"Example: You may think that the rear end of the bike is kicking up when going through holes or hitting square edged obstacles, but in actuality what’s happening is the fork or shock may be compressing too far and too quickly. In other words, it’s going down too deep in the stroke and then coming back with a lot of speed. If you were to simply slow down the rebound, the spring would still compress the same distance, but would come back up too slowly and pack. The rear end will still kick up but the tire will be further up into the fender. In this situation you’re better off adjusting compression so that when you hit that bump it only uses half the stroke."