Hey friend, thank you for trusting me to help you with your BMX racing and I am grateful to be your coach to guide you on your racing path!

Understand in the The BMX Accelerator Coaching System you will learn my best kept secrets of upgrading your Gate Start Acceleration, advancing your track speed and lowering your lap times, all without going to the track. 

That said, when it comes to BMX racing, it’s all about how you spend your time away from the track, because at the track, you’re doing a lot of different things, from gates, acceleration, jumping, manualing and turning, trying to connect all the dots, and trying your best to make it all work.

The only problem when going to the track whether it’s race day or just practice, it’s difficult to go deep in any single area. For example, perhaps you want to get better at gates, but when you get in the gate you just naturally start racing others in the gate, and as a result you will default back to what you’re currently trained to do.

Whereas taking the time when there are no distractions to work on improving technique without trying to prove yourself in a competitive environment.

Another example is practicing turns, it’s takes a lot of energy to pedal into and coming out of the the turn and you’re only able to do it like three times within 40 seconds. Or every 6-8 minutes in the first turn when you do gate starts to the firs turn..

So in this training series, I want to show you how you can totally effectively utilize just 1 hour of your day or less for the next three days with the intent to go deeper in three areas that will prove to unleash more speed and power from the gate to the finish line, again, all without going to the track!

Are you ready?

Let’s go!

Today, we’re going to do a sprint workout that will improve your reaction and power. That’s the objective and we’re going to do that focusing on three simple areas:

1. Your technique
2. Acceleration Development
3. And Off The Bike Power enhancement

Let’s start with technique first and we’re going to simply focus on the first movement while in the gate waiting for the first light to flash for you to react.

What we’re going to do it simply practice slowly, going from your starting stance to your acceleration position, and doing this repeatedly…

When you nail down the first movement, it will make your gate start strategy while in the gate simple, because you know exactly what to do, and how to do it. This eliminates overthinking and many other benefits that I am about to share with you.

I repeat this so often with even my Olympic caliber athletes! “Your first movement out of the gate is leading with the head and shoulders!” And I say that repeatedly because when it comes to the quality and power effectiveness of your gate start acceleration, it’s truly dependent on what you do in the beginning that has the most impact.

Why is this so important you may ask? Well, the most important thing after the gate drops is your acceleration power and technique. Both your initial gate start reaction and explosion need to follow up with sound acceleration technique and power to the bottom of the starting hill

That being said, technique wise, for the first two pedal strokes to the bottom of the starting hill, you want to be in what I call the acceleration position. This position is about getting the shoulders over the handles bar grips and staying there. This position will allow the rest of your lower body to apply effective power into your pedal stroke.

If getting into the acceleration position is the objective out of the gate, then we must first train to do it while in the gate, and that way your teaching the body exactly what it needs to do while in the gate, listening to the cadence and anticipating the gate to drop

The purpose of this exercise it to get you to the point where you don’t have to overthink your gates. And trust me, everyone falls into the trap of overthinking, even the best Olympic riders can and will from time to time, get into a rut and start overthinking their gate start technique, and when they do, we work on the first movement…

It’s amazing when riders can take some time to dedicate themselves to do this work as it changes their perspective of what to focus on and totally simplifies what they need to do while in the gate. This mental simplification is a huge take away here. 

So let’s simplify it for you, and start by working on the first movement at home for 10-15 minutes, and after that we will quickly move on to some sprint acceleration training..

HOW TO DO IT

From your starting stance, waiting for the first light to flash, the first movement is simply pulling yourself forward leading with the head and shoulders, getting the shoulders directly over the grips simultaneously driving powerfully through the front pedal, and hold that position as you get into the immediate second pedal that is coming around. Now, when I say second pedal, I mean the finishing up of one full rotation. It’s this area that if it’s not executed properly, if there’s a delay, it will rob the rider of it’s window of opportunity to deliver power to the pedals. 

Simply get into your stance by balancing your handlebar end/grip next to a wall, or use  the box sprint method by simply taking a sturdy box (8-10in high) and place the rear pedal on the box, stand up and balance off that pedal. From here, grab your brakes and go from your starting position to the acceleration position practice leading with your head and shoulders. 

Keep the chin slightly tucked with the eyes drawn down to your front tire or an area of roughly 6-12 inches in front of your tire. 

Practice this repetitions slowly and smoothly. I typically like to do 5 repetitions of going back and forth, configuring the movement, because it’s going to feel unnatural at first, and when you get to the fifth repetition you’re simply going to follow through with the acceleration movement, keeping the shoulders over the handle bar grips as you pedal away slowly for at least 3 full cranks. Doing the 5 reps with the slow roll away is considered one effort. Do anywhere from 10-12 efforts, that’s a great place to start.This gives you about 50 reps of doing the first movement without having to spend the massive energy of doing a gate start.

When you’re done with that, you’re going to integrate the first movement into the second part of our training session, where we get to go all out 100% and do stand start sprints!

STAND START SPRINTS

What is a stand start sprint? It’s simple, it’s exactly what you’ve been doing with the your first movement practice, it’s just like standing tall at the gate waiting for it to fall before you to begin your race. Doing a stand start sprint replicates the demands of overcoming inertia out of the gate. 

There are three crazy benefits to doing stand start sprints: 

Number one, you can work on the first movement.

Number two, you can strengthen and work on the acceleration position.

Number three, you can develop specific acceleration power out of the gate.

It’s really that simple, now it’s time to simply do the work and have some fun with it, you already worked on the first movement, so this is also an opportunity to integrate some realistic race intensity into it.

Now, I would do 10 sprints, rest at least 2 minutes in between for recovery, and go a distance that replicates the amount of pedal strokes to the first jump, which is typically 5 full cranks.  Use cones to mark your distance so you have a visual target.

These are very short efforts and keep in mind the acceleration position objective: keeping the shoulders over the handlebar grips all the way til the end of the sprint. 

Remember the purpose here of doing short sprints, it allows you to do more repetitions and go deep into development of proper mechanics and power because you’re not getting fatigued by going really long in the sprint effort. Also, think of being at the track where you do a gate start, have to pedal around the track, walk up behind the gate, waiting for your turn, and then do it all over again. While doing sprints, you can probably get at least three good efforts in that same time span of doing gates at the track. Going deep into focus, development and utilizing all of the energy you have in one specific area allows for significant gains in performance of acceleration out of the gate.

FIND A BICYCLE FRIENDLY AREA THAT IS SAFE AND AWAY FROM PEOPLE AND VEHICLES. ALWAYS SPRINT WITH A PARTNER OF SUPERVISION.

Have fun, with your training today, and I will see you tomorrow for the next session!

In Gratitude,

Coach G