Practise the areas you have fear of and master it. Practise the areas of mtb you have issues with. Don’t just ride, if it’s cornering get someone who really knows how to ride to asses you and practise a corner a million times. If it’s a car work on that. Fear is down to confidence, once you have improved your skills, seen improvement, you will have less fear.

Oh my dear God, I’ve read it all now. Amatuer psychology at it’s finest. I’ve printed that tripe off and passed it round. Thank you from us all RB, it was quite a giggle

Thank you Solamanda.

No worries barca! 😉

Shooduv seen my ‘Hora’s libido problem’ one. Now that was a real gem…

If I could control my Libido I’d have alot of excess energy on my hands. Not sure if that is a good or a bad thing.

If I could control my Libido I’d have alot of excess energy on my hands.

No.

Just, no.

Hora, sorry if this has been posted before but i havent read all the other posts in this thread,

i sometimes get the ‘fear’ worried about slowing people down, bottling on easy stuff etc…- the best thing for me when this happens is to get out and ride on my own, at my own pace. just takes the pressure off and lets me get back in the swing of things/ reminds me why i ride.

good luck mate – i know its frustrating!

Get a riding buddy to give you a slap every time you start mincing, that way you’ll fear the slap more than the trail obstacle. Said slap could be physical or it could be a good old slagging/pisstaking in the finest traditions of weekend warriors up and down the land.

There are some aspects here that I am nodding to. Recently Solamanda- Ive never had tuition but sometimes it feels ’embarrising’ that its stuff I should know by now. Daft- but pride will be swallowed.

Mrcrushrider- AGREE.

Im stressed even before I get on the bike. Im worried about my fitness, slowing people down, impressing them (kinda compounding it by worrying before even before the ride).

Sort of been said already but sounds like your in a self perpetuating loop. Either take a break from riding or try something different like a skills course

You’re fine; you are no different to the vast majority of other people

have you met Hora?

Everyone goes off the boil. Some people quicker than others. Some people get back into the groove quicker than others too.

There are a few things you can do.

Ride as much and as often as you can. You won’t get better on a bike sitting on the sofa. Getting out three or four times a week and riding some moderately challenging terrain (whatever that means to you) will have a huge effect.

If I can only get out for an hour on a week night I tend to practice flat fast corners, drops, getting my foot down – hooning about. It all adds up.

Always try and ride the things that scare you. Don’t just ride them once and breath a sigh of relief – do it repeatedly. Session them (awaits ridicule for use of outlawed phrase).

Ride with people who are better than you. Imo this is one of the best ways to improve your riding – talk about these things on the trail and get better riders to demonstrate how they tackle a certain feature over and over.

Learn to fall off. It happens to everyone. There is a knack to it, if you can grasp this it’s half the battle. If that means switching to flats and messing about on the nearest grassy hill then so be it.

Seriously, try reading NLP it’s good for many things!!

Improves one’s ‘inner game’ to quote one of many terms used in NLP.

Ya no bother hora

P

I’d say if it’s your head that needs sorted out, then go sort it out – if you can’t do it yourself, get help (be it sports psychologist, CBT, NLP, etc.)
I guess it depends how much of a problem it is for you. If it gets to be crippling, then I’d say money well spent – changing your mindset positively in one area of your life can have a knock-on effect in others.
This comes from someone who has been undergoing counselling for a wee while now. I know it’s not quite the same, but it’s helped me address my fears (in a number of aspects in my life) – and I think made me much more confident on the bike as well.

Right. Got this…
Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Dummies hope I havent bought the wrong NLP book.

Sleep well, eat well and train (core fitness etc). Oh and laugh too.

Fatigue easily too but not if I had my list of stuff.

Let myself go so I’m on a diet and crap at hills.

2morros ride I’ll be mostly attacking/crawling up some hills till I’m dead.