Posts
472
Joined
5/17/2007
Location
Upstate, NY, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/15/2013 2:52pm
DISCLAIMER: This may piss-off some, maybe even hit home, but it's the truth in my opinion. Also, this is in no way meant to attack any particular individual.
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Families and riders need to start forgetting about all the Big AM races, advancement crap (or lack there of), sponsorships, and everything for a second. More need to ask themselves a couple questions. Questions like, what is the end game for this amateur motocross stuff? Are you, or is your young MXer, already showing the traits of what it takes to be a top pro in MX? I'm not talking just barely making points at a pro national, either. As you probably know, there is no money or long term career in that. I'm talking a money in the bank, top tier, type guy.
By 16-years-old or so, a rider should be showing IT, if they have it. If not, why bother to worry about staying B/C, remortgaging your home so you can make the upcoming big AM races, getting trainers, buying 5 bikes, and so on?
Hell, if a kid gets bumped to A locally, he should be PUMPED OUT OF HIS MIND! He shouldn't be worrying about how to sandbag his way to a top 20 at Loretta's in the B class.
Here's Why:
At age 16-17, a kid SHOULD be looking toward college soon. In these times, a degree is necessary for decent life. In the grand scheme of things, a Loretta's qualification, top 10, podium, or even championship, is not *cough*Ben Riddle*. So, if a kid is bumped to A, they needs to embrace it. The A Class can fit a college kid lifestyle perfectly if they do it right.
By the time they are starting college classes, a rider should already have a pretty good handle of A class racing. Especially if they got bumped into it at around 16-years-old. By then, the rider might even be able to start making money back from local races. Which is perfect for the poor college kid who loves motocross. On a good weekend, maybe he'd even have some extra money for spending on random stuff like books, brew for his buds, gas, or maybe his bike. If he sets up his class schedule right, he could still be riding a lot and getting better, too, which would naturally happen racing with faster A Class guys as it is! Maybe earn a pro license while earning a degree?
It's been done it. You just don't know the guys, because they're back in 35th with the rest of the home schooled, former LL finishers. Although, maybe you will remember the name Bruce Stratton? That guy had a degree, a full-time job, and still held a national number for years. So, if there is some ability, and there is a real desire to make it work, it could happen. But still, the important thing is just getting that degree.
Best of all, when all is said and done with school, you can get a real job. Then afford to put money back into the industry by riding and racing for fun, probably well into the 30s and beyond. Way better than burning out at age 19 and leaving the sport completely (except when at work, sweeping the floor at a local dealership, of course). Then screw it... Once there is money in the bank, vacation time on the schedule, and a love of motocross still burning, why not drop down to +30 B/C and head to Loretta's...
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Families and riders need to start forgetting about all the Big AM races, advancement crap (or lack there of), sponsorships, and everything for a second. More need to ask themselves a couple questions. Questions like, what is the end game for this amateur motocross stuff? Are you, or is your young MXer, already showing the traits of what it takes to be a top pro in MX? I'm not talking just barely making points at a pro national, either. As you probably know, there is no money or long term career in that. I'm talking a money in the bank, top tier, type guy.
By 16-years-old or so, a rider should be showing IT, if they have it. If not, why bother to worry about staying B/C, remortgaging your home so you can make the upcoming big AM races, getting trainers, buying 5 bikes, and so on?
Hell, if a kid gets bumped to A locally, he should be PUMPED OUT OF HIS MIND! He shouldn't be worrying about how to sandbag his way to a top 20 at Loretta's in the B class.
Here's Why:
At age 16-17, a kid SHOULD be looking toward college soon. In these times, a degree is necessary for decent life. In the grand scheme of things, a Loretta's qualification, top 10, podium, or even championship, is not *cough*Ben Riddle*. So, if a kid is bumped to A, they needs to embrace it. The A Class can fit a college kid lifestyle perfectly if they do it right.
By the time they are starting college classes, a rider should already have a pretty good handle of A class racing. Especially if they got bumped into it at around 16-years-old. By then, the rider might even be able to start making money back from local races. Which is perfect for the poor college kid who loves motocross. On a good weekend, maybe he'd even have some extra money for spending on random stuff like books, brew for his buds, gas, or maybe his bike. If he sets up his class schedule right, he could still be riding a lot and getting better, too, which would naturally happen racing with faster A Class guys as it is! Maybe earn a pro license while earning a degree?
It's been done it. You just don't know the guys, because they're back in 35th with the rest of the home schooled, former LL finishers. Although, maybe you will remember the name Bruce Stratton? That guy had a degree, a full-time job, and still held a national number for years. So, if there is some ability, and there is a real desire to make it work, it could happen. But still, the important thing is just getting that degree.
