- Be able to pull your bike up into yourself, if necessary to clear the lip, but still land 50/50 on the backside

2) Find (or build) progressive gaps to get your confidence up. Don't do a gap you couldn't cleanly clear if it was a table-top. 

3) COMMIT

4) Learn how to bail out properly if needed, but, there are a 100 different ways to bail out, its hard to say what to do in all cases. If I'm gonna case the jump, pulling the bike up into you to clear is best, if that's not going to happen, I prefer to get my tail down and case the BB onto the lip, to try to avoid going OTB. But, honestly I don't have a lot of experience on this. I am a cautious old-guy who only does jumps I am 100% confident in or not at all. 

Mistakes in the video:
1) Didn't know the area, didn't seem to be aware it was a gap until last second
2) Tried to bail sideways, but didn't pop the jump at all. Jump controlled him, not him controlling the jump. He was along for the ride, wherever his center of gravity took him. 
3) As a result, was bucked way forward and nose-wheelied into the gap.


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## idividebyzero (Sep 25, 2014)

being "ok but could be better" at table tops isnt good enough to be doing gaps, so its good to be scared of them. Get so good at tables that you find them boring and want more challenge before moving to gaps.


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## Shakester (Jun 26, 2012)

Also note that, unless jumps are maintained, not all gap jumps work out well if one side deteriorates. I've seen jumps where the landing is much higher than the take off.


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## DethWshBkr (Nov 25, 2010)

Ramooska said:


> Hey!!!
> 
> So today I went to this place called Adel Woods and its got one trail with 2 tabletops and no gap jumps. At Adel Woods there are another 7 trails. But they all feature Alot of Gap Jumps. I'm ok at Tabletops but could be better. But whenever i see a gap jump I get scared Shitless. How should I overcome the fear of these jumps. I fear jumping and just missing the jump and ending like this:
> 
> ...


"Doubles" are nothing to screw with if you are not 100% ready.
It took me pretty much one year of riding before I jumped my first double on the MX bike. Then, it was a 15' double, which barely got you off the ground. 
Over the next few years, I would have no problems with my largest three jumps, a 100' double, 110' triple step up, and my largest was a sketchy 120' triple jump, 4th gear on the gas as hard as I could.

The first thing you need to do - is LEARN ALL BASICS. You need to be able to control your bike properly. Jumps have a habit of kicking the front and/or rear. If you are NOT comfortable with the bike off the ground at all, you are NOT ready. Doubles can be INCREDIBLY UNFORGIVING. Unlike a table, where you can land short, sideways, or otherwise not perfect, if you are short on a double (known as "Casing" the jump) and not really, really experienced, you VERY likely will have a bad over the bars when the rear wheel compresses, and boots you over the bars.

All jumps are different. Some boot high, some send far. Some have very forgiving landings, some have steep ones. Don't let a "shallow" landing fool you, those are USUALLY higher speed, and coming up short and casing them can end even worse than a steep one.

I used to practice by jumping INTO the jump. The one 100' double, I was able to work my way to about 50' just flat landing, but beyond that, the impact was so strong, I just had to go for it. Experience on the bike let me feel the takeoff, and know whether or not I would need to hit the brake in the air, or throttle to change the orientation of the bike. You can also jump to the SIDE, and just see how far you make it. Being a mountain bike, you don't have the benefits of 12-13" of suspension travel to soak up landings, but the basic principal is the same. 
Once in a while, the only way to pick it up FAST, was to follow someone that was jumping it, and pace them. If you know how the jumps reacts (kicker, or sender) and how your bike reacts, you don't need to worry about much more than matching speed with someone that does it.


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## Legbacon (Jan 20, 2004)

The guy filming had a Mondraker 10mm stem. It has nothing to do with this but pretty cool top see.


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## LemonDrops (Oct 11, 2016)

Procter said:


> 1)
> - Pop the takeoff cleanly, like a trampoline jump. Balanced in the air.


Yeah, this... do you know how to bunny hop or J-hop(American bunnyhop in this video... 3:23)? 





If you don't, learn how to J-hop on flat ground first. Then when you hit a double, do a J-hop off the lip and you will catch massive air, and overshoot the landing if anything. When I used to ride trails on a BMX, I noticed that some of the MTBers, like the guy in that video, would not JUMP off the jumps, they'd simply ride over them fast. If you like tabletops because you just "ride-over-them-fast" then you need to learn to J-hop off the lip to catch huge air before you try any big doubles. Better to catch too much air and land in the flats than not enough and face plant like that guy. The first rider in that video (after the cameraman) only did an English bunny hop and he was able to clear it! The third rider looked like he did a very mild American bunnyhop/J-hop and that's all that was necessary for that little jump.

The better you can J-hop, the slower you can go and still clear it. And you get more height which looks way better. The first time off any new jump always puts some butterflies in the stomach!:thumbsup:


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

"English bunnyhop" aka "level lift" according to the terminology being used by MANY skills clinics more and more (even globally).

