Hey everybody welcome back to the Joe Rock star channel and video 2 of the Hill Climes and Descent series In this episode we're gonna take a look at some of the fundamentals like body positioning And we're gonna also look at my philosophy on approaching a steep descent And hopefully I'll get through this second video this series without destroying another piece of expensive equipment So let's start with body positioning. If you're sitting, you're wrong. Whether you're climbing or descending, the best position to be in is the attack position. It all starts at the pegs. What's wrong with this picture? Well besides the bad lighting that renders my green screen useless, you should notice where my foot is sitting above the peg. This is an example of what not to do. In this example I'm in the correct position with the balls of my feet on the peg. This position allows more flexibility at the angle, allowing you to soak up more of the bumps and let the bike work underneath you. It also reduces the chances of your foot coming off the peg accidentally. If it becomes necessary to shift or break, just slide your foot forward. And then when you're finished, slide it back again. Don't forget to squeeze your knees together at the tank and bring your toes inward. And now with my feet in the correct position, I have a stable base for the attack position. I'm not sitting, I'm standing with my knees slightly bent, my head over the handlebars and my elbows up. And now from this position it's easy as I approach a rocky downhill to just slide my way back and get my center of gravity low. Okay, so here's my philosophy on going downhill. ADV squared asked me how I do controlled descents down rocky hills. Well that's kind of a trick question because while I bet he was talking about the direction of the bike, controlled descent to me relies on my ability to control my body position. If you can control your body position and stay in the attack position with your center of gravity low going downhill, then you'll have all the control over the bike you need. Here's what I had to say about it a year ago. A lot of people would ride the brakes I would have early on. Now I just drop a gear, probably second or third of a year. Third looks good. And then I just tap the gasses a little bit when there's like a little whip or something that looks like your... You're getting those over on. Great. I'm not worried, I'm not breaking it all. I put it in a low gear, let the clutch out and just drag the front brake a little bit with your finger. No need to try and lock them up. That's just going to cause you to stall or lose control. Especially if you're using the back brake. I won't even touch my back brake on a descent unless it's an absolute emergency. Pretty rough. Now let's see it without the brakes. Now this has actually become a pet peeve of mine when riding with experienced riders or when I'm in a race. It really bothers me, especially when I'm riding with experienced riders. When the rider in front of me starts to brake on the downhill too much. Again, by squeezing those brakes, you're giving up a lot of control with your bike. While simultaneously forcing me to do the same for an illusion of safety. And while some may think that a slow let down is better than a fast one, that's not necessarily true. Well Rockstarz, that'll just about wrap it up here for this video. So get out there and practice those fundamentals and feel free to leave a comment to let me know how it went. And if you know a rider who could use these tips, don't hesitate to share the video. In the next part of this series, we're going to be talking about the uphill and some of the techniques I use when I'm going up. Sometimes I hammer the throttle and sometimes I have to finesse it. But either way I go. Clutch control and throttle control are the key. So I'll see you on the next installment of the series. Thanks for watching. You