A Beginner’s Guide to Riding Sand

(For Adventure Riders – Not Racers)

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Sand riding advice can sometimes go like this: “Stand up and gas it.”

And yes — that might work if you’re an experienced off-road rider comfortable with speed and sliding around at 30–40mph. But most adventure riders crossing Morocco or Mauritania aren’t motocross racers. You’re not trying to win a special stage, you’re trying to get through safely, keep your confidence intact, and make progress day after day. That’s a very different objective.

This guide is made to answer one question – “how do I make progress safely?” If you are making progress but it’s hair raising and you constantly feel that you are seconds from potential disaster then that’s not good. If you are safely chugging along at 3mph, falling off at low speeds, revving the engine and burning up the clutch, exhausted from paddling the bike through soft sections – then that’s not great either.

We need to combine the 2:

1. Making progress at a reasonable pace – 15-25mph is enough.
2. Doing it in a safe manner – never feeling like disaster could strike at any moment.

First: How Sand Actually Works

There’s a misconception that speed or acceleration is what keeps you upright in sand. It isn’t, it’s steady drive. A gentle, consistent throttle at lower, chugging revs keeps the rear tyre driving forward and stabilising the bike. Acceleration is not the goal. Smooth drive is the goal.

When things feel wobbly, the instinct is to either shut off the throttle, or accelerate. 

Shutting off the throttle causes the front wheel to dig into the sand and push the handlebars left or right – it tends to be downhill from there with either a paddling, wobbly stop, a dropped bike or a crash. 

Accelerating can work – but often it just makes everything happen faster. Faster wobble, faster panic, harder fall.

Instead:

• Pick a gear – 2nd or 3rd normally.
• Hold a steady throttle.
• Stay loose
• Let the bike move underneath you.
• Avoid the temptation to shift up – you will just accelerate and get faster and faster.

If you can ride through sand at 15 mph without drama, you’re doing it right. You do not need to be fast to cross a desert.

The Real Key: Body Position

Now we get to the part that really changes everything. You may or may not have heard of the “attack position” – often used in motocross. When talking about the attack position and MX people can mistakenly think:

“I’m not riding MX.”
“I’m not jumping anything.”
“I don’t want to ride aggressively.”

That’s all good, but we’re not using the attack position to ride fast. We’re using it to correct poor body position and gain control at slower speeds. Search YouTube:

“Moto Academy, Attack Position” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gQF5PENPM4

Or

“MX Factory – Attack Position” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OVo89q_wrI

Watch the videos and ignore any references to racing, jumps, speed, lap times. Focus purely on where his weight is (over the pegs), where his head is (unnaturally far forward), how his legs are working (loose with knees over the pegs), how light his hands are on the grips, and how unnatural the position should feel.

What the Attack Position Actually Is

• Balls of your feet on the pegs – avoid standing flat-footed
• Knees bent – but not pushed forward of the pegs
• Weight all through your legs not the hands
• Hips slightly back
• Back arched, not slouched
• Head further forward than feels natural
• Elbows up and bent
• Loose grip
• Lower legs lightly gripping the bike
• Bike free to move underneath you

Here’s the important part – it should feel unnatural. If it feels relaxed and easy, you’re probably not doing it properly. Your calves and thighs should start burning quite quickly – even when practicing on a paddock stand.

That tells you something important – a true attack position is not sustainable for long periods and that’s fine. You’re not meant to ride like that for an hour straight. You’re meant to be able to switch into it instantly when the terrain demands it.

Why It Works

When you stand correctly:

• Your weight goes through your feet, not your hands.
• An arched back lets the bike move under you without pulling the upper body around.
• The front wheel can wander slightly without you overcorrecting.
• You stop fighting the handlebars.

Most instability in sand comes from riders pulling or pushing on the bars. The attack position fixes that — dramatically. Especially at low speeds. Being able to ride at slow speeds is what we are aiming for – it is where “making progress safely” happens.

