More Than Just Playing Cards - Level Up Your MTB Skills

The number cards in the GRIT MTB Playing Cards decks feature a careful selection of progressively difficult MTB skills and tricks. We've taken this a step further and developed a printable MTB Skill Tree. Learn how you can level up your MTB skills below.

We created the MTB Skill Tree as a visual way to explore MTB skill progression — from core concepts such as vision, body position, braking, and gearing to advanced skills such as nose pivots, manuals, scrubs, hip jumps, and rear-wheel hops. Remember that a certain amount of athleticism is a requirement to perform (and/or recover from) many of these skills.

This isn't meant to be a specific training program. Riders learn different skills in different orders. Disciplines such as XC, enduro, downhill, dirt jumping, and trials emphasize different abilities. Instead, the tree shows general progression and relationships between skills: what tends to come first, what builds upon earlier bike control, and how skills in one area can unlock skills somewhere else.

A Bit Different Than the Cards

When designing the cards, we were categorizing the skills a bit differently, so the columns of the MTB Skill Tree don't match up perfectly with the 4 suits in the GRIT deck.

🟢🟦 ◆ Trail Classifications

The MTB Skill Tree roughly shows which skills tend to be learned as a Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced rider. These roughly correlate to the  🟢 green circle / 🟦 blue square /  ◆  black diamond trail classification. However, not all trails are rated or graded the same way, so know your abilities and limitations and always ride within your ability.