[jmvar]

Question, what is the best way to land a tranny from a drop? Both wheels at the same time, or back wheel first? I have tried the front wheel first method and I don't think I will be trying it again any time soon. Oh, and I didn't try it by choice, back wheel hit something and front wheel came down.

also, what do you do in the air to avoid thinking about landing too much and getting sideways?

 

[Roasted]

NEver land front wheel first.

Land even if possible. This evens the pressure out between the whole bike and your body...

If worst comes to worst rear first. But only slightly. Too much rear with too much height cause the funny bounce affect. This is where the front comes down so fast that the rear propels you through the air like a bucking bronco. Very funny affect but it does hurt.

 

[amateur]

full squish or hard tail?

 

[RhinofromWA]

For tranny type landing try to keep bike even with the terrain or slightly rear first.

If youare hitting High speed jumps onto flat you can land front first if the landing can be controlled. It is is nasty I usually go rear first and tranfer the(my) load of landing over some distance.

 

[Toshi]

On trannies do the same, but be careful not to loop out (ie, if it was a very steep tranny, don't land as rear wheel heavy as I did above with the "zero degree tranny" ).

 

[bullitking]

try to land both wheels at the same time. Do not drop your rear wheel too far when landing on a tranny. the smoothest way is to get your bike parallel with the landing. Suck your back wheel underneath you so you can adjust your landing.
Practice. Practice Practice. You'll get it.
Good luck.

 

[shootr]

It appears that you have recieved many quality answers regarding the "which wheel first" question, and as such I will not waste any more time on that.

I will try to help you understand what to do about the second question, namely about what to do while you are airborn to assist in remaining naturel and neutral.

To understand why you seem to end to go sideways and you feel the anxiety of being airborn, you will have to understand what happens psychologically in your subconscious.

When you are airborn, your mind will instinctively try to place you in a position to land from the fall with the minimum of damage to yourself, unfortunatly being on a bicycle makes this difficult, as the natural position on the bike places you slightly head forward, which is instinctively the most dangerous position to be in.
This "incorrect" body position itself is what actually causes both distressing traits, your body naturally wants to realign itself, so it swings your hips around to be in front of your head, AND the fact that this will not happen easily and that you are also resisting this movement increases the feelings of anxiety.

So the good news is that this makes it able to solve both these problems at once.
to do so you must do something that reduces your conscious minds focus on the task at hand, thereby allowing your instincts to take care of body position and landing. The best method for a beginner is to try a slight tweak, like a semi table top or a little tail kick or something.
By attempting this on every jump you will take the focus off of the jump itself and place it on a different task, though this advice seems counter productive believe me it is NOT. styling a jump out is a LOT safer than "dead sailoring" it. After a while this change of mental focus will become second nature and you will not even notice yourself doing it.

good luck.