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well i have notice ive developed the habit of looking down right in front of me while i ride. I mostly ride woods and tight stuff and i notice i am looking right down at the rutt im going though or down at the terrain directly in front of me. I know i should be looking around to the next turn or as far as i can anyway. I try to remember to keep my head up but always end up looking back down and slowing down because of the fact i am doing so. Please give me some ideas.

Put a note on your front fender that says "LOOK UP!!" Lol thats the best I can tell you!

I don't think looking down a little bit is an issue as long as you aren't doing it constantly. The bigger issue is looking at ruts. Looking at a rut (or any obstacle you don't want to hit) gives you about a 99% chance of ending up right where you are looking and don't want to be.

I look where I want to go. Like Wilcox says, If you're focused on a small obstacle or rut you will naturally track towards it.
When I ride trails, depending on speed and terrain, I try and keep one eye about 1/2 second in front of the front tire and the other about 2 seconds in front. I realize this seems physically impossible but it works for me.

MattBennett23 wrote:Put a note on your front fender that says "LOOK UP!!" Lol thats the best I can tell you!

funny! and in small print underneath "LOOK UP!!" put "If you are still looking at this prepare to to crash!"

yeah, it's called "object fixation". in most "ball" related sports you are constantly told to "keep your eye on the ball". that works when you want to catch something. but in this sport you don't want to "catch" that rock, rut or tree you want to avoid them. so it does take some effort to scan for obstacles to avoid but not lock on to them. if you see something to avoid immediately lock on to a line that gets you safely around it.

good luck!

ken

as long as you look up and scan each section of track for any major obstacles you will be right nothing worse than getting on the gas then looking up and theres a tree across the track that always slows me down a bit