Summer is the perfect time to brush up on those mountain biking skills. With long, warmish evenings there is no excuse not to head out to the back garden and spend a little time working on the skills that will make you that much better on the trails.

3 Essential Skills for Beginner Mountain Bikers

The bunny hop is a really useful skill, as it will allow you to easily conquer small lifts and obstacles on the trail. It is important however to perfect your positioning, movement, braking and of course the manual on the bike before trying this out though as it will make the learning process far easier.

We enlisted the help of Katy Curd, 4x World Champion and experienced skills coach to talk us through the bunny hop in a couple of simple steps:

1. You need to master the front wheel lift and then the back wheel lift, you will then be able to put them together for the bunny hop.

2. Come from the standing up position, bend a little and throw hips as far forward as you can into an almost press up position.

3. Dip your toes and scoop up that back wheel

4. Bit by bit throw in a little more effort

5. Once you can lift the front and the back now it’s time to put it together

6. Lift front wheel up and hold it there and then try and throw your hips forward. The movement should roll into one. If you are having trouble with this speed up the movement and it should roll into one naturally.

7. You really need to master getting that front wheel up otherwise it is really tricky

8. The front wheel needs to touch the landing first. Practice initially with a stick and then as you improve you can choose a bigger obstacle.

If you fancy learning more from the pro in person, why not sign up for one of Katy Curd’s coaching courses in the Forest of Dean. Katy also coaches at two skills camps per year in Sierra Nevada Spain with Pure Mountains.

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