Where Are They Now: Ryan Hughes

When you were a serious amateur 1990 guy, did you have some fun or were you locked in?
My fun was being locked in. I love the work. That's what I miss most about racing right now. That focus, that intensity, that ability to wipe everything out in your life and that's going around except that. You know, again, being selfish. I miss being selfish [laughs].

So, you weren't in the creek, necessarily, having a good time.
The first year I came, and I got in the creek, did a flip almost knocked myself out. After that I was just so...I was just all game, you know. I came here and I rode my bicycle 60 miles the day before. I mean, I was ready, a whole different level. I tell my kids now I go, “Dude, if I raced with you, I'd make you cry. Oh, I'd make you cry.”

 Do you do you look back now and say, “Okay I probably overdid it at times.” You must have.
One hundred percent. So, that's why I teach differently than the way I did it. We didn't have anybody to guide us. We didn't have anybody to show us the way. Back in our day it was just whoever is the fittest won and nobody is going to train harder than me. But that's where I think a lot of my problems came from, maybe my injuries. Because again, I see kind of the same thing today. Let's say Jeremy Martin, “why you keep getting hurt?” I feel it's the only way because we train so hard. We put so much pressure on ourselves, the type of people that we are, that's the only way the body is going to rest if it gets hurt.

But it's kind of a weird thing. You look at his pattern and I had that pattern a little bit. Austin [Forkner] had that pattern. So, I'm trying to break that pattern with Austin right now. You know, I'm trying not to go down the same roads that he's been going down or my roads. Talk to him about my experience, talk to him about my injuries, head wise, all this and try to put him on a different path, be a little bit more calm instead of trying to just blast through jumps, you know, working on finesse, working on technique instead of just all being speed and it's been working. That first race was probably the first one race in two years. And then the last one of course getting stuck in the back tire of somebody, that kind of holds up your moto!

That was a Ryno-like moment though for him to race the rest of that moto. That made you proud, I am sure.
And then he shows up Tuesday with bandages all over him and still went to work. He did all did all of his riding. You know, he's a tough bastard.

So, I watched a couple of Austin's vlogs and you had this little, small turn track? You just had this thing beyond the fence, this little like figure eight track.
Yeah that was at [Noah] Viney’s. So, we talked, I met him [Forkner] at Pala. He was sitting right next to me, and I was like, “Hey, Ryno” he was like, “Austin.” We knew each other, but just, we never met or introduced each other. He and I, we talked a little bit and I said, “Hey, I go give me 20 minutes.” I go, “I'll change your f****** life. I'll change your career. 20 minutes is all I need.”

He was like, “really?”

So, we switched numbers, we talked a little bit, then we met at Noah's house and he's looking at this turn track just going, “What in the hell am I getting myself into?” You know, we work 20 minutes. He stops, he goes, “I learned more in 20 minutes, and I have you two years with anybody else.”

No way.
Because again, I'm watering the roots, not watering the leaves. The little things, how you ride the motorcycle, all the little things and how you ride the motorcycle. The reason Jett [Lawrence] is winning right now is not because he's doing jumps more, shifting more lines more. No. He's just so precise and technically sound with his riding that there's never a pause, never a stop in the corner and there's never a lack of traction coming out. That's constant momentum. So that's what you're seeing and so that's what I'm trying to get with Austin, is let's try to be a little bit faster through technique instead of just throttle. You only can do so much with that.

And he had that part.
Oh, yeah. He's not afraid to pin it. But I couldn't understand that too! My ex used to always tell me, my ex-wife, would always ask me, “Why don’t you just, you know, like not try so hard?” So, I could not understand what she was saying, “Are you talking a different language? Don't try so hard? What?”

But now I'm like, “Oh, I get it.”

So, I feel like honestly in the two races he did, I almost feel like I could see his style has changed a bit since working with you. I mean, they say it takes a while. But do you feel like you're even seeing Austin ride differently in like two months here?
One hundred percent.

Really?
Oh yeah, I saw him ride differently in one week. Because most every guy once they feel something and they adopt it, they adapt it to their riding, they chase it, right? But then it just takes time for the body to start getting comfortable in a new position. And it's hard to get comfortable in a new position when there's such a consequence in front of us on motocross. So, it takes a little bit of time, you know what I mean? And again, how the body works, 500 reps to teach it one way, 5000 reps to reteach it another way. So, it just takes time. In the beginning he had to think about it a lot. But when you're out at the races, you can't really think about it so much because you're in that battle. So that's when it needs to start being an instinct and intuition and that will come. So, my whole thing is just leading through  this year and then really getting into it for next year's supercross.

