Pedaling technique

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  • ilovedirt
    ilovedirt Posts: 5,798
    njee20 wrote:
    Not ALL racers have SPDs, but most do, because as people said, it keeps your feet on the pedals.
    Also, as people have already said, maybe it is a little more efficient in a race context, but average joe won't notice it.

    To be fair I doubt you'll see a single expert or elite XC racer without clipless pedals. DH it's pretty universal at the top, Minnaar (IIRC?) is the only person to achieve a top 10 at a World Cup on flats in the last 2 years.
    Bulldog, Hill, Bryceland (sometimes). They all run flats, and all podiumed last season.
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  • jairaj
    jairaj Posts: 3,009
    Zamzae wrote:
    And, I asked, how to learn technique pushing and PULLING pedals?
    njee20 wrote:
    The only thing I'd really add is that my coach said he was always taught to imagine he was scraping mud off the bottom of his shoe on every pedal stroke - so scoop it through the 6 o'clock point.

    Yep this worked well for me. Try finding a slightly downhill or flat bit of road or trail, build up speed and then just concentrate on technique and not worry about putting and force through the pedals.

    Another thing is take one foot fully off the pedal and pedal with just one foot. This will force you to pull up if you want to make a full revolution.
  • Zamzae
    Zamzae Posts: 7
    When I pulling up pedal it's much much harder, than when I just push pedals. Will one legged drills be helpful?
  • jairaj
    jairaj Posts: 3,009
    Its supposed to be like that. A human leg is designed to push not pull. The pull motion will never be as powerful as your push motion.

    Yes I'm sure you could come up with some drills to increase strength in that area but its a waist of time. There will be much much better gains to be had in other areas.
  • The Rookie
    The Rookie Posts: 27,812
    I practice pulling on a long consistent uphill stretch of my regular commute, I don't use it often on the MTB, usually on steady climbs where you can concentrate on pedaling over other stuff, but I do find it a useful advantage if not massively so, less about extra power as taking a bit of the workload off your quads to keep them fresh for later sections of the ride.
    Currently riding a Whyte T130C, X0 drivetrain, Magura Trail brakes converted to mixed wheel size (homebuilt wheels) with 140mm Fox 34 Rhythm and RP23 suspension. 12.2Kg.
  • Zamzae
    Zamzae Posts: 7
    I feel weaker when I pull than when I ONLY push... So your advice to me is that i shouldn't pull at all?
  • felix.london
    felix.london Posts: 4,067
    Zamzae wrote:
    I feel weaker when I pull than when I ONLY push... So your advice to me is that i shouldn't pull at all?

    My god man!..just get out there and ride..the more you ride, the more you will improve, the fitter you will get and the faster you will go!
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  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    This
    njee20 wrote:
    The only thing I'd really add is that my coach said he was always taught to imagine he was scraping mud off the bottom of his shoe on every pedal stroke - so scoop it through the 6 o'clock point. As said, there is no massive revolution to clipless pedals. There are plenty of studies to suggest you can't pull up on the pedals, but with stiffer shoes and potentially ideal consistent foot placement you're unlikely to be less efficient on clips.
    You don't pull, but you do scoop - with flats as well. You pedal in a circle using your legs and ankles - don't pump up and down.
    I don't do smileys.

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  • jairaj
    jairaj Posts: 3,009
    The pulling is debatable. As I said there are many studies done on this subject with different conclusions and different view points.

    But I think everyone would agree that there are many other areas you can work on to be a faster or better rider which will have much much greater benefits than pulling on your pedal.

    Just get out and ride you will soon get used the pedals and the technique required but I personally wouldn't spend too much time learning it. It'll just happen over time.
  • WindyG
    WindyG Posts: 1,099
    I tend to find pulling an advantage if my legs are tired, gives me just that little extra but I can't as yet keep it going for long stint.
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  • ilovedirt
    ilovedirt Posts: 5,798
    felix.london wrote:
    Zamzae wrote:
    I feel weaker when I pull than when I ONLY push... So your advice to me is that i shouldn't pull at all?

    My god man!..just get out there and ride..the more you ride, the more you will improve, the fitter you will get and the faster you will go!
    A million times, this!
    Production Privee Shan

    B'Twin Triban 5
  • bennett_346
    bennett_346 Posts: 5,029
    jairaj wrote:
    The pulling is debatable. As I said there are many studies done on this subject with different conclusions and different view points.
    I still fail to see how pulling can't be of benefit. If your right arm was tired and you had been using the right arm only to lift something all day, why would you not momentarily switch to your left arm?
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,660
    If you really care, get on a Turbo (or even better, rollers) and practice riding as smoothly as possible (so you get a constant whhhiiiiiirrrrrr rather than a whir, whir, whir whir). This is also a good time to work on cadence drills too.

    Will it make you faster? Debatable, but I definitely feel some efficiency benefits on long road rides spinning at 90rpm that the 75-80 I used to have when I started

    @bennet - becasue your "pulling"muscles will get tired way faster and you ll be using more energy doing it that you ll save. It might take the stress off for 5-10 secs but over the course of the ride that's as little to nothing as makes no difference
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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  • bennett_346
    bennett_346 Posts: 5,029
    I find it makes a pretty big difference to me. If i'm riding up a several KM long climb (and i do ride along some roads to get to my off road routes, i don't have a car!) and the muscles used to push down on the pedals are aching, if i simply continued to pedal using those muscles they wouldn't recover and i'd have to lower my power output to compensate. If i give them a 10 second break by pulling up, sure i can't pull up for much longer than that at a time but that is an adequate amount of time for me to recover my main pushing muscles and therefore continue riding with no power loss.

    For people like me where my lungs never "run out of breath" but my muscles suffer, it works. For people where their muscles are generally fine but they are often short of breath, i can't see using clipless to pull up offering any benefit.
  • ilovedirt
    ilovedirt Posts: 5,798
    I don't know if I pull or not, maybe I do more than I would on flats (i've found my feet slipping on flats sometimes on the odd occasion that I use them for XC), SPDs just seem to give me better cadence as I can just spin the cranks easier... I never really practiced any technique.
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  • Zamzae
    Zamzae Posts: 7
    So I have to just push, and when I'm tired, then I should just pull for a few seconds? Thank you everyone! Hope it helps :)

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