CORDOVA

Left Side View Video    

   You must position your body slightly forward as you leave the face of the jump. As you come off the lip, "bounce" off the bike, by pushing off of your footpegs using your leg muscles. Aim your knees to an imaginary point about 4 inches above the cross bar. Bring the front of your ankles up to the handlebars (on the inside of your hands, but on the outside of the forks) and "hook them" to the bars. As you do this,increase the tension in your arms (pull on the bars a little) -- this will help bring your knees over the bars as well as line up your legs with your body. Once your feet are secure on the handlebars apply more tension on your arms. This combined with the extending motion of your legs and arching of your back will "pull" your whole body over the bars.As you arch your back, you may want to throw your head back. This looks very good and will also help you extend your body. Some riders choose to close your eyes, however, I opt to leave them open. The reason for this is because some riders may become disoriented as they view the terrain or sky behind them.

Note: When you are working up to this trick, an important step is getting your knees up to and then over the bars (see below left). That is the single most important move. How far you bend your torso is completely dependent on your skill level and airtime.

 

While working on this above mentioned motion, you will probably look like the image at left at least a few times. If you jump all afternoon and do this a hundred times, that's okay. It's all progression. Once you are comfortable bringning your knees to your chest and your angles up to the bars, you can start to push your knees over the front of the bike, and thrusting your pelvis up and forward.

Once you begin to push your knees over you'll want to keep your arms strait and secure. This will give your torso an anchor in order to begin arching out. Before you start to really push these out, you'll probably go through a phase where you're peak point will look like this.

Its important that you have good judgement in the air so that you know when to bring your torso and legs back to the bike.  A natural feel for the bike  and the jump is necessary for doing these tricks because you can't see the landing as you are approaching it. Don't ever go to far. The natural flow is for the trick to peak as your bike is at or just past its highest point in the air. Work up to a full-out cordova in small increments because that is the best way to train your body how to do it.

 

Step by Step


Allrighty! Pay close attention to my legs, and how much they decompress on the ramp due to my "pop". Normal ramp-hitting style here, normal body position. I may even be slightly more centered here than with some bar or grab tricks. This trick, like a no-footed can can, is a 100% mid-bike trick.


Compare my legs to my legs on the previous frame. Way straiter, and that's from my lightning-fast popping in the sweet spot of the ramp. My upper-body/arms are pretty much the same, but as I'm leaving the ramp and focusing on jumping it, I'm thinking about the main movement of my knees and popping my legs to bring my knees up to the bars.


My ankles/feet are about halfway up to the underside of my bars now, and I've maintained my body in a very centered position (it does obviously have to come forward slightly). Since my feet/ankles are about to hook the bars and I'm ready for that, I'm already thinking about pushing my knees over and leaning my head/chest back.


As soon as the upside of my ankles hits the bottom of the handlebars, I'm already thrusting my knees over, while simultaneously lifting my head up as I prepare to throw it completely back. I'm holding onto the grips tightly here, because my arms/hands are controlling this trick from here on out.


Okay, as I get my knees over the bars enough to the point where my butt is almost even with the center of the bars, it's time to begin pulling back on my arms a little more. I also know it's time to get my head thrown way back. Throwing my head back does more then just add style - it forces me to extend my whole stomach and push my hips further into the air.


Okay, right here I'm pulling pretty good with my arms while still keeping pressure on my ankles/knees to remain well over the front of the bike. I also continue to force my head back and curl my spine by using my back & stomach muscles to push my stomach up higher, almost like doing the opposite of a pushup. I'm pretty much fully extended here, but I know I can keep going. My eyes are open here (some people close them) but I am not focusing or paying attention to what I see. I don't have the time to look at anything.


Because I didn't give up, I got my head even further, and stretched my stomach out entirely. I allowed this to all happen by working with, not against my legs. This is all accomplished by my synchronization of pulling my arms and legs at the same time.


Okay. Coming back is like doing a sit-up in outer space. You should feel somewhat weightless in the air right now (due to the ramps pop and your transition from acent to decent). The first thing to do is relax your chest muscles (which will somewhat release the pull by your arms and stomach). I'm also relaxing my neck. I'm not going to force my head upright a.s.a.p., but I do want it to be ready.


As my upper body regains its upright position (because I relaxed my stomach and chest) my legs are forced to be compressed. Because they're squished will make it easier to bring them back through (because they'll just "drop" through between my arms). My head is almost level, and I'm beginning to regain my bearing as I can catch a glimpse of where I am. I can tell that I'm early, because I through this cordova fast and soon, so I have plenty of time to come back.


Now I can spot my landing, and I know for sure I have plenty of time. I've got my upper-body right where it needs to be by relaxing it, now I need to relax my legs (now that they're through the bars) to get them back to the pegs. My butt usually taps the seat again, which somewhat helps my body know where it is, and helps to force my thighs down.


Okay! My legs were already dropping down, but my rear-end hitting the seat sped that up. It is absolutely NOT important that you "tap" your rear on the seat when coming back. I just did on accident, and it happened to help. The main focus here is getting my hips/butt/upper legs back to where they need to be, because my arms are on the bar which will control my shoulders and head.


Now it's fine-tuning. I'll llean forward just a tad to refine my bike's pitch. I do need to straiten my legs/stand a tad because with this trick I'm almost sitting down, I must make sure and stand up a hair to prepare for the landing. Sitting down when landing off a ramp is no fun, and can lead to compressed vertabrae.