The One Hand Drill (This Is the Game-Changer)

This is the biggest hack of all. Watch the video below – or Google your own videos about the “1 hand drill” in MX training videos. Moto Academy and others have great videos on this:

Moto Academy – One Hand Drill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11A_6jlf2KM

Again — ignore the motocross context and focus on the principle. You do NOT actually need to take a hand off the bars (and definitely don’t take your hand off if unsafe or on busy roads).

Just ask yourself “Could I take one hand off right now if I wanted to?” You will instantly know the answer – if your instinctive answer is “No chance – I can feel my hand locked onto the grip” then you are pulling or bracing against the handlebars. That’s the problem.

If your instinct is “Yes, I probably could” then your weight is correctly balanced through your legs and your upper body is loose and well balanced – that’s what you want.

The one-hand drill tells you immediately whether your body position is correct. It removes guesswork and it builds confidence incredibly quickly.

If you feel you couldn’t take your hand off the grips then adjust your body into the attack position until you feel you could. It may put you in an unnatural feeling position – but if you are following the attack position guidelines then it will be the correct position.

How to Practise This Properly

Do not wait until you are in deep Saharan sand, start now.

Step 1 – Stationary Practice

Put the bike on its stand and practice moving from Seated →  Attack Position →  Seated. Do it over and over again. You may feel a bit silly doing it, but I promise you it can transform your off-road riding if you are novice or lack confidence or experience in sand. Do it again and again.

Feel:

• Standing on the balls of your feet allowing your body to flex up and down
• Knees bent but back over the pegs – not pushed forwards
• Back arched not hunched – this is vital in separating lower and upper body movements
• Weight through the pegs and feet not through your hands
• Head far forward over the light cluster – it should almost feel too far forward
• Elbows up
• Hands light

It will feel exaggerated and unnatural which is good.

Step 2 – Slow-Speed Practice

Every time you ride:

• Pulling into a car park
• Rolling into a driveway
• Leaving a junction
• Stretching your legs on a quiet road

Practice moving from seated into the attack position. Then ask – “Could I take one hand off?” This is all building muscle memory and teaching your body to default to the correct position.

Step 3 – Easy off road practice

Don’t wait for sand – it works for all off-road riding and if you practice on easy trails first then it will click. You should feel looser on the bike, less tense, the bike should be moving freely under you and you should hopefully be thinking “Yes, this feels much better”.

Step 4 – Sand

• On approach select a sensible gear – try 2nd or 3rd to keep speeds low.
• Hold steady throttle at lower revs than you may normally ride at.
• Move into the attack position.
• Think “one hand drill.”
• Avoid acceleration – steady throttle, look up and ahead and stay loose

If you wobble and panic — you are going slowly enough to dab a foot, recover, stop safely, readjust and try again. That protects confidence and confidence is everything in sand. Once confidence goes, riders tense up – tension leads to very quick loss of control and a crash. Picking up your bike in 40°C heat drains energy very quickly (ask me how I know!)

Slow First – Faster Later (If Ever)

If you can move through sand calmly at 15 mph without losing control or confidence, you are succeeding. You do not need to be faster than that because adventure riding is not racing – it’s about getting through day after day – without injury. 

As novice or inexperienced sand riders you shouldn’t be venturing into vast regions of tough, soft sand tracks – but you may well want to tackle some amazing trails which just happen to have some soft sandy sections thrown in which you can’t avoid (for example at Erg Chegaga, Plage Blanc and the Mauritania desert crossing on the PDC). It’s 90% fairly straightforward riding, but you need to be able to “make progress safely” through the 10% which is not. 

Riding slowly and safely at 15-20mph will get you through 15-20 miles of tough riding (which is a lot!) in just an hour – then it’s back onto the easier trails – that’s all we need to do.

Final Thoughts

I’m not a brilliant sand rider, but for me the attack position — used correctly and combined with the one-hand drill — has transformed how confidently and safely I ride off-road. Not because it made me faster, but because it gave me confidence in my own abilities to get through safely. I practice it constantly.