I've fallen [into my pedals] and I can't get up...

[Ti Designs]

I get ridiculed a lot about how I teach pedal stroke, in particular how I tell people to fall into their pedals. Much of the mocking comes from the safety of the internet, but I get a fair bit of it at work. Most of the "a man walks into a bar" jokes have been rewritten as "Ed falls into a pedal" jokes - things like that. It's a simple case of those who think pedaling a bike is natural vs those who don't, and have figured out a way to teach a skill set.

I hear Galileo had the same issue, only NASA came along a few centuries too late, so he could never really crush anyone in an argument. All I needed was for someone to ridicule how I teach pedal stroke while on a ride. On Thursday I got my wish. It was aggressive ridiculing at first, asking if I was falling into my pedals every minute. Going up the first hill he decided to make the point of how falling into the pedals doesn't work by dropping me. Then something wonderful happened, he shut up. He shifted down in an effort to spin up the hill, I rode up next to him, falling into my pedals as I always do while climbing. He couldn't talk because he was breathing too hard, I wasn't putting in much effort. He was the perfect example of what goes wrong in the pedal stroke, I was a pretty good example of how it should work. I really didn't have to say much, after a few hills all mocking stopped. For some reason I had "Help me now I'm falling" by the Kinks in my head for the rest of the ride...

"falling into the pedals" is just a teaching method I use to get around a skill set that is already mapped. You spend your life walking and standing, your body uses the quads for that. As soon as you try to push down, you probably activate the quads, which on a bike are pushing in the wrong direction. I tell people to fall into the pedals because it brings it back to the static skill set used for sitting. In sitting nobody uses their quads, the glutes hold up the body weight. It's just my trick to teach using the right muscle group. You would think it should be easy to use the quads, so there's no need for such silly methods, but in working with hundreds of people I've found maybe 5% can make that happen. Of the rest, maybe 5% would ever listen to me, which leaves 90% of the cycling population to mock me and my ideas about falling into the pedals.

Here's the thing, it's a teaching method. It's my way of tricking the body into using a muscle for part of the pedal stroke. Once mapped, I can use that muscle as hard as I want. When I ride I don't just fall into the pedals, I power the bike using the largest muscle group I have, and I do it efficiently. If you can't do that, ridiculing me on the bike for my teaching method could be a mistake...

[weisan]

scraping mud off the sole of your shoes ...

[Tickdoc]

Originally Posted by Ti Designs

I get ridiculed a lot about how I teach pedal stroke, in particular how I tell people to fall into their pedals. Much of the mocking comes from the safety of the internet, but I get a fair bit of it at work. Most of the "a man walks into a bar" jokes have been rewritten as "Ed falls into a pedal" jokes - things like that. It's a simple case of those who think pedaling a bike is natural vs those who don't, and have figured out a way to teach a skill set.

I hear Galileo had the same issue, only NASA came along a few centuries too late, so he could never really crush anyone in an argument. All I needed was for someone to ridicule how I teach pedal stroke while on a ride. On Thursday I got my wish. It was aggressive ridiculing at first, asking if I was falling into my pedals every minute. Going up the first hill he decided to make the point of how falling into the pedals doesn't work by dropping me. Then something wonderful happened, he shut up. He shifted down in an effort to spin up the hill, I rode up next to him, falling into my pedals as I always do while climbing. He couldn't talk because he was breathing too hard, I wasn't putting in much effort. He was the perfect example of what goes wrong in the pedal stroke, I was a pretty good example of how it should work. I really didn't have to say much, after a few hills all mocking stopped. For some reason I had "Help me now I'm falling" by the Kinks in my head for the rest of the ride...

"falling into the pedals" is just a teaching method I use to get around a skill set that is already mapped. You spend your life walking and standing, your body uses the quads for that. As soon as you try to push down, you probably activate the quads, which on a bike are pushing in the wrong direction. I tell people to fall into the pedals because it brings it back to the static skill set used for sitting. In sitting nobody uses their quads, the glutes hold up the body weight. It's just my trick to teach using the right muscle group. You would think it should be easy to use the quads, so there's no need for such silly methods, but in working with hundreds of people I've found maybe 5% can make that happen. Of the rest, maybe 5% would ever listen to me, which leaves 90% of the cycling population to mock me and my ideas about falling into the pedals.

