How to Pump on a Mountain Bike Tutorial | Skills with Phil

Hey, what's up, guys? So you want to learn how to jump? Well, before you learn how to jump, you got to learn how to pump. So today I'm going to teach you how to pump. So what is pumping? Pumping is the act of generating speed by shifting your body weight in sync with trail features. The idea is to make yourself as light as possible on the inclines and as heavy as possible on the declines. Similar to jumping on a trampoline. There are three types of pumping. In this video, I will only be talking about two wheel pumping. To better understand how pumping works, I've broken it up into two parts. Generating speed and maintaining speed. Generating speed happens on the declines. You do this by getting tall before the decline and then making yourself heavy on the decline. Maintaining speed happens on the inclines. You do this by getting low and preloading before the incline. And then exploding upwards on the incline. Now that you understand how it works, we're going to look at how to pump a roller. As you approach an uphill, preload by lowering your chest and bending your knees. Push into the ground and explode upwards. When your front wheel has reached the decline, lower your chest and apply downward pressure on your handlebars. Once your rear wheel has reached a downhill, apply downward pressure driving through your legs. To pump a series of rollers, repeat this movement as much as necessary. Now, depending on the terrain and the speed at which you're traveling, you will sometimes have to use a different technique to generate speed. At slower speeds, you may find it easier to generate speed using your upper body. However, at faster speeds, you want to focus on generating speed with your legs. A few common mistakes I see with new riders learning how to pump include remaining too stiff and not shifting their body weight around enough, not keeping their feet level and trying to pedal. If you don't get this skill right away, don't be discouraged. The hardest part about pumping is getting the timing right, which comes with practice. But once you have mastered the skill, you will find you will never be able to look at the trail the same way again. So I hope this helps. If you have any questions about this trick or any other maneuvers, please leave your questions in the comments below. My name is Phil Metz. Thanks for subscribing and I'll see you later.