Which riding skills can prevent broken bones?

[Mono]

I am spending roughly half of my time on the EUC with intentionally learning and improving riding skills (which makes it some +500h and +5000km of deliberately practicing). I like to believe that many if not most of these skills are relevant for riding safety. In this context I started to wonder about skills that would (have some chance to) prevent falls and broken bones and are potentially available too many or most riders.

In this thread I am not so much interested in discussing any possible or relevant safety measures and their effectiveness (like awareness and attention, underconfidence, reducing speed, learning to fall, wearing safety gear,...), but in riding skills that can prevent falls and broken bones and specifically the following questions:

Q1: Are there specific riding skills that prevent falls (and broken bones)? I think the answer is quite obviously yes. Beginners are much more likely to fall and, when put in the same situation as an advanced rider at the same speed, will hurt themselves badly with quite some likelihood.

Q2: Which specific riding skills prevent falls (and broken bones)?

Q3: Which specific riding skills that prevent falls (and broken bones) do not come naturally with time?

Q4: What are the specific riding skills that prevent falls (and broken bones) that many riders would be willing and able to acquire (or to improve)? I am pretty sure that training for half a year every day for half an hour is not an investment that many people are willing or able to make, that is, the path to the skills I am looking for must be somewhat cheaper. For example, training while on a regular trip anyway, or training half an hour for a week or two.

One simple example that comes into my mind: managing longitudinal grooves. When I am not in a hurry and at moderate speed, I often try to scan the surface for longitudinal grooves and ride over them in the most vicious way I can think of. Like this, I get more and more acquainted to and relaxed with this particular challenge. I have seen @Mike Sacristan suggest something along these lines in a vid as well.

Q5: THE live saving habit is flexible knees. To be effective, a reflex to bent the knees must be much faster than any consciously taken action can be (hence it is called a reflex). What is the shortest path to acquire flexible knees?

I have lately started to consciously always keep the knees in front of my (conceived) center of gravity. This looks like a promising recipe, keeps the knees bent and is easy to do in principle (though it does take a bit of continuous muscle work). How could we actually know its effectiveness?

When unexpectedly separating from the wheel, to prevent the body to get into a forward rotation may be the single most important aspect to prevent broken bones. Keeping the knees in front of the CoG should make a body rotation (much?) less likely to be initiated?

I also find the conception of moving the wheel (back and forth) under the body quite helpful. This makes me better aware of how bent the knees are: with straightened knees it feels quite uneasy and uncomfortable to move the wheel back and forth under the body.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Mono

[PY ⠀]

I did judo for 10 years when I was young. One time I was biking and my front wheel fell into a grill, instantly stopping my bike. I jumped over the bike and performed a roll on my shoulder/side before landing straight on my feet. I was going fast and had a minor scratch on my wrist. An old lady saw the whole thing and thought I was quite the stuntman. I didnt think, I just reacted. My 10,000 judo rolls in practice helped me a lot.

Moral of the story: Learn HOW to fall. And practice it.

 

[Nic]

I think learning to ride slowly is something anyone can do and will prevent injuries. 

... but on a more serious note it is best to avoid getting into situations that can lead to a fall ... for example, I am having a difficult time dealing with wobbles induced by crosswinds as its often windy where I live. Also, learning to keep calm when someone goes ""BOO" helps. I did go over the handlebars on my bicycle when I was a child and I still have a small flat spot on my forehead where I landed (explains a lot). I expect I will take a tumble at speed one day, so it would be nice to learn some skills and be prepared. I anticipate trying to tuck my head in and roll, but I haven't practised this, so who knows how that will go.

[LanghamP]

I don't think there's any one particular skill that you can work on but rather a number of skills that need to be tested fairly often. Wheels aren't vehicles that you can relax on. Probably a veteran rider is always under some low level caution/stress.

I think the best skills practice is to simply ride a lot over grass fields. Yeah, it sucks, and it uncomfortable, and you'll crash or run off a lot, but if you're serious about wheels then you need to do it almost every ride you go on, if just for a minute or two. I'm not talking about dirt paths or gravel; it's grassy fields with evil invisible potholes that you need to regularly ride over.

[Mike Sacristan]

5 hours ago, Mono said:

I am spending roughly half of my time on the EUC with intentionally learning and improving riding skills (which makes it some +500h and +5000km of deliberately practicing). I like to believe that many if not most of these skills are relevant for riding safety. In this context I started to wonder about skills that would (have some chance to) prevent falls and broken bones and are potentially available too many or most riders.

