Mountain Bike Team Camp Reports
by Linda Demma & Grace Hughes
Linda's account:
On Monday and Tuesday March 5-6, we “newbies” were exposed to the “BetterRide” way. Even though I’m still somewhat of a novice in the dirt, certainly Holly and Grace have had lots of experience and Holly even races expert. But, as Gene says, “Practice does not make perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect!” So, we set out to go back to basics so that “perfect practice” was possible!
Day 1 was at Conyers where we had gusty winds and some below normal temperatures. But, we were rewarded for our perseverance by learning wheelies, learning how to climb, and most importantly learning techniques in vision. Gene is fantastic at breaking down each skill into individual parts; you begin to understand not just the motions, but how to apply them on the trail, and how having those basic skills in your repertoire is so important to being an overall good rider. We also spent a good deal of time on learning to navigate a race course during a pre-ride. Since I’m still sort of new at racing, my primary goal is to finish in one piece. But, at some point you have to develop some strategies for crossing the finish line ahead of the competition, and a lot of those strategies can come from riding technique. For example, reducing the degree of turns will increase the speed that you come out of them with – you really do need to make sure you’re not just following the “lemming line” but thinking critically about the trail ahead and how to make it work with you and not against you. After a lap around the dirt side, we had used wheelies to hop over those logs, used vision techniques to climb the really steep hills, and navigated through a turn that appeared sharp but was actually a pretty straight line when you looked more carefully. And, it was FUN!
Day 2 at Ft. Yargo was even better. The temperature started rising, and we were joined by our teammates – the women who had already experienced the BetterRide.” After reviewing our vision and wheelie skills, we learned the proper body positioning for high-speed turns. As I mentioned above, Gene is such a good teacher because he really does break it down piece by piece. We started with just focusing on keeping our weight above the bottom bracket, but advanced toward focusing on counterbalance and vision. Fast turns never seemed so easy! The highlight of the camp was a full 12-mile lap around Ft. Yargo with Gene in the lead, and taking turns riding behind him. We learned how to pump the rollers by practicing on some good stretches (and Yargo has lots of those).We also applied our new turning techniques and worked really hard on vision while just enjoying a beautiful afternoon.
So, besides the basic skills that we learned, Gene has a lot of good advice about attitude. What I mean is, most of learning to mountain bike race is having the confidence to keep looking ahead and pushing yourself with challenges. If you lack the confidence to try, you will not accomplish what you want to do. Kind of like Yoda in Star Wars, and as Gene says, “There is no try, just do or do not.” I personally learned so much this week, and can’t wait to practice my new skills! I’d highly recommend one of Gene’s camps if you get the chance. Sometimes you get so caught up in training and racing that you forget how important it is to focus on the basics. See you on the trails!
Grace's account:
On March 5th-7th the Sorella mountain bike race team had the opportunity to participate in a clinic with Gene Hamilton. This was my first clinic with Gene and I learned so much! Linda Demma, Holly Longley, Norma Rainwater, Laina Hamilton and I met Gene at Conyers for the first day of camp. In the morning we discussed individual goals and worked on drills to improve our vision and bike handling skills. After lunch we worked on specific sections of the trail and began to learn how to “pump” and “contour” the trail.
On Tuesday we met up with the rest of the race team at Ft. Yargo for our second day of camp. It was great to have Kate Cook, Kathryn Kim, Aimee Murphy, Alison Knight, Jody Waggoner join us! In the morning, Gene worked with the two groups separately. For example, he worked on cornering skills with our group and then gave us time to practice and critique each other while he worked with the other group. After lunch we hit the trails! This was my favorite part of the entire clinic! We took turns riding behind Gene so that we could watch his lines and listen to his coaching as we rode. As I dropped back to the end of the Sorella train, I was so excited to see a trail of orange and blue in front of me! We stopped several times to work on skills such as pumping and to discuss various racing strategies. Gene even showed us a line that would save several seconds in a particular corner. As we worked on our rock garden skills down by the lake, we noticed that we had an audience. A snake had stopped by to enjoy the view. Norma quickly informed us that it was a copperhead. We decided to move along to another section, but Gene insisted upon demonstrating the best line so he rode through it two more times! As darkness approached, we headed back out the cars. I would like to personally thank Gene for his patience in dealing with 10 talkative women. His guidance and insight were very helpful. This clinic was a great team bonding experience and I can’t wait to put my new skills to the test.
