One thing that isn’t discussed so much but I suddenly realized makes an enormous impact on my muni is the ability to hop while pointed up or downhill. I never thought much about it, but recently there was a trials obstacle that required it. I got tossed off hard. I tried only a few times and improved modestly. Then I went for a muni ride a few days later. I found that I absolutely tore up a lot of things that killed me before. The reason, I believe, is the short time spent hopping at weird angles. I found I could hop pointed at narrow spaces I needed to hop through instead of having to rotate in the air. If I was starting to lose it on a downhill, I found I had a lot more freedom to center up and hop in situations that would have taken serious luck to escape before. I also never realized how much effort I wasted having to twist. And especially when I I hopped and twisted back to riding and had to land and pedal out of an awkward line with no more set up hops.
Anyway, so this relatively simple skill had been missing all along. not having it really was holding me back. A few moments addressing it allowed a big jump up to where I should have been, but didn’t realize. Have any of you all missed something like this and then found the hole in your ability and plugged it? Maybe some nagging skill level trick that has pinned you multiple levels lower than you otherwise could be?
-gauss