new to MTB...kinda

The difference is like night and day. Highly recommended. There's a reason you don't see many pro athletes running casual shoes.

Having said that, over time you'll learn to keep your feet planted better. When I first started, I also struggled over really rough sections. Now I'd happily ride in flip flops without much of an issue.

Yeah I realized the pro's do it. Just didn't know if it was worth it for a noob like me.
ordering a set now haha
Thanks!

Dropping your heels below your toes helps a lot. It creates friction in a direction other than just your weight pressing down on the pedals. That being said, I'm also a firm believer in sticky rubber shoes. I run 510's even thought they're the ugliest shoes on the market. They're so good that I run plastic pedals so that I don't have too much traction. With regular spikey pedals it's often hard to adjust your feet on the pedals.

TubularGoose wrote: I have one season under my belt and I keep having troubles going down a rough hill of my feet bouncing around and coming off the pedals. I like platforms don't really want to go clipless been debating getting a good set of five tens. This might seem like a dumb question, but will these shoes really make that much of a difference over my old tennis shoes?

hi i am trying to start doing a bit of downhiil mtb if anyone knows any good sites for buying a decent dh bike could u please send me the link and cant wait to get started thanks

I'm sure you've already found these but check out pinkbike and mtbr for some used bikes.... I think I'll be looking into a new DH/fr bike soon. My poor hardtail 29er is taki a beating.