How to Jump Easily on a Mountain Bike

As one of the most exciting elements in mountain biking, jumping on a mountain bike is an essential skill that all cyclists should learn and need. For cyclists, learning to jump with the greatest ease in a proper way is very useful in the cycling training or performance. It seems to be difficult to jump on the mountain bike for the person who has not learned about it, but actually, it is not as difficult as it appears. After mastering the techniques of jumping, it may be simple for you. Now I'd like to share some tips about jumping with you. The tips can help you master the correct jumping form.
1. Learn to jump with the greatest ease
Before learning to jump, you should check the frame over for cracks and damage and make sure that your bikes are general health and in good conditions.
You and your equipment
You must prepare some equipment before you learn how to jump, because in an ideal world of equipment, you'll be landing in safety. A consideration of all the equipment for jumping can ensure your safety. The following are the equipment you need:
Helmet, one thing can protect your head from injury, however, make sure that your helmet is suitable. Flat Pedals is another thing you need because flats force you to load and unload in a correct way.


Fast rebound speeds can fire you back off the bike when you land, so you need to slow it down a little bit. If your bike should have suspension, it will assist you and reduce the feedback that you feel when jumping.
Your hands are involved almost every time if you crash. When you scrape your palms off, your hands may become injured. Using gloves can protect your hands in this situation.
The first thing you should do in jumping is to practice without fear. The book, Mastering Mountain Bike Skill mentions that, the best way to learn jumping is to start like a child, because kids are not fear of injury. It means that we should learn to jump without fear to the inevitable crashes. In this way, you can start to practice.
You will experience three stages during the process of jumping.
Takeoff
When taking off, you should:
Coast on a neutral position, and keep your weight central, over your pedals, at the same time, arms and legs bent, and lower your chest.
Crouch down when you are ready to jump and your crouch should be lowest that you reach the bottom of the face. Note how the front tire is on the face and the rear tire is just reaching it. From your low position, at once begin to leap upward. Don't hang out in a crouch. Bend down and then immediately pop back up. Push down with your legs as you ride up the face. As you leave the lip, bend your arms and legs to let your bike rising into your body.
Flight
At first, what you should do is to stay over the center of your bike and stay loose, even if you feel you are not in balance. Then try to bring your bike up into your body. Finally, bend your elbows and knees and let your bike come up toward you when you pop off the hip.
Landing
Once you're in the air you feel you can relax, you have passed the hardest part, and it is time to get ready to land. When landing, you should already notice what is ahead and you should already be beginning to adjust your position and speed. While landing, you should：
Land with your back wheel first and then spot your landing and use your arms and legs to bear the impact. At last, try to land both wheels at the same time.



2. Finding your jumping style
There are different kinds of jumps. Here I will introduce max-air dirt-jumper style and ultra-low racer style, because most jumps need a mix of the two techniques.
Get Max Air—Dirt-Jumper Style
This style can slow you down while giving your bike the max loft. You can use this style when you feel that you need to reach for a landing. So how you do it?
At first, you should try to compress your body deep into the lip.
The next is to press against the lip as it pushes your bike upward and backward, creating largest compression between you and the ground.
Thirdly, try to upward at the very top of the lip. Then keep your body high and extended on takeoff. Eventually lift the bike up into your body for extra air, and to give you space to adjust
Stay Low—Racer Style
Use the stay low-racer style when you're going too fast to overshoot a jump, or when you need to land quickly and carve a corner. Let’s learn it step by step.
First of all, let your bike rolls into the hip, but keep your body high. If there's a small dip before the lip, keep your body high and push your bike into the hole. Then coast up the lip without pressing down and to push your bike upward and backward, pull the bike into your body as you reach the top and the lip.
Keep your body low and compressed when takeoff which I mean get as low as you can in the air and pull the bike close to you, and be ready to push it into the landing.


3. Learn all sorts of jumps
There are many types of jumps. Once you can master the techniques of jumping, you can learn more about other sorts of jumps. I will give a brief introduction of some forms of jumps.
Get a Transfer
For cyclists, transfer jump refers to the jump that you jump to the side but land in the same direction you took off. You can use this to jump from line to line on a trail, or to jump from one line of jumps to another line.
Jump into Turns
In a jump into turns, cyclists hit a double and land in a berm. Bikers can handle the corner as if there's no jump and handle the jump as if there's no corner.
Jump Hips
The unique thing that difficult than jumping when cycling is turning while you are jump. In fact, you can't actually arc sideways while you're in the air, but you can revolve your bike to make your landing confronting a new direction. Do this when a jump happens in a turn.
Are you getting ready to learn how to jump? Let’s enjoy the feeling to jump with the greatest ease on a mountain bike after everything is set. Just jumping without fear in an ideal of equipment.