And no, OP is a raw beginner and does not have any of these skills down. OP likes asking lots and lots of questions, but appears unwilling to invest the practice time to learn the basics of body position and handling before building on them to learn more advanced things.


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## DethWshBkr (Nov 25, 2010)

LemonDrops said:


> Yeah, this... do you know how to bunny hop or J-hop(American bunnyhop in this video... 3:23)?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This is very similar to a "seat bounce" in MX. On the face, you preload your rear suspension, and use the rebound to "lift" the bike higher. A necessary skill to clear large jumps with ZERO run-up. 
However, if a rider is not comfortable, and the bike is NOT set up properly, this can cause an endo, not lift.

The OP is not nearly experienced enough to warrant even thinking about hopping the face!


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## targnik (Jan 11, 2014)

Taking off is the easy part ^^

It's the landing that can mess you up >.<

The take off doesn't (usually) worry me, it's more often the landing...

Is there enough run out? Is the landing area wide enough? Are there any obstructions on the trail?

As one can see, I'll usually session jumps - rather than rolling blindly down the trail and huckin whatever pops up.

Exception of course is of you can clearly see take off, distance and landing zone - whilst railing down the trail.

My local trails have small/medium sized gaps or 30ft gaps... Not really enough in the medium range 10-20ft zone.

Majority of stuff under 10 foot, I'll do...

Without the next level I'll probably never go much bigger... That's kewl though, b/c none of my riding buds like to huck, so I've always got one over them.

I would like to get better at medium, medium/large stuff - but local trails don't really allow the ability to practise/session such features.

It's all about progression though, if you want to get better at, you'll get better at it.

Sent from my kltedv using Tapatalk


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## weeksy950 (Jan 11, 2012)

You could go to see Tony Doyle at UK Bike Skills

UK Bike Skills | Mountain Bike Skills Coaching

He teaches exactly that sort of thing. I've done one day with him and he had me clearing exactly that type of double.


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## Ramooska (Sep 19, 2016)

Harold said:


> "English bunnyhop" aka "level lift" according to the terminology being used by MANY skills clinics more and more (even globally).
> 
> And no, OP is a raw beginner and does not have any of these skills down. OP likes asking lots and lots of questions, but appears unwilling to invest the practice time to learn the basics of body position and handling before building on them to learn more advanced things.


If your saying that I am unwilling to invest practice time. that is not true at all. Otherwise I wouldn't be now able to do small gap jumps after reading these comments. And practicing -_-


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## Ramooska (Sep 19, 2016)

targnik said:


> Taking off is the easy part ^^
> 
> It's the landing that can mess you up >.<
> 
> ...


Yeah the landing area is wide enough, the only problem is how steep the actual gap is. So to be able to get enough speed to go over it. You need to pump and even then I still can't get enough speed to go soaring over. I just fall into the inbetween of the gap!


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## DethWshBkr (Nov 25, 2010)

Ramooska said:


> If your saying that I am unwilling to invest practice time. that is not true at all. Otherwise I wouldn't be now able to do small gap jumps after reading these comments. And practicing -_-


People are simply trying to make sure you don't kill yourself.

It's not hard to go fast and do jumps....so long as everything goes right.

When it goes wrong, an inexperienced person wads up, thats when you'll wish you had more experience, which may have saved a painful crash or other problem.

Yesterday you were afraid of gaps. Today you are jumping them? All because you read some stuff on the internet?
Three weeks ago you nose dived on any jump, suddenly you want to do doubles?
Nothing wrong with pushing yourself, but you are RUSHING IT.

Ive seen it time and time again in moto. New rider comes into it. They want to throw down whips and launch the huge triples. So long as everything goes PERFECT, they are ok. The problem is, it does not always go perfect. If you're screwinh with advanced stuff that is beyond your experience, it could end very, very badly.

The guy in the video you showed is a prime example.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Ramooska said:


> If your saying that I am unwilling to invest practice time. that is not true at all. Otherwise I wouldn't be now able to do small gap jumps after reading these comments. And practicing -_-


It SHOULD take you YEARS of practice to build a foundation of core skills and branch out into more advanced maneuvers. If you do it too quickly, you get sloppy with your foundational skills, and you get hurt because you f*cked up.

I am personally perfectly content to skip big doubles. I'll do small tabletops and roll doubles that are rollable. I prefer natural terrain over this kind of stuff, anyway, and doubles don't just appear out of nowhere. There, I've said it. I've been riding for almost 20yrs and have no interest in doubles. And that's perfectly okay. YOU need to be okay with pacing yourself and making sure that you're rock solid on those basic skills before you start trying to go huge on more advanced stuff.


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## LemonDrops (Oct 11, 2016)

Learning how to crash is a skill, too. When to bail, when to tuck-and-roll, when to kick/throw the bike away etc.. The guy in the video didn't do any of that. He kept a death-grip on the bars until the bitter end. He should have let go of the bars when the front wheel dropped so severely, instead of letting it drag him down. If you're crashing, try to land feet/knees/hip or even hands first and not head/face first.


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