You have some great advice here! 

 

Compete against yourself and have fun, that is what its all about. 

 

One more thing that might help... I like to find a video of someone doing the same thing I am trying to learn (Example: Ryan Young Video) then to try it several times and when I think I am doing ok then I video myself doing it from several angles and then watch it in comparison to the other video. 

 

Best of luck and what ever you do keep at it!

 

I recently took the highest score for all classes at an event in Wyoming. Three out of four of our group were in that "embarrassing" score scene. The fourth, well, he's really good ... and a bit-of-dick about it. But he puts up with the rest of us and tries to drag us along on our learning curve.

 

The other 50-plus (age, not points) rider and I, that scored so high, suffered greatly from taking wrong turns. We rode "intermediate" and did find the technical aspects challenging enough, but what crushed both of us was our lack of ability to remember the sections. It was only the second competition either of us had entered, and although we practice like heck on obstacles, it's obvious we need to practice way more on training our minds to remember complicated routes.

 

It was a two-day event, but the two of us could only ride the first day, so when one of the registrars saw us the morning of the second-day and asked if we were entering that day, after our answer responded that it was probably for the best, because we had already gotten plenty of points for both days. We laughed as hard as everyone else, and left with the knowledge that we had stood out from the crowd at least!

 

Have fun, and don't be discouraged.

 

Edited October 11, 20169 yr by utahpete

That last one had me in stitches. You have to be good to ride that bad

An abundance of confidence in the last video.

I to suffer with confidence issues. I'm capable but the little voice in my head says this will hurt.(One income family )riding with mates helps massively though. New bike and riding after a long day on the tools isn't helping either.

Personally, I find one of the problems in improving is just riding sections in your practice time.

I find practicing skills separate from sections much more condusive to improvement. So many times riding sections you are focused on getting through any way you can and not correctly riding.

Spend half of your practice time isolating skills like tighter and tighter turns on a flat area, then practice stopping and going smoothly in those turns, then do that on a hill side. Then practice riding over a log then turning before the log or rock over and over etc. till you commit it to muscle memory then expand the complexity of the skill but concentrate on that skill.

If you have friends to ride with that can observe and coach you so you can do these things correctly, watch your body/throttle/timing etc. and instruct you to do the skill correctly.

If not, find better riders that you can work with or Take a Trials class where your skills can improve with correct technique.

Also, a great help is to video yourself and watch what you do.