I haven’t had the chance to watch Seattle yet because if it’s not Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, or House, supercross racing seems to get skipped on the DVR. But I am going to watch it and chime in on Wilson/Tomac battle. I’m sure Mitch [Payton] will have Wilson in check this weekend and you will see 15 clean laps, I would imagine.
I want to send a get well message to Ryan Villopoto. The guy was on a mission and it sucks that he will be out the rest of the season. With that being said, I want to start The Breakdown off with a photo of RV from Seattle.
There isn't much to "breakdown" here. This is how it's done folks. Everything that this photo shows is perfection. That's really all there is to say!
Garth Milan photos
I've said this before in this column: "The new thing with the top riders is doing turns with taking their foot off the peg." Deano clearly demonstrates that here. The best times to not lift your leg for balance is if there is a jump right out of a turn or if there are whoops and you need to shift soon.
Wilson has this corner dialed. His elbows are good and he’s nice and centered on the bike. Look at his head and chin. See how it's slightly to the right of the bike? This lets his bike stay carving the corner, and whenever he is ready for it to straighten out he will simply lift his head and center it straight between the bars.
Here we see a right-handed bowl, and like all right-handed turns, this is where you see the most mistakes. Mainly because it’s your rear brake side, but either way dabs do happen more when you’re doing right-handers.
If you're dabbing your foot like Tomac is in this photo you most likely were on the rear brake too deep in the turn and were not lifting your leg soon enough. I say this daily with my students: "Lift your leg where the turn starts to turn! If you think you need the rear brake you don't! Just use more of the front brake.”
What I like about Tomac in this photo is, yeah he did dab the foot, but look at his shoulders. He didn't let the dab send his shoulders and head forward—which is what seems to always happen when you dab your foot. Typically your weight shifts forward, but Eli managed to keep his upper body back, keeping the front end light.
Matt Moss
I wanted to feature this last photo to show you guys how quickly a knee injury can happen.
Now I'm sure Moss didn't hurt his knee here, but I wanted to use this photo to hopefully help prevent you guys from hurting yours.
When lifting your leg, lift from the quad muscle. Make sure it's fully flexed and tight. When you lift from the quad your knee has no other option but to be locked out. And when your knee is locked out your leg is straight in front of you.
Moss didn't do that in this photo. See how it's half bent and cocked to the side? It's so easy to tweak a knee when you lift your leg like this. Mainly because the muscles around your knee are not tight and supporting your knee. It's impossible to lock your knee out like I suggested and still have it bent like Moss’ is showing here.
Remember that the next time you ride. Lift with your quad and lock the knee out with your toe pointing up.
Thanks for reading. I will see you guys soon!
Matt