But you're seeing a little bit already?
Oh yeah, he's changed. Pro Circuit, they're blown away by how much he's changed. And that's cool. And it's only technique. I never tell him to go faster. I never tell him to do anything. And so I'm just trying to build all this through this year, get him, you know, comfortable racing and, kind of get that fear of not racing again or whatever it is. And so then he's kind of fresh going into next year’s supercross.

Now, look, I remember you like 12 years ago discovering this, everybody makes fun of the "unlocking of the hips" that you talk about, everybody likes to laugh about it, you know this. But what you're saying is, it's sticking your butt out. And as you told me that's how basketball players play defense...
That's how football players play defense, that's how you bat, that's how you golf, that's how you squat.

So, is that what you're doing with him, arching that back, un-rounding that back?
Well, the thing that I brought to the sport was a full body technique. Getting on your toes, grip with your feet, rotating your hips out, so you have separation in the middle of the body. Always keeping that back straight so you have balance and you have stability and then that will allow the most important thing, your arms to be loose because you cannot go fast on a motorcycle without a flow and you can't flow without loose arms.

So, this whole technique I brought in, 12 years now and I feel it's changed the whole sport. Everybody’s riding this way.

Oh I've seen it. Jett rides that way. His back is not rounded.
Everybody's riding this way and anybody that's teaching is teaching this. And so yeah, maybe I could have made a gazillion dollars off it. But I wanted to just give back to the sport because the sport gave me so much. It was such a gift to be able to travel the world meet amazing people, different countries, make a bunch of money, be famous, do something that just thrilled me. That's a gift, man. That's a gift and still 40 years later, I've been through a divorce and this and this, but motocross is still my first love. And so, I figure I was taught, if you get a gift, you don't sell it, you give it away. And so, I did, I feel help the sport in a very pivotal time because that's when the four strokes are coming out. So, if the technique didn't change for these four strokes, I think we'd have a lot more injuries and problems because now it's asking for a better technique because it's so much faster. And so, it was just cool and I just love to teach, man. I love to teach. I love to share.

So, Austin wasn't riding the way you try to teach. Or was he doing it and you refined it more?
No, he was off. Feet were off a bit, butt was tucked, back was rounded, always sideways with the motorcycle. And now he's toes tight, hips out, back more straight, arms more loose, more centered on the bike, not always counter balancing it, you know. And so that's it because again, if everything on the motorcycle has to move to his true potential to ride it to its true potential, then every joint on the body needs to move to its true potential. You're not going to use it the way it's been designed. And that's what's wrong with bracing, you know, bracing, you're limiting the body and I hate to say it with knee braces, neck braces, all that. You're limiting the movement of the body and if every brace were so good, then why are people still getting hurt? That's my thing. So, I always go off efficiency not fear. I don't prepare myself for the “what if” I prepare myself to f****** win and not have that happen in the first place.

The other thing is they always say the bike works much better when you use your ankles and your hips and your knees and all these pieces together. When you see a guy who rides smooth, that solves a lot of the suspension issues.
One hundred percent, because we always used to just go to the bike, the bike, the bike. We always blamed the bike. But once I fixed my technique, changed my technique to what I've been teaching, I figured out the bike wasn't the problem. It was my riding was, you know, the way I was going about it.

So, you, you are not part of that part of the team, you don’t train them physically?
No, I don't train them physically, I don't do that. I just do the technique and that's all I want to do now. The only thing I want to do is perfect people's techniques. Done, wipe my hands.

As far as Austin, I'm sure you wouldn't work with just anybody. You're a gnarly dude you must see some of that in him.
Yeah, but everybody that meets me and works works with me goes, "Man, you're so much different than people think."

[Note: Austin Forkner said in an interview this week: "The things that I had heard were things like Ryno saying, ‘We need to do more and more, and we need to push harder and harder and harder.’ Everything was more and more. That’s what I expected, but whenever I showed up at the track with him it was not that way."]

So you're not this gnarly, mean guy like people would think?
Yeah. I hear, “You're so much more kind.” Of course, you know I am not here to be an ass, it just it has to be this way. There's no crying, there's no bullshit, but it doesn't mean I don't have compassion. You know, Noah [Viney] does bad and I am right there hugging him, man. So it's not that I'm a gnarly dude, but this is all because, you know, if you want something, you put all you have into it.