Here's the thing, it's a teaching method. It's my way of tricking the body into using a muscle for part of the pedal stroke. Once mapped, I can use that muscle as hard as I want. When I ride I don't just fall into the pedals, I power the bike using the largest muscle group I have, and I do it efficiently. If you can't do that, ridiculing me on the bike for my teaching method could be a mistake...

I'm a visual learner....can I get this in some sort of animated form? How about pedal stroke circle graph?

I won't develop hemorrhoids from this will I?

The last time I played with my pedal stroke I pulled an achilles tendon....Pulling not falling.

And if there are no hills, can you fall forward into a faster speed?

So many questions.

[jzisk]

I agree-- a visual may help. It was called "ankling" way back when, a term some still use. The changing angle of your ankle was the focus of diagrams. It always felt like getting my ankles to do their fair share... But the "scraping mud off" and toeing into shoes at bottom and top of stroke mnemonic helped me to get out of a bad push down pull up habit. I dunno. My colleagues make fun of my passion for riding, but with proper reverence.

[Tony T]

IDK, I don't think about proper foot placement when I walk, so I don't when I bike either, I just ride.

[FastforaSlowGuy]

Google Ed Sassler coaching and you'll get a bunch of video he has created. Good stuff. Definitely not ankling. When I get it right, especially on a hill, it's a "whoa" moment and I feel like a god on the bike - like I could ride anything.


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[laupsi]

Originally Posted by FastforaSlowGuy

Google Ed Sassler coaching and you'll get a bunch of video he has created. Good stuff. Definitely not ankling. When I get it right, especially on a hill, it's a "whoa" moment and I feel like a god on the bike - like I could ride anything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

when sufficiently rested and well trained I feel this way too.

[thegunner]

i think the bigger question is "what's wrong with this guy that he goes out on a ride to ridicule someone else?"

[mg2ride]

let's get back to the ridiculing.

If I understand you OP correctly, since you dropped someone on a climb your teaching method has been verified?

[numbskull]

Just watch a video of Merckx in full flight. You'll see his upper body drop a bit into the final quadrant of each pedal down stroke when he is really riding hard.

If it worked for him it likely can help you as well.

I don't mean to imply Merckx is thinking about it. Rather I think the motion is the unconscious result of him shutting off his quads before they reach an isometric stage of contraction (and waste energy/generate lactate), while at the same time using a small change in body position to optimize the duration and torque available from his glutes.

To criticize TiD for pointing this out is just plain stupid. If you can pedal as efficiently as Merckx then obviously you don't need to change anything. For the rest of us who find our HR soaring and legs weakening on long hills, sliding back a bit on the saddle, dropping our weight into the downstroke, and prioritizing the glutes most definitely can help.

I'm grateful to Ti D for helping me understand this and feel it is one of the most useful things I've learned from this site.

[bobswire]

I too would appreciate a visual video. I'm an old dog but willing to learn new trick if it would help me climb. The older I gotten I've become a more efficient cyclist (in how I use my body) while not losing too much time in the process getting from point A to B. I'm not a competitive rider other than to myself but anything that helps me get to point B more efficiently is welcomed.

[thwart]

This is more visual... although still a bit too much physics, math and such for some (including dummies like me ).

http://edsasslercoaching.com/how-it-works/

BTW, thanks for the work on this, Ed!

[brownhound]

Or try this: http://edsasslercoaching.com/the-program/the-concept/

In particular, the "Dynamic Position" video. I watched them all but I think that's the visual.

I watched with my four year old. As he said it "oh, so you don't use your muscle to push down but use gravity to pull down."

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[Ti Designs]

I've been putting my pedal stroke program on video for the last two months, but I'm still arguing with a lawyer about maintaing the rights to the program. It seems the guy who came up with the Total Emersion method of teaching swimming technique lost the right to sell it. I'm more interested in making better riders than making lots of money (both would be nice...) so I'm planning on having the whole thing up before Thanksgiving.

For now there are the original videos I made in my basement:

http://edsasslercoaching.com/the-program/the-concept/

[Tony]

Originally Posted by Tickdoc

I'm a visual learner....can I get this in some sort of animated form? How about pedal stroke circle graph?

http://edsasslercoaching.com/making-it-work/