tips for getting faster in the woods?

Make sure your suspension is set up correctly, if you feel like your front wheel wants to go over the woods berm or wash out you likely need more rebound. As far as corners you put your front wheel against something that wil not allow you to wash out. If its a flat corner, that takes throttle to pull you around. Look at some videos on youtube and go ride...

Honestly, I think riding motocross helped me more than anything. I used to only ride woods but I started riding moto and it felt like everything in the woods slowed down. It also helps to be able to practice those techniques without worrying about hitting trees.

Stand up.

Take a good riding school. Take three of them. then practice, practice, practice what you learn until you've got it down to perfection...then the speed will come.

Look where you want to go...and stand up more.

Mountain biking on technical trails. For me it helped with carrying momentum through corners while standing. Also, once I started really ripping the wood skinny bridges on the mountain bike, I had more confidence in my balance and ability to stick a straight line, which in turn helped with ripping through the handlebar width sections of the hare scrambles on the dirtbike.

I see way too many guys riding in the woods and it's like they're glued to the seat.

Riding a small cc bike helped me, like a KTM 150.

Stand up and learn to have great balance standing.

Try to cruise up a gear, the bike responds better this way.

Find any type of bank to turn off of.

Find a good flow.

Suspension setup is key. Talk to a local suspension tuner who rides in the woods. I had a great guy who set up my bike perfect and it improved my technique so much.

Also don't feel like you're stuck on your current bike. I had a Kawasaki that I thought was awesome in the woods until I rode my brothers 05 ktm 200exc. I had way too much money dumped into the kx but I sold it for a loss to buy the Ktm and it helped me so much too.

Gear high.

Try carrying a slightly faster speed into the corner, holding that speed or even a tad quicker, and then going slightly faster on the exit. Works every time.

standing up and gripping with your legs.

Ride with someone faster and try to hang, stand up, knock kneed, attack in a controlled manner. Also get wrap around handguards.

I like my Scott’s dampener, my 06 Katoom forks ain’t shit, even revolved and restrung. Dampener saved the day.

If you have an MX bike, an 18 inch wheel set would be better.

Look where you want to go and look up, stand up as much as you can, even corners. It doesn’t feel as fast but it actually is

Drive down and spend the day with Stewad Baylor. Learn to follow him and you’ll be plenty fast. Only about a 3 hour drive for you.

Preload the pegs and use your feet to steer. Bounce up and down one day while your playing around, and you’ll be amazed how much a little extra weight on 1 leg will turn the bike. That’s a much easier/consistent way of making minimal changes under speed between trees.

My aviator picture was earned on the AMA Enduro series.

Just watch all of Stew Baylor’s videos. Wide fucking open. Be prepared to break fingers.

Your front tire and rear tire track in different lines. Be more concerned with where the rear tire is going. Use the front tire to steer the rear tire in the best line.

No one on here should even dream about riding liike Baylor.

As a former Woods racer the biggest thing is that I would point out to you is do not go wide open right when you start riding or even racing pace yourself and then start to push that last half of the race also practice in all types of weather especially on muddy days get out and ride

It honestly depends where your skill level is at and knowing where your weaknesses are. Generalized tips are pretty vague. If you don't know the basics of turning you won't ever be able to go fast. Know the difference of how the bike reacts to a sitting down turn (center of gravity is higher cus your ass is on the seat), to a standing turn, where to position the body on the bike for weight distribution, weighting foot pegs, front to rear weight distribution during entry and exit, when to steer with your feet, when to steer with your head/shoulders, steering with the rear tire vs front, etc etc. So many variables. The key is to just go out and ride with being mindful of what you're doing and what works and what doesn't. I can watch 50 hours of how to build a barn on youtube, and really won't have a darn clue until I get out there and start building it.

If you have the basics down, a lot of what keeps my friends from going faster is being able to look ahead at speed while knowing exactly whats under you at the same time. On that same thought, when entering a corner, if you can see the exit, focus on that rather then the entry and mid point. The entry and mid plan of attack should be made up before you get to it. You don't want to be reacting to the situation in most instances, you want to plan out whats going to happen and where your going before you get there. Once you get it down it's not really a process of thought anymore and you enter that flow state and haul ass.

Remove the connection between your brain and your wrist, and make sure the connection between your balls and wrist is ?

Stand up. Look way ahead. Flow.
Compare your lap times with the guy ahead of you then do the math to find the avg mph for each of you. You will find that you may only be off by like .4 mph. Keep this in mind while riding, you only have to go .4 mph faster everywhere.

One thing I’ve been working on lately, and it seems so obvious now, is twist that throttle all the way back on acceleration. Treat the sections in between turns as drag races while still focusing on momentum (aka don’t blow out the turns like your riding mx).

And last but not least. Fitness.

Just simply dodging the trees has worked for me

Everyone has already said it, stand up, look as far ahead as possible, stay loose, look where you want to go, not what you dont want to hit. Have fun.

Get in shape!!
Everyone gave great tips, but if your spent it won't matter.
Getting in top shape is priority, it will improve your confidence, then ride ride ride, all you can. Also Riding with faster guys always helped me. Getting fit was the best thing i ever did to improve my riding.

If you're a moto guy, then unfuck your mind and focus on being smooth. Don't worry about the speed. Ride a gear high, stand up everywhere, be smooth smooth smooth. Learn to suffer. Woods races are long. They're a war of attrition. Your body and bike are gonna get worked. Learn to suffer through instead of focusing on your arm pump, tweaked bars, etc.
Get those things down like second nature, then hit the moto track. Nothing will improve your outright speed like riding moto. But you've got to have all the aforementioned skills in place first.

if your on a sxf, get the suspension done. My main riding buddy has a 17 350sxf. night and day difference when it comes to woods riding after he had factory do the suspension. Nothing worse then stiff mx suspension in the woods. It totally will screw your confidence. STAND UP STAND UP STAND UP. Even if it doesn't feel right at first keep doing it.

go really fast till you see a tree, then brake and turn. repeat

For standing up, make sure your knees are bent, such that it allows you to turn your legs down with your bike, so your body stays more upright. Chris Birch had us doing full lock, stand up slow figure 8s like this as a training technique.