"Arvin Chang" wrote in message
om...
"jaycb74" wrote in message
news:1075241634.373789@sj-nntpcache-5...
So I've been messing with these lately and just looking for some advice.

I use to always take-off fakie and land regular i.e. I would land in my
regular riding style. I got pretty comfortable with this but the only
problem is that it is tough to sometimes hit the transition right when
riding fakie. Now I'm trying to take-off regular and land fakie but for
some reason have this fear of my front knee buckling the wrong way when
landing, I guess because its just totally opposite on how I would
normally
land a jump. Everyone I've talked to says this really isn't an injury
they
are aware of for this move but wanted to see if anyone had any tricks to
pull these off?

Thanks.

If you did a 180 and landed fakie and leaned too far over your tail
(forward) you would risk injurying your ACL (eep!). That being said,
it basically never happens unless you really overshoot the landing and
land in the flat. However, since I already have a sprained ACL, I'm
avoiding it.

Which way are you spinning. I'm guessing frontside since backside
requires you to land blind (i.e. looking up the uphill and not where
you are going). I think the main important things a

1. Lean forward as you enter the air. Pretty much everyone
unconsciously leans back on a jump when they are nervous. By forcing
yourself to lean forward and shift more weight to the front foot, you
are actually compensating for this and will probably be more or less
centered. Not to take this to extremes, but you pretty much *can't*
lean too far forward, becaues you mind won't let you do it. To your
subconscious mind, the edge of the jump is like the edge of a cliff
and so you mentally aren't capable of realistically leaning too far
forward. So basically try to lean as far forward as you can... more
than you think is necessary. A side corollary, always go a little
faster than you think you need to. A little too far is a lot better
than a little too short on a jump.

2. *Bend* your knees. Similarly, people like stand up straight and
tall when they are out of their comfort zone. You will see novice
jumper straight leg they jumps and not absorb the the landing as the
shock jolts through their locked knees. Approach the jump with you
needs bent, you will feel like you want to stand up and look over the
jump, resist this urge. When you enter the air, pull your knees *up*
and THEN extend then halfway down again for the landing.

3. Go faster than you think you need to. Again like tip #1, someone is
going to take this too far and yell at me (use your common sense). My
observation whenever you try something new (at any level, whether it's
your first jump, first 180, 360, inverted air) you automatically feel
uncomfortable with speed and slow down (do an extra speed check or
two) too much. Ironically this *dramatically* increases your chances
of crashing as you will land short in the transition and that extra
jolt makes it much harder to land. Mentally force yourself to go
faster and do *not* change your mind at the last second and slow down,
that is just wrong and most likely will lead to you crashing. The
normal setup is to take 2-3 turns before the jump, *stop* turning and
just go straight the last 10-15 feet before the jump. This is last bit
is key for virtually all jumps... landing on the landing part of the
tabletop, while farther away, is *much* easier than going short and
landing in the flat transition. When you land on the landing, it's
like you never left the ground it's so smooth, when you land on the
transition, even if you were perfect on your takeoff, you might crash
due to the jolt of the landing.

If you are too afraid, or mentally unable to do this yet. Don't worry,
it's ok that's you natural sense of self-preservation acting. Try
starting on a smaller jump or put yourself on a steep blue/black and
try to get some air off a roller while going *fast* because that speed
is critical. Don't try to do a jump that's obviously beyond you skill
level (use common sense). If you can't do a black/blue run yet, don't
even bother going into the park, you will merely endanger yourself and
aggravate others.

If you want to do backside 180s, I can give you some tips on that (but
all the above still applies).

Hmmm, food for thought. I managed to do my first jump a couple of weeks ago
at the Lecht here in Scotland. It was a kicker about 18 inches high (45cm or
so), so no big deal, but I kept bottling it and riding past it. Eventually I
flatlined at it, I didn't bottle it, and it was fine. I'm looking forward to
trying some more at Cairn Gorm this weekend!