I loved your post.
I have only been mountain biking a couple of months, and I am just now learning to use my granny gear. For some reason I thought I should do it all in the middle chainring. Now, as soon as I hit the trail I go down to the small chainring. It means I don't fall over sideways as much on hills.
I'm trying to use my brakes less going downhill; I don't like the feeling of fishtailing.
I haven't mastered sand. For now I just hit it going as fast as I can and try to power through it, but as soon as my rear wheel slides too far sideways my foot goes down.
Big diagonal roots. Once again, if they throw my rear wheel sideways I put my foot down. Big diagonal roots on a steep uphill pretty much insure I'll be walking from that point.
I can actually go up on a curb or over a small log now! Not very gracefully, and not every time, but we bump over it. Nothing even resembling jumping.
vickie