The first drop I rode at The Gap was about 30cm high. I walked up to it, looked at it, walked away, came back, rode past it about five times, and eventually just committed. It felt enormous at the time. It was not enormous at the time. But that moment — the first time you actually commit to a drop instead of bailing — is one of the most satisfying moments in mountain biking. This guide is designed to get you to that moment on your terms, with the right progression, so the commitment feels earned rather than forced.
Before You Start — Get the Basics Right
Don't attempt drops until you have solid foundations in three areas:
- Body position: You need to be able to stand on the pedals in attack position, weight distributed and balanced, arms bent — before you introduce drops to the equation
- Braking: Know how to brake smoothly and progressively. A grabby brake at the lip of a drop will send you over the front. Controlled braking approaching the drop is essential
- Looking up: Eyes up and ahead, not at the ground immediately in front. On drops this means looking at the landing zone, not the lip
The 5-Step Progression
Roll Off Curbs and Small Steps
Start at the bottom: find a pavement kerb, a small step at a car park entrance, or any feature with 5–10cm of "drop." Roll off it slowly, then faster. The goal is to feel the separation between your wheels and the ground, however small. Your body learns that going off an edge is okay. Do this dozens of times until it genuinely doesn't register as scary. This takes hours, not minutes. Don't rush to the trail — build the neural foundation at home.
Find the Smallest Drop at Your Trail Centre
Every trail centre has small drops (20–40cm) on beginner and intermediate trails. Find the smallest one in the park. Walk up to it. Look at the approach, the lip, and the landing zone. Stand at the landing zone and look back at the drop from below — this changes your perspective and usually makes the drop feel smaller than it did from the top. Walk the approach at a normal walking pace. Then roll in — slowly at first. The single most important technique element: ride off the lip without braking. Speed into the feature, neutral position, look at the landing, let the bike leave the ground without decelerating at the lip.
Level Up — Find 3 Progressively Bigger Drops
Once step 2 is comfortable (not just done once — genuinely comfortable, meaning you ride it without thinking about it), find three progressively bigger drops in the park. You're looking for 30cm → 60cm → 100cm+ increments, each one only slightly scarier than the last. This progression is important: don't jump from 30cm to 120cm because you "want to just do it." The gap in your neural confidence is too large. The 60cm drop makes the 100cm drop feel manageable. The jumps feel unreachable if you skip the steps.
Learn the "Pop"
Once you're comfortable rolling off drops, learn to pop — a slight compression and extension through the legs as you reach the lip, lifting the front wheel slightly on departure. This gives you control of the bike in the air rather than just letting gravity determine what happens. A popped departure means the bike leaves the ground at the angle you want rather than pitching forward (nose down = scary) or backward (too much pop = back flip). The pop is subtle — it's not a bunny hop, just a light upward pressure through the legs at the moment of departure. Practice it on the smallest drops first before applying it to bigger features.
Land and Absorb
The landing is where many riders go wrong after mastering the approach. Land with both wheels simultaneously where possible (or front wheel slightly before rear for bigger drops). Your arms and legs absorb the impact — this is not a rigid landing, it's a compression through bent joints. Look up at where you want to go after landing, not at the ground where you're landing. Rigid, locked-out landing position transmits all the impact force through your arms and spine. Bent joints absorb it. This is why suspension setup matters — correctly set-up suspension makes landing significantly more controlled.
The One Thing That Stops Riders
Hesitation at the lip. This is the single most common cause of bad drop experiences. When you approach a drop and slow down or squeeze the brakes as you reach the lip, you change the angle of the bike on departure — usually pitching the front down. This creates the nose-down "endo" flight path that everyone is scared of.
The fix: commit to your approach speed before you reach the lip. Decide on your speed approaching the feature, ride that speed cleanly, and don't touch the brakes from 3 bike lengths before the lip until you've landed. If you decide not to drop, make that decision early and stop or roll past — don't half-commit. Half commitment is what causes crashes on drops more than anything else.
When to Walk a Drop
Walking a drop is always a legitimate choice. There is no shame in it. The experienced riders walking drops are making an intelligent risk assessment — "I'm not having a good enough day / I'm too tired / this drop has an awkward landing and the risk isn't worth the reward right now." Walking drops when it's appropriate shows better judgement than forcing a drop when you're scared and unprepared.
The decision to walk should come before you start the approach run. Don't abort at the lip — that's where accidents happen. Make your decision at the beginning of the approach: ride or walk, commit fully to that choice.
When you're learning drops: ride them first thing in the session when you're fresh and your reflexes are sharp, not at the end when you're tired. Bring a friend who rides drops well — watching someone else do it (especially someone similar ability to you) is enormously helpful. And film yourself — the drop almost always looks smaller on video than it felt in the moment, which is simultaneously humbling and encouraging. Build the progression correctly and the biggest drops you're scared of now will feel small in a year.
Combined with the cornering technique guide and the complete beginner's guide, these are the three foundational technical skills of trail riding. Master these and the trail opens up dramatically.