But that's the thing. If Austin didn't want it, if he was going through the motions, you wouldn't be working with him.
Naw, hell no. I cut people off, I don't care about the money. If it's not fun for me, I'm done.

So, he has that. He wants it, he wants to win again. All that.
Definitely. We see eye to eye, so it's good, man. It's a good thing and I'm happy to see, I'm happy to see what I'm seeing now and I want to make this change and then once I make this change, I'm hoping that it kind of filters out into the sport and people hire me just to change their technique. Even other coaches or teams, you know, “Hey, what's the problem with this guy?” and usually it's how they're riding the motorcycle.

Because I can look at everybody riding and pinpoint, “Well, this is why he's doing that. That's why he's doing that. This is why he's having that problem” you know, like even [Levi] Kitchen. There's stuff, oh man, there's stuff he should fix. One hundred percent has to, because again these people go, “Oh, we're going to take this kid, he's going to come over on my bike now. He's going to be better.” No, it's the same rider and he's gonna make the same mistakes and maybe even have worse problems. So you have to fix what's riding the motorcycle.

It doesn't matter how fast the motorcycle is, how good it is, how fit you are if you are not technically sound.

When you watch Loretta’s do you see some people doing it right? Like there are some kids, like, “I'm impressed how young they are and they are doing it right.”
Oh yeah, 50’s. I was watching the 50’s saying “Holy s***. Look at these kids.” Some of them have the tight feet, the hips, the back, you know, and they're ripping. It's like you guys are so far advanced than we were because we just didn't have any teaching.

You just hammered.
Yeah. And so, it's hard because I saw Brownie up on the line and we're talking and I was like, “I can't even watch you guys race.” I can't, I can't watch him. He goes, “Why?” I go “One, it makes me sad because I can't race it and two, it makes me mad because I know I can still kick your ass!” And he laughed, he's like, “Yeah, I know, because I have that same mentality.” Because anything that I do I feel I am gonna win even though I know I can’t. I still go in going “I think I'm gonna win.”

Right. You would like to race Jett right now, in your head, you would love to be out there.
Maybe not Jett!

[Laughs] Okay.
I don't want to get beat that badly!

But what I'm saying is if you were 25 years old, you would kill to be out there.
One hundred percent. Oh my God, I'd be at the top, at the top of the sport. Guaranteed, but so would [Bob] Hannah, so would [Jeff] Wardy, so would anybody with that mentality. It's a mentality that makes you that good. So, the thing that's happening with these kids now is their fear of failure is outweighing their will to win.

Okay.
100 percent, I feel it's because of this [points to his phone] because you're always comparing yourself to your competition or seeing other guys post when they won and you didn't or when you do bad people are down on you.  It just creates a pressure that we never had, because all these kids buckle, they buckle more than I've ever seen in my life. And it's because of this kind of fictitious pressure, that social media thing puts on everybody.

People could have been shit talking you but you wouldn't have known it. 
Oh, they were, they were I just didn't hear it! So, I don't even think the Lawrence brothers really do social media much like they're not allowed to. I think Marc Marquez said something to them.

And there's enough pressure out here when you take a dad and a team and everything else.
So I told Noah this week, I said “No phone, no. Put it away. I don't want to see you on social media. I don't want to see you on anything. You can pick it up when you get done.”

Just do your thing?
Yeah. I also told him, I said, “Girlfriend or me, you pick.” No girlfriend, not allowed.

That would have been a tough choice for you, buddy.
[Laughs] I know, but not a girlfriend. He can have girls; he can have his fun. Just no girlfriend because they're not emotionally mature enough to handle a girlfriend. You know, and that jealousy and that love and “Who you talking to?” No, you don't do that when you're racing.

So, I just try to make sure that nothing gets in the path because 99 percent of these people are really just doing a very dangerous, expensive hobby right now because they're not going to make anything out of it. I'll point out some kids on a golf cart and say "See those four kids?" That's how many people are going to make it as a pro in this sport. Four total people that are here this week. So it's a tough sport man, and that's why you have to make sure you tighten every spoke with the same torque, and make you're not just doing one thing, you're doing at all. And then you start to have hopefully a clean, longer career.

You're not just being a hard head. You're trying to teach from your mistakes.

That's the only way I teach. From the problems that I had. Not from anybody else, from my own difficulties, weaknesses and problems.