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First, apologies for the long(ish) post - this has been a long running problem.
I've been mountain biking for nearly 25 years and up till last year had never hurt myself, and was happy riding all kinds of crazy stuff without even thinking about how I was doing it, or whether it was sensible. I just seemed to have this aura of invincibility and kid-like ability to just ride anything.
Then I had a big OTB crash when I screwed up a 3 foot drop off. Landed on the front wheel and got spat over the bars and cracked a rib, which really really hurt. It was a massively dumb thing to do on a solo night ride and dragging my broken ar5e back home in agony and covered in vomit was a deeply unpleasant experience.
Anyway, after a few weeks of recovery and a huge bollocking from the missus, I was riding again and (as expected) was a bit nervous and lost loads of confidence.
Problem is, nearly a year later I've recovered *none* of my confidence. If anything, I'm getting more not less nervous. To the point where it's taking a lot of the fun out of riding. Anything remotely technical has me staring at all the sharp rocks and bottling out, instead of looking where I want to go and just riding. Simply can't help it. As for drop offs - anything bigger than a kerb has me off walking. Steep descents are the same. I'm just hopeless at it all now.
When I do force myself to MTFU (even a bit) I invariably frighten myself. It seems that all my rides end with me either being scared, or cursing myself for being a mincer.
I'm a bit stuck really. It's like I'm starting mountain biking from scratch. I look at stuff that a year ago I was happy to blast down with a huge grin, and this year I simply have no idea how I'm going to get down it safely and just can't bloody do it. It's really really p!ssing me off.
Any pearls of wisdom? Feels like I need bloody therapy or something 🙁
Isn't this when you just start riding a road bike?
(I jest - I'm a roadie first and foremost..)
If it helps, I've always been a useless mincer.
In an attempt to de-mince myself, and to prevent my newbie little lady from going down the ways of the mince, we're off to see Jedi.
i'm also a useless mincer.
when you figure out a way to fix this condition, please let me know.
All I can think of is ride with some people who are happy to ride the rough stuff and who will encourage you to do the same and/or go and see a skills coach for some help.
Just book a trip to Morzine with your mates. Then you've no option but to MTFU! Worked for me 😀
Glad to see I'm not the only wuss.
Maybe I do need to go get some Jedi therapy. Not sure if knowing how to do stuff will stop me being a coward though
my missus was the same with skiing after dislocating her elbow. One on one lessons/coaching helped no end in getting her confidence back up to where it was.
Isn't this when you just start riding a road bike?
not sure my mate, currently in hospital with a hip shattered into many pieces would agree 🙂
I compensate for mincing my way down anything steeper than a wheelchair ramp by trying to be reasonably quick up the hills.
Take your riding back to basics. Do ickle tiny drops and jumps and just build up.
I was once a far more confident rider - but ended up with a three year gap from riding as my (now ex) wife didn't like me enjoying life.
It's taken me a year almost to get any sort of speed back and I still can't jump anything like I used to. But I don't let it stress me. I enjoy my riding and just go with a "it'll get better with time" attitude.
Mincing is underrated anyway.....
A change might help.
try a course
a new bike 😉
different area so you are looking at new challenged
find a group to ride with
enter a race
It might just take a while. It is mostly a head game so try not to other think it.
Great to hear I'm not the only sissy here. I know it's all in my head - I was just hoping it would have sorted itself out by now
I broke my hip 11 years ago in a gung-ho moment.
I'm better now but still cautious. At 46 maybe it's for the best - if I did the same again they'd give me a new hip...
I compensate for mincing my way down anything steeper than a wheelchair ramp by trying to be reasonably quick up the hills.
+1
if you have the bike to handle the gnarrr then you just need to program the software to also handle the gnar. i think you should find the steepest roughest bit in your local arear and just session the scaryes bit time after time untill you are back up too speed. and i find putting the headphones in and blasting some beats helps to clear the "what ifs" out of the back of you mind
I compensate for mincing my way down anything steeper than a wheelchair ramp by trying to be reasonably quick up the hills.
i compensate for walking up the hills by pedeling down
Same thing happened to me after I crashed and broke my Femur.
