



I have learned some truly amazing information on learning and mastering skill. Two books in particular have really opened my eyes, Slow Practice Will Get You There Faster by Ernest Dras and The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. The first book is written by a renowned tennis coach about golf and the second explains the science of learning backing up (and then some) the first with the science behind why slow practice and “deep” practice work so well. If you are fascinated by learning and have always wondered how some people go on to be great at something while others seem to try hard but not get to the top these book are both great reads and I highly recommend them. If you are more a “cliff notes” type scholar I will give you some of my biggest takeaways from the books.


Why slow, deep practice? Turns out we don’t fix or change bad habits, we need to produce brand new perfect habits. In layman’s terms a skill (such as doing a wheelie) is a series of impulses transmitted through a wire from your brain to all the muscles and nerves the skill requires. When we first do a skill we put the wire in place but it takes perfect repetition of that skill to make the wire work better. The “wire” starts out with no insulation (imagine a bare wire with no rubber coating under the hood of your car) so it shorts out easily and doesn’t always fire correctly. We build that insulation (called the Myelin Sheath) best through slow, deliberate practice.

BR Coach Gene Hamilton explaining cornering body position

How does this effect you and your mountain bike riding? If you are like me and all of my students so far, when you first started riding your either had no instruction or improper instruction and started doing somethings incorrectly (which for me meant, getting my weight back on descents, riding to upright with straight arms, braking in corners, etc. a ton of bad habits). Unfortunately the Myelin Sheath doesn’t know what is correct or not so the more you ride incorrectly the more you build up that insulation around that wire. Which means the more and more powerful that bad habit becomes. Then you read a “tip” on how to ride better (like in my mini-course) and now you know you should ride with your weight on the pedals instead of getting your weight back. You then practice this by coasting down your driveway with all of your weight on your pedals. Congratulations, you have just created a new, perfect habit! Don’t get too excited yet though, that habit or “wire” isn’t insulated to well so it doesn’t always fire correctly. You are committed to change though so you practice it five times a day for a week. Now the Myelin Sheath has gotten thicker and the wire works better but, the old wire has 8 years of Myelin Sheath building around it so the old habit still takes over when you aren’t focused on the new habit and when ever the least bit of fear creeps into you.

How do you build up enough insulation on the wire for the new, perfect habit take over the old habit? Slow, deliberate practice. What the heck is slow deliberate (or “deep”) practice? Slow, deliberate practice is working on one movement or short combinations of movements slower than you normally would do them. The best musicians learn songs much better and faster by taking 20 minutes to play a three minute song! They are focused on the tiniest of movements and the sounds they produce sound more like elephants in pain than music (my favorite quote from The Talent Code is from a music professor who says, “if a passerby can recognize the melody you are playing it too fast”).

Coach Gene Demonstrating how to practice deeply.

You may be saying, “What does this mean to me? I ride bikes!” Well for you it means we need to first learn the correct, in balance and in control techniques and then practice them at a very slow pace with an eye on perfection and stopping and correcting our mistakes. You are fooling yourself if you think riding a bike will make you better at it (maybe a hair more comfortable as you get used to your bad habits but not better).

Students doing "deep" practice while Gene coaches


What a weekend for BetterRide MTB Students!


Sarah Kaufman on her way to 2nd place!

Congratulations to these BetterRiders on sweeping the pro women’s podium! In 3rd Erica Knight Tingey, in 2nd Sarah Kaufmann, on top of the box Lynda Wallenfels! Interesting that they finished in the order that they have taken skills camps with me! Could be a fluke but seems to show what many books on learning are pointing out, more deliberate practice equals better skill. Check out this article on the race: Desert Rampage, St. George, UT,

Also on the podium was Darren Casden Taking 3rd Place at the Black Mountain Winter Series Final and taking home 1st place overall in the series.

One of the great emails from a student:


Wanted to thank you for all of you time an patience this last week in Phoenix, I do appreciate all of your effort. I really did not expect to be e-mailing you so soon about some of the skills that I apparently acquired in Phoenix, but I am. Had a chance to go out on a ride yesterday, not with the intent of testing the skills but to enjoy a ride. I quickly found myself reflecting back on the weekend and began working on looking ahead. I quickly realized that much of the trail that I was riding, very narrow single track and notorious for loosing momentum when you get off of trail was much smoother that I have ever remembered, occasionally when my eyes drifted back to where I was at and now where I was going I would like old, get off track. Within a very short period after starting my ride it was obvious that focusing on looking ahead and using the vision techniques you taught us to do the up close steering was working. In addition to looking ahead, there are a couple of difficult and loose uphill switchbacks that often cause me to dab. Remembering back on the Sunday drills, I focused on not getting impatient and watching my body position and balance and again, probably one of the smoothest runs on the switchbacks I have ever had. I also had the opportunity to work on the various wheelies and bump jumps and like the other techniques felt that they were enhancing my riding. I plan on going back out again today to work on more of the same.

Stay safe, and keep riding….


That was from his first ride after the camp! He hadn’t even start to do the drills (that will commit these skills to his subconscious) yet. Wait to all the skills he learned in his camp are ingrained through drills and they just “happen” without thought to them!

MTB How To Video: Coaching Marzocchi’s Bryson Martin.

Video clip shot by Gene Hamilton coaching Bryson Martin at Bootleg Canyon. Gene is excited to coach such a faster racer with a poor skills foundation! He took third two weeks ago behind winner, BetterRide coached Mitch Ropelato and 2nd place finisher Mikey Sylvestry yet he can’t corner well (and found out today is vision skills needed some work as well as body position and vision!). We will work on all the core skills in the downhill camp this weekend. With his dedication to learning, doing drills to master those skills and training hard he will be a threat this year.


MTB Videos: Coaching World Champ Ross Schnell in Sedona





