My Mountain Bike Coach Is My New Guru

The bike handling skills she taught me became lessons for life

Last summer I attended a women’s mountain bike camp with a few friends. All of us wanted to improve our skills and gain more confidence on our bikes.

The class didn’t disappoint. With a coach alongside me, I tried obstacles I’d previously avoided. On the last day, I even braved a jaunt over a teeter-totter — something I’d never felt confident enough to attempt before.

I rode away from the class with new skills in my pocket and an eagerness to practice them on my hometown trails. And months later it dawned on me how many of the lessons our coach taught us that weekend applied not only to handling my bike but to life as well.

Keep your eyes focused on where you want to go

One of the first things our coach told us was that our bikes go where our eyes go. She said it’s important to notice the trees, roots, and rocks on our path, but not to fixate on them. Instead, point our eyes in the direction we want to go.

If we focus on the trees, we’re gonna smash into the trees. If we focus on the rocks, we’re gonna get stuck on the rocks. When we rivet ourselves on obstacles, we lose our flow.

Don’t get hung up by the trees, roots, and rocks that rise up along our path. Set our sights on where we want to go.

Stay flexible

When we came upon a series of challenging roots with no easy way around them, our coach said we had two options. We could get off our bikes and walk through them. There’s no shame in doing this. Sometimes we need to honor the difficulties of what’s in front of us and make our way through them slowly and with caution.

Our other option was to stay on the bike and ride through the rough patch. If we make this choice, we must remain flexible. To do this, we keep ourselves limber. We loosen our grip on the handlebars. This allows the bike to chatter underneath us while we remain upright.

The bike may pop in different directions but if we stay flexible we won’t be thrown off course or suffer from the bumps nearly as much.

View obstacles from a different perspective

At one point a large rock blocked our path. It looked overwhelming and if I was on my own, I’d have dismounted, walked around it, and rode away.

Our coach took a different approach. We got off our bikes, walked next to the rock to view it from the side, then walked past it and looked back. How did the rock look from all these different vantage points? Did it still seem overwhelming or did we now see a way to ride over it? Sometimes when viewed from a different angle, a rock no longer seems so bad.

With that new perspective, all of us saw a way to navigate the rock. We walked back and rode over it with confidence.

Go at your own pace

Sometimes we may ride with friends who are stronger and faster than us. Our coach said this can be good as it may help push us to become stronger ourselves.

But ultimately, it’s best to ride at the pace where we feel most comfortable. If we push ourselves too much and rush down the path we tend to make mistakes that may lead to injuries or regrets.

It may take us longer to get where we’re going and that’s okay. We’ll still reach our destination.

Enjoy the ride

The most important lesson she taught us that weekend was to enjoy the ride. After all, we’re out on our bikes in the woods to have fun, right? Sure, obstacles and challenges will most likely crop up along our path. Life sometimes presents us with difficulties frustrating enough to make us want to toss the bike aside.

But as Hugh Prather says, “There’s more than one way to go through life than to be dragged through it kicking and screaming.” I’ll admit at times I’ve let out a shriek both on my bike and in life. Being human can be tough and tension often is released by yelling “F*CK!” now and then.

But we only get one ride. Make it enjoyable.

kasey sparks, © 2023

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