I too had also ridden MTB (and raced) over 25 years
When I started riding again I obviously started carefully to avoid further injury. However I found that even after a couple of years my confidence on anything tricky was gone and I was opting out of anything remotely challenging.
My "cure" was a 29er.
The move up from my 26 hard tail to a 29er, gave me the boost in confidence I needed. It was probably more psycological than the benefits of the 29er itself, so upgrading whatever you ride, to something more confidence inspireing will probably work. EG Hard tail to FS or Short Travel to Long Travel.
With my increased confidence,I am now far better at technical sections than I was before my accident.
Some good de-mincing advice here, thanks fellas 🙂
I'm constantly battling vertigo and a fear of steep things whilst out riding. I generally find riding with a friend and following them down technical things helps me out, when i'm out by myself i do have to give myself a bit of a talking to before hitting some techy bits
You clearly need a new bike.
+1 for getting yourself Jedi'd 😉
It's not just about knowing HOW to do things - although that is a big help 😉 It's also about the mental skills that he gives you to go along with the 'how'.
hth.
i'm a big mincer also 🙁
i bought a bmx recently to try and learn some bike skills (as i have none/mid life crisis)but am too afraid/crap attempting anything on it (other than jump off small kerbs 😳
hence i am going to be p/x'ing it towards a full sus bike.
practice practice practice.
+1 for riding with mates
+1 for jedi, i havent used him but a lot of folk on here have.
and practice.
an accident is bound to have this effect, but you can get over it in time.
Full face and pads? I am a mincer too and got some for an alps trip. Made me feel lots safer which made me more confident which made me worry less and make less mistakes and therefore less likely to need the hat and pads!!
I know what you mean. A shattered shoulder in 2010 left me with a lack of confidence in a weird way. I can hurtle through singletrack, and even Welsh trails with rocks at full pelt, but those little drop offs, say 6" in size that require a small loft of the front wheel, or a surface (last sunday, a six inch drop onto a 3ft wide bridge over a stream where the bridge was a mass of dried horses hoof divots) that make me think the front wheel could be unstable, and I'm off an walking.
:-/
1 - work up gently
2 - ride with mates
3 - Jedi.
Possibly not in that order.
I need to stay off this thread. It frightens me
Go see Jedi and make sure you understand why you crashed. Right now, it's the unknown and could happen again. If you understand why it happened, you can avoid doing it again.
Jedi Jedi jedi
I reckon there's enough of us on here to organise an STW Useless Mincers ride....
I believe the correct term is in fact Minceur, in line with the French terms Rouleur, Grimpeur and Puncheur. I am also a Minceur.
New bike can work wonders. I've gone from hard tail to slack 140mm full sus with dropper post and flats. I feel much more confident than ever before and having lots more fun.
Drs****
See. I told you you could jump again!
as i was reading the op, my first thought was that you need to go and see jedi. I've never met te guy, but i knowpeople who have and really rate him.
or great rock. i have been on one of his courses and do highly rate him.
you need some perspective really: you have been riding for 25 years... it is a relatively dangerous sport, mistakes happen, one of those things... and MTFU
Like DrR said. back to basics. Go session some smaller stuff and go from there. Dont go out and do the usual ride. mix it up a little.
Purchase a road bike. 💡
I'm another minceur, it was my broken shoulder and the fact that I couldn't support my family after that crash that forced me into this life.
Before that I'd broken more bones than anyone else I've ever met and couldn't give a toss, twas responsibility that made me give up.
Dont go out and do the usual ride. mix it up a little.
strongly agree..
I had similar problem to the OP, my catalyst was a new baby, over tired, led to a series of minor crashes then a bigger one, still not huge but cracked a rib, mangled a wheel and really knocked my confidence
(incidentally I was riding with mates at the time, showing them a cheeky trail, riding with them had undoubtedly improved my riding but not this time)
I tried new pedals, tyres, wider bars anything else I could blame other than myself
I went to see Jedi
I had a great day, really felt I was getting somewhere
Right until I washed out on the last corner of his little track, went down hard hurt my hand, turned out later I broke my thumb (and slightly bent the other wheel!)