In this thread I am not so much interested in discussing any possible or relevant safety measures and their effectiveness (like awareness and attention, underconfidence, reducing speed, learning to fall, wearing safety gear,...), but in riding skills that can prevent falls and broken bones and specifically the following questions:

This is my kind of topic. 

5 hours ago, Mono said:

Q1: Are there specific riding skills that prevent falls (and broken bones)? I think the answer is quite obviously yes. Beginners are much more likely to fall and, when put in the same situation as an advanced rider at the same speed, will hurt themselves badly with quite some likelihood.

I think I might have told Monika to bend her knees about 1000 times.
What I meant though is for her to ride with soft knees.
And what I meant by that is for her to ride with yielding knees and hips.

5 hours ago, Mono said:

Q2: Which specific riding skills prevent falls (and broken bones)?

Quick braking.
Quick manuevering.
Being able to survive the wheel jumping.
Being able to survive your feet leaving the pedals.
Being able to adjust your feet.
Being able to correct the wheel.
Riding with bent legs, soft knees pointing slightly out and soft hips.
Ride with planted feet keeping our heels down.
Riding away from the sides of the EUC and further out on the pedals (or not depending on the EUC).
Riding on wet leaves.
Riding on ice (Monika and I did this today).
Riding BMX and pump tracks.

5 hours ago, Mono said:

Q3: Which specific riding skills that prevent falls (and broken bones) do not come naturally with time?

Hardly any come with time. We can do the same thing forever and be totally fine with it. That's how most people train at the gym.

5 hours ago, Mono said:

Q4: What are the specific riding skills that prevent falls (and broken bones) that many riders would be willing and able to acquire (or to improve)? I am pretty sure that training for half a year every day for half an hour is not an investment that many people are willing or able to make, that is, the path to the skills I am looking for must be somewhat cheaper. For example, training while on a regular trip anyway, or training half an hour for a week or two.

I just put it into my daily rides because it is my goal to become a good rider and to become a good rider I push myself and put myself in uncomfortable situations.
Dedicated training sessions are good for single legged riding or backwards riding. Backwards riding for me is much more valuable because it taught me how to correct the wheel.
Dedicated off-road sessions are also great. Do 30 minutes off-roading on roots and rocks and then go ride on asphalt. God mode. 

5 hours ago, Mono said:

One simple example that comes into my mind: managing longitudinal grooves. When I am not in a hurry and at moderate speed, I often try to scan the surface for longitudinal grooves and ride over in the most vicious way I can think of. Like this, I get more and more acquainted to and relaxed with this particular challenge. I have seen @Mike Sacristan suggest something along these lines in a vid as well.

I do this more and more now on the 16X because it is simply tiring to scan all the time and I become too reliant on scanning. I am continuing to work on a stance/style that allows me to survive despite having dropped my guard. It works except for the times when I readjust my feet because I readjust this in a tall and straight stance when I should be doing it in a low soft stance. I have hit bumps a couple of times while adjusting my feet... scary. I have started taking bumps and grooves at higher and higher speed and even on the 16X tilt back. I have also raised my tyre pressure to a more medium vs low PSI.

5 hours ago, Mono said:

Q5: THE live saving habit is flexible knees. To be effective, a reflex to bent the knees must be much faster than any consciously taken action can be (hence it is called a reflex). What is the shortest path to acquire flexible knees?

I am trying to get away from this being a reflex and instead being a habit. Riding with soft yielding knees and hips. The shortest path is riding with bent knees on grass. 

5 hours ago, Mono said:

I have lately started to consciously always keep the knees in front of my (conceived) center of gravity. This looks like a promising recipe, keeps the knees bent and is easy to do in principle (though it does take a bit of continuous muscle work). How could we actually know its effectiveness?

We know.  My knees are my throttle. The faster I go the more I will point them diagonally down towards the ground in front of me. I can accelerate quite quickly in this manner and also maintain a low center of gravity. It does take a bit of continuous muscle work and it will be tiring for the first few thousand km but in the end it will just be who we are. It will not make our quads bigger and it will not make our squat stronger. Sadly. Otherwise I could have skipped leg day forever haha. 

