Hey there everyone,
I can’t say i have scrutinised to many of the higher end trials videos floating around on these forums but i was wondering if Ryan Atkins etc do much stuff with their non dominant foot foward, and hopping/gapping to their non dominant side. Just the other day i decided to start practicing SIF hops to the right with my left hand (non dominant hand) on the seat. While i felt pretty unco at first i managed to get some ok height out of this technique, what really sucked was my accuracy onto stuff (i suppose that will come with time.)
i can deffinately see the advantage of being able to hop effectively both ways. I also think that being able to hop opposite foot foward would really help for trials lines where you have to go from a skinny to another object- where the skinny is not a correct length to get to your preffered pedal position.
So all you trials riders out there- do you ride exclusively with one hopping stance, or have you found the need to be good at multiple stances?
For the stance thing, you almost never see someone trying to do a trial line with his or her wrong feet forward.
Being ambidextrous is more interesting when riding Muni and when you don’t know on which position you will be when you will arrive at this rock over there.
For side hop, everybody has a favourite side where we can jump higher and further. Normally trial lines in competition are supposed to be as dificult for the “left hoppers” as for the right ones. So you can always manage to let your good side express itself.
But it is always a good thing to reach a standard “switch” level. It will give you more possibilities, less pre-hop, more flow and more ease.
most riders are capable to hopping from both dominant and non dominant stance, and land either way also, if you ride muni you will find this to be completely essential and hence riding muni strengthens your trials/street riding. you will over time learn to be able to hop from either stance, either hand in either direction but there will always be one way that feels more comfortable. thats why we have the term chocolate. (does anyone actually talk about their chocolate foot). another great thing to practise is grinds and pedal grabs on both sides, hopping in all directions (really stretching yourself) and in all stances… its just good practice huh.
i’m horrible jumping right foot forward. i can roll small drops and such and rotate it in the air while riding muni but otherwise it’s worthless. i can hop both was a bit but one was is waaay better.