Finished the session, but couldn't ride for ages due to the thumb
Got back on felt a bit better but now a year later I'm probably worse
Confidence completely gone
So I bought a new bike, only been out 3 times but I'm not sure that's worked either (so blaming the wheels next, here we go again.....)
Coming to accept I'm probably just a mincer (with a nice bike)
I don't care, I've a family to consider, rather be a responsible dad than a gnarr dad, I still have fun and enjoy getting out doing what I do, I just do it with more consideration (a bit slower)
I know I can do drops and jumps, I did them in a Hertfordshire field, i have a photo and Jedi's blog entry to prove it but I also know i don't have to do them when alone on a remote hillside somewhere
MTFU is generally a bad idea! If you're nervous there's a good chance your riding has picked up flaws it didn't have before. You need to find your flow again and work back up. Having been Jedi'd a month ago I can confirm this would help - I'm riding significantly quicker already.
I went thru a similar experience, but it was a new frame that caused my total loss of bottle. The frame was quickly sold on, but my bottle seemed to not recover. Definitely go for skills (re)training to get your confidence back, South England Jedi appears to be the recommended default point, North England Rafferty Brothers (pro Ride Guides) would be my recommendation from personal experience. One of the guys I ride with has improved his confidence noticeably from an Ed Oxley course.
Not sure being a mincer is a problem really. I dislocated my shoulder on the South Downs Way about ten years ago riding very fast on slippery chalk and have been very tame on my bike ever since. The dislocation and physio kept me off my bike for 8 months.
I'm 43 now and do look enviously at the photos in magazines of people riding heroic jumps etc but they're mostly twenty years younger and four stone lighter! I also think that as you get older you tend to become more cautious and aware of danger.
Interesting to note too that the first time I ever went mountain biking at the Lookout in Bracknell a girl was airlifted out by helicopter, the sales guy in the shop I bought my first MTB from ended up with more metal plates in his body than a Terminator and my current LBS who are in the process of putting together a Cotic Soul for me have a young guy in there sitting in a wheelchair and on crutches who apparently bent his feet back the wrong way and shattered all his toes! It seems to me that the accident rate in this sport is far higher than many of us imagine because too many of us are seeking to emulate the pictures we see in the magazines.
I applaud those who can ride safely on terrain and at speeds that make me wince but I also don't think those of who mince along need to apologise or feel bad about it. The main thing is that we all love riding - fast, slow, fat or thin. You don't need to justify the way you ride, what you ride or wear to anyone. I have for example finally realised that I bloody hate technical fabric cycling jerseys next to my skin - I find their polyester/nylon fabric itchy, scratchy, sweaty and have finally just accepted the fact that I love cotton T-shirts to ride in - they're cooler (at least for me), more comfortable and looser fitting which helps accomodate my generous proportions.
I'm beginning to wonder if there's a whole load of us out there who are currently under-represented by the magazines etc and maybe I should form a club - "The Gourmet Mincers Cycling Club" where the dress code bans lycra tops but doesn't go so far as to insist on tweed breeches and where a lazy pace and stopping for lunch in a pub are encouraged...
Saxon
+111111 for some 1 on 1 coaching - throwing Cyclewise at Whinlatter into the mix. Helped me with a 1 on 1 session to see what was going on with technique. Relaxed and fun - get out whatever you want really.
Starting back small can be good, try a different ride. Don't go out alone!!
Following someone through jumps/drops who you know and knows you also can help. The proof that you are going to make it.
Aside from that maybe consider a sports shrink.
Yes. Another plus one for coaching.
Master Jedi spotted the mincers mistakes in my riding yesterday and with two quick bits of advice had me flying tabletops without trauma.
Cheers for helping me find my wings again 🙂