This sport has a barrier for entry problem. I know it because I had to jump in late. My parents are weird and while they knew I absolutely loved the sport growing up, they also told me I only wanted to watch races on TV and read about it in magazines. They told me I wouldn’t like riding and I would be terrible if I tried. Actually my mom was probably scared I was going to get hurt and my dad was scared I was going to get hurt and he was scared of spending money. So they told me it would be terrible to discourage me from trying.
Instead of actually getting a dirt bike and riding as a kid, my dad would just take me to local races in Englishtown, New Jersey, and we would just watch from the bleachers. I thought everyone out on that track was a one-in-a-million athletic specimen, even the Novice class guys. There was no way I could ever get out there and my dad confirmed this.
One time we saw NJ legend Mickey Kessler in the pits and my dad summoned the courage to walk up to him and say hello. Mickey was very cool and friendly, and then he finally asked, “So what class do you race?” Dad and I both didn’t have an answer, because neither of us raced. We also didn’t know anyone that raced. We just came to a local race to watch. Mickey looked so dang confused. As was I. Don’t people come to local races just to spectate?
Truth is, I was missing out on critical connections in those years. Life lessons about riding and racing and working on dirt bikes that a lot of kids soak up without even realizing it. So when I was finally an adult and had my own money, I decided, gosh darn it, I was good enough to ride a dirt bike. I could ride a dirt bike! And maybe someday I could even race a dirt bike. But I was 23 years old and clueless about the basics. I’d watched every race on TV and read all the magazines. But I had zero hands-on experience at all.
It’s been an adventure from there, cramming some riding each year into the off-season when I’m not traveling to races. This means usually trying to learn too much, too fast, and that’s how you get hurt. When I was living in Morgantown, West Virginia, and first learning how to ride, there really weren’t any places to practice. The only way to ride was to enter races, so my “practice” was actual practice in the morning, followed by some motos. Like, the third time I ever rode a dirt bike, I was racing at West Virginia’s Pyramid Valley Raceway. I tried to follow a guy over the finish line tabletop. I came up a few feet short and got whiskey throttle on the landing, because I’d only ridden a few times and any sort of hard impact on the bars also made me accidentally turn the throttle more. So I looped out and went flying off the end of the jump without the bike. Broken navicular. I had ridden for about a month and suffered an injury that required three months in a cast. Maybe mom and dad were right?
I remember trying to follow guys up Steel City’s many uphill doubles and then at the last second they’d gas it on the face of the jump, and I’d realize they were pulling away and I was going too slow and bam…. cased it. Worst was at High Point’s old Bradshaw Boulevard. I forgot what was a double and what was a table top. I cased the double bad, and I was riding on the balls of my feet because that’s what I read about and saw as proper technique on TV. I cased so bad that I broke both ankles.
This, folks, is not how you do it. You don’t buy a dirt bike and a few days later say, “Welp, time to go to High Point and start jumping some jumps!” You need to learn the right way. I really wish, back then, there was a better way to learn. But we didn’t have practice tracks, we didn’t have (non-advanced) riding schools, and YouTube tutorials didn’t exist. I learned a ton about high end riding via Gary Semics and Gary Bailey tapes, but, looking back now, I realized I focused way too much on those advanced techniques. For example, I was trying to do entire laps standing up without using the clutch or rear brake. Or I was doing laps trying to use the clutch more. That’s the stuff the pros work on. I didn’t even understand the basics of turning yet. Oh yeah, I charge down a straightaway standing up. I also washed out in every corner.
I wonder how many people either tried this sport and quit, or never even tried, because it seemed too damned intimidating. A few years ago Racer X did a company trip at Snowshoe Ski Resort. I’d never been skiing, but I got a lesson that morning, learned some basics and was skiing that afternoon. It was that easy and it was fun and safe. This sport needs that. This is why I take notice of initiatives like the United States Motorcycle Coaching Association. The USMCA was literally designed to mimic the ski industry. Make it easy for a newcomer to find a coach and a safe place to learn. Kudos. I wish I had that 20 years ago.
Also, YouTube is a haven for riding lessons. I took notice of Tyler Livesay at the MX Factory, because his videos are full of good stuff for newcomers, with easy, repeatable drills. The stuff I wish I had back then. Tyler isn’t trying to coach the next Monster Energy Supercross champion. He’s seeding the sport with more enthusiasts. I did a podcast with Tyler earlier this year and liked what he was trying to do. Get people into the sport and keep them safe.
Tyler was going to host a school at my local track, Top Gun MX. I wanted my son to take it, because I want him to have a better experience learning than I did. I tried to do it right. Strider bike to pedal bike to Stacyc to PW50 to regular 50. We’ve done some 50cc camps at ClubMX to learn some techniques. He’s okay now, we’re not planning to go to Loretta’s ever but he knows how to ride. Unfortunately, this year has been tough because he’s getting too big for his 50. We’ve got a Yamaha YZ65 now but we spent the spring on a 50 to make sure he was ready for the KTM Jr. Supercross Challenge, which he raced in Denver and did okay (he got sixth). After that the Pro Motocross season began and I basically never had time to take him riding at all. No riding and having to learn a 65 is a bad combo. I just need a piece of land with some flat ground where he can learn the clutch and gears, but I haven’t been able to find that, and his overall experience has not been good.