5 hours ago, Mono said:

When unexpectedly separating from the wheel, to prevent the body to get into a forward rotation may be the single most important aspect to prevent broken bones. Keeping the knees in front of the CoG should make a body rotation (much?) less likely to be initiated?

Yeah this is the tall square posture again. Like a boxer begging to get knocked out. I prefer to stay low. Many have commented that I ride with very bent legs.
I do what I do to not fall. I do it so that I can flow with the wheel instead of against it.
I do the same when turning. I can barely turn by standing straight and leaning... I just never learned that technique and it is the default technique for most people.
I turn like I am riding on ice and try to stay above the wheel and manipulate the pedals instead. With soft ankles.

5 hours ago, Mono said:

I also find the conception of moving the wheel under the body quite helpful. This makes me better aware of how bent the knees are: with straightened knees it feels quite uneasy and uncomfortable to move the wheel back and forth under the body.

With straightened legs my calves touch the sides more than if I ride with bent legs. I ride a bit duck footed... 15-20 degrees pointing out. My knees track my toes. So my bending isn't just in a Z axis but of course I am not doing a plié.

Soft knees, soft ankles, soft hips. Pelvis tucked under so no APT for me while riding.
Lead my turns with my shoulders, shift my body sideways into my turns. My shoulder leads with my dominant leg. Sometimes I play and put my hand on the front of my EUC while riding. Squatting, tucking.

I train shrimp squats for dorsiflexion and quad strength. I work out regularly and watch my diet, my weight and my body fat.

I have fallen once. I was teleported to the ground at 22 kmh and scraped up my forearms.
There is no chance that I would ever be able to tumble or roll and flip or whatever. I would just fall like a pancake with my hands outstretched and slide it out while corkscrewing.

Something I have noticed with the 16X that does not happen with the MSX is that when I hit a huge root that I was not expecting my body has a tendency to want to continue going forward when the wheel slows down. This is something I have to analyse further and work on.

[Mike Sacristan]

4 hours ago, Nic said:

I think learning to ride slowly is something anyone can do and will prevent injuries. 

... but on a more serious note it is best to avoid getting into situations that can lead to a fall ... for example, I am having a difficult time dealing with wobbles induced by crosswinds as its often windy where I live. Also, learning to keep calm when someone goes ""BOO" helps. I did go over the handlebars on my bicycle when I was a child and I still have a small flat spot on my forehead where I landed (explains a lot). I expect I will take a tumble at speed one day, so it would be nice to learn some skills and be prepared. I anticipate trying to tuck my head in and roll, but I haven't practised this, so who knows how that will go.

I used to really hate the wind. It would scare the crap out of me especially on bridges.
Lately I started going out on windy days and practiced tucking. That caused even more wobbles in the beginning but now after quite a bit of practice I can tuck no problem on the CX and MSX. Longboard style with my hands behind my back. Feeling a tiny bit exposed when doing it though...  Winds coming from the side can be pretty scary but riding low helps and so does leaning the wheel on one leg.

Regarding tucking your head in.. that sounds like a sure way to land on your head or your upper spine and boy will that hurt.

So in regards to learning how to fall perhaps we should look at how not to fall. But that is our of scope for this thread and too much wishful thinking for me. 

[RockyTop]

@Mono I think you did an amazing job of asking a question and answering it. 

Removing natural skill and reflexes you are back to practice. More specifically safely find the edge of your abilities and improve your weaknesses. Sadly if you don’t like doing it or avoid it doing it, you have found your weaknesses. I do not suggest riding too fast of riding the tilt. For me it would trying to keep up with @pico. Although I keep telling people, if I can’t dance without the wheel how do you expect me to dance with it! 

The lines or grooves sound like a good idea. I would follow that up with 1 inch curbs at angle. Warning to newbies, this is exactly things that you want to avoid. 

I think riding mountain bike trails helped me the most. 

Edited November 1, 2019 by RockyTop

[Mono]

On 11/1/2019 at 11:51 PM, Mike Sacristan said:

With soft ankles.

+1, using soft riding mode once in a while could be a good idea to become more flexible...

On 11/2/2019 at 12:04 AM, RockyTop said:

I would follow that up with 1 inch curbs at angle.

+1, it's part of my almost-daily practice routine. It's seriously scary at very acute angles and in particular when wet. I sometimes manage even below 10º, I believe.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Mono