Some thing i have learnt the hard way.

Bikerbaboon

I have ridden a motorbike for a few years now and they have a term of fraze called target fixation. Its the simple problem that when you are riding a motorbike if you just look at one thing (be it a tree or a buss ) then you will hit it no matter how hard you try not to.
Now this may seem obious but i have just made the jump (or small shuffle) to move that over to MTB. If you are riding along a trail and you can see a big rock in the way and then you just watch it to make shure that you dont hit it.......... then you will hit it.

The way round this is to keep your eyes scanning the middle ground and looking for the way you want to go, not for the stuff you want to miss. Or when riding on north shore stuff look at the wooden path not the drops to either side.

I hopes this helps and yes this bolt of genius came to me as i went over my handle bars when my front wheel got stuck in a big hole i had been watching carefuly........... :shock:

papasmurf.

the body always follows the eyes..same is true in soo many sports. Often the first thing you're taught

dave_hill

Look at where you want to go, not where you don't want to go!

Anonymous

it is surprisingly true of many sports. When I used to do a bit of street skating on inlines, I found it really hard to go fakie, until somone told me to just turn mny head a little bit more, and hey presto, got it sorted!

robmanic1

Another tip I heard was to look beyond the obstacle, that way your natural abilities take over and you stay much loooser on the bike, I tend to find the more tense I get, the more likely I am to "off".
Mind the tree, mind the tree, MIND THE TR.......!

dav1

sight the obstacle in advance and work out the line you want to take. When you get there you just have to fix your eyes on the line you want to take and hope its the right one.