Some basics, taught by someone other than me, would be great. Even better, Tyler told me I could take the class, too. Hey, I mean, I’m an expert now (hehe) but might as well tag along. This class didn’t even really use the Top Gun motocross track. We did all the work, first, with our bikes on stands, just learning different sitting and standing positions. Then we started applying it with drills. We simply strung together a circle of corners on the start straight to work on technique. Never even hit jumps, ruts or hills. Didn’t need to.
Let me give you an example. Every riding coach ever says that you’re supposed to ride on the balls of your feet. But I’ve never understood how to do this and use the rear brake pedal. But I’ve also heard that most braking comes from the front brake, and pros do entire motos staying off the rear brake. So as the years went on, I developed a bad habit of just always riding on my toes and never using the rear brake. At all. That’s how the pros practice. Right?
Tyler focused on five riding positions. Sitting down in a neutral position, sitting down forward for acceleration, standing neutral, standing forward for acceleration, then standing and moving back to use the brakes properly. These days, proper footwork is all the rage, so of course everyone paid attention to keep balls on the feet and toes pointed in… but also how to slide the foot forward to get to the rear brake pedal. We also learned that while you roll on the power during acceleration, you do the opposite with braking. Stay on the gas as long as possible, then chop it and go immediately to the brakes. Yes, including the rear brake. Do you know how many hundreds of times I’ve locked the front wheel because I was trying to stop, toes on the pegs and unable to get to the rear brake?
Tyler kept making these very basic things more difficult. It’s easy to maintain perfect footwork sitting, but it gets sloppy when you’re also focusing on sitting and standing and using the brakes. To see if we were doing it right, we would do laps standing, one handed. If you didn’t have the proper footwork and leg position, you couldn’t do it.
After some drills we got a few minutes to go on the track and try some of the techniques. Let me tell you something: using the rear brake really helps. I can go into the corner faster and set the bike up for the turn better. Yeah, the pros do “no rear brake” motos for practice, but that doesn’t mean they never use the rear brake.
I was curious about a few other things. I know Ryan Hughes gets heat for saying “unlock the hips” so much but what he really means is keeping your back straight by tilting the pelvis slightly. This allows the lower body to move separately from the upper body. That’s “unlocking the hips.” Go ahead, stand there with your back curled/arched forward. Then try to do it like Shakira and shake your hips. They don’t lie. You can’t shake them. They’re locked.
Absorb impacts through the hips instead of the back, upper body, and arms. Most riders have gotten much better at this (the old “attack position” kind of taught the opposite, but slowly but surely all the top riders have morphed toward unlocking the hips) and Jett Lawrence has taken it to the zenith. He always has that slight tilt, his butt sticking out slightly, his back never arched forward. I’ve watched closely and I even sent some photos to AJ Catanzaro, a riding coach who knows Jett well, to confirm what I’m seeing. Yes, his hips are unlocked. It’s what allows him to flow through corners and never put too much weight on the front. You can hop braking bumps when you can just roll through a corner and find traction everywhere. You don’t need to slow down! This also means you don’t need to speed up. Jett can maintain one constant speed, so he never loses traction and never looks out of control.
The drills we did with Tyler Livesay helped with this. The real goal is to try to control the bike with the lower body and not the arms. If you can do laps of the turn track standing while riding with one arm on the bars, you know you’re getting closer.
As for my son, he was struggling right off the bat, mostly because dad is a mess (see a separate, upcoming piece for more on this) but also because the 65 is not his security blanket. He said the bike was too bumpy. Hmmm, maybe I’ll set the sag someday? For now, I backed the compression clickers out (first time I’ve ever messed with clickers) and it helped a bit. It was tough for awhile, because stand up drills are killer on the back and legs, and they’re not as fun as doing motos. I’ve told my son 10000 times to stand up more. He says he actually does stand a lot (he doesn’t) and he also said his seat is “cozy.” But when Tyler said to ride standing, and everyone else did, well, then my son actually did it. He was standing. He had the right form. His legs and back were burning but he looked great. And he kept going out and doing it, because if there’s one lesson I can teach, it’s that you keep trying it and you don’t quit. You’ll be better in the end.
That’s the real goal. We did a whole day of school and never thought about lap times. We certainly never talked about clearing doubles.
At the end of the day, Tyler asked everyone to name something they’re grateful for. My son said he was happy to get signed out of school early and ride his dirt bike. I said I was grateful for the rear brake. Someone else said they were happy to watch his son learn in ways he couldn’t teach, because there weren’t schools and tools like this available back then. Exactly. Technique, schooling, coaching and lessons have ramped up massively in the last decade. It’s the thing our sport needs, because it’s the thing other sports already had.
Of course, I could use a lot more help than just riding technique. I’ve always been a disorganized mess when it comes to riding and racing, just a complete disaster, and now that’s multiplied several times over since I have to manage my kid’s riding, bikes, gear etc. My racing days were filled with every ridiculous error ever. I’d forget to put my goggles on and take off with them still on the bars. I’ve done races with the choke on and motos without my helmet strapped. Or my jersey on backwards. You name it, I’ve messed it up.
Ever notice how many dirt bike people you know are super OCD? Tools and gear have to be immaculate? Yeah, I’m not like that. I’m OCD about not being OCD. Where are my tools again? On this particular day, I packed up all the gear and remembered I had new gloves in the garage I wanted to try. I went to get them and realized I had not just forgotten the gloves, but, oh hey! All my gear was still there on the table. Had I not run in to grab those gloves, I would have showed up at the track without gear. Anyway, I’ll rant on my inadequacies in a separate piece. For now, let’s just get to the riding technique. Okay?