Best of all, when all is said and done with school, you can get a real job. Then afford to put money back into the industry by riding and racing for fun, probably well into the 30s and beyond. Way better than burning out at age 19 and leaving the sport completely (except when at work, sweeping the floor at a local dealership, of course). Then screw it... Once there is money in the bank, vacation time on the schedule, and a love of motocross still burning, why not drop down to +30 B/C and head to Loretta's...
Great post by the way, I aggree with your views.
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There's nothing wrong with the amateur system, but there is a problem with some families in it. A kid can stay im elementary school and Jr high and still go fast with proper time management. Its stupid to pull your son out of school to train and go fast, if he's fast he's gonna go fast(Dungey) while in school.
There are excrptions, I know two riders who raced pro till about 20-2l, got their GEDs then went to college, nothing wrong with trying. I do agree that you should know if you are going to make it by the time you're 15-16and if not, take high school serious.
If you're not showing IT by the 12/13 mini class, and I mean challenging for the podium at Lorettas in particular you're way behind the curve. If you look at the mini classes that I raced in at Lorettas it reads like a pro national. I have earned the right to discuss amateur racing, raced Lorettas 8 or so times and finished in the top 10 a bunch and have won a moto and finished in the top 3 a few times. The worst thing that can happen to a racer is to just barely not make it into that top tier. If you are a 5-10th place guy at Lorettas, sure you might get a free bike or two, win the local A class when you have time to show up, etc, but you won't move forward in life. You've got the moto cancer as you say...
If you decide to turn pro as a guy just outside the inner sanctum, only do it as a personal life goal, and do it knowing you definitely won't be a top star and make money at it in a way that will pay off long term. Sure you may make 50k a year if you really hussle and do regional money races and stuff, you had better be cultivating your backup plan at this stage. Again I can speak to this with experience, at the end of 2003, I quit just because I knew I needed a degree to get ahead in life and started at the bottom w/ community college and clawed my way back to a BS from Drexel University by 2007. It was a scary and tough road there for a bit, its a ton of hard work but it leads to good things. Having a good job at a good company where they care about you and make it worth your while is way better than chasing the moto dream. I lived motocross for 15 yrs and wouldn't trade those experiences for anything, but at this point I don't look back with the fondness that I once did. I have a solid career in software engineering at this point and have
earned everything I have through hard work and continuous learning.
For now I focus on downhill and xc mountain biking and racing, this is a hobby that is nearly as action packed as Moto but you can do it more casually and live in a city while doing it.
Life is about following YOUR dreams and not letting anything stop you. Not getting a college degree.
I raced my whole young life. Missed a lot of school and barely finished high school. Not because I was dumb but because of the school I missed. I never set foot into college as a student.
I never won an amateur title, I can't remember even getting a top three. I consider my racing "career" a complete success!
I have traveled the world on a shoestring budget, been to almost every state in this country in a truck and trailer with buddies, raced in front of thousands of people, got a few top tens in SX and really didn't do that well in outdoors. Somehow, someway I got a factory ride in 3 short years. I learned about life, its failures, success, marketing, budgeting, social skills and adapting to the real world. Racing was my college. I never got rich from racing, I had 9 surgeries, lots of bills, but when I stopped I was better of financially then I was if I was in debt from college loans. I have memories and stories that would put any college kegger story to shame.
Today I am making 6 figures a year doing something else I love doing because it's what I wanted to do when everybody told me I couldn't. I am doing what I do because of racing and the life lessons I learned from being a mid pack pro rider. Racing taught me, if you want something, you go and get it by any means necessary.
The top select few may make enough to never work again, but you can be very successful as a mid pack or back of the pack guy, it just depends on what you consider successful. Are you a failure if when you atop you don't have enough money to retire? I stopped racing at 25 andI bought my first house at 30 and trust me, there wasn't any money from racing that helped me.
Racing was my college, had I listened to everyone else and went and got a degree I honestly think I would be miserable, making 1/2 as much and still paying off college loans.
Oh, I forgot to mention. I was raised by a single mom who cut hair. So don't think for a minute I had mommy and daddy money either....
I definitely have excelled in my work life due to the ethic I gained by hanging it out in motocross. The confidence you gain, the ability to endure pain and uncertainty, make anything you will do in a real world job seem pretty trivial. Marketing your racing efforts is the most pure form of sales experience you can ever get, it's like selling snake oil successfully. If you compare a high pressure meeting to a gate drop at a pro national, the national will be harder every time...
Racing is like college, but if you combine racing and college nothing can stop you, especially if you get a degree in something math oriented, you can always swim downstream to the arts. Not everyone gets a 100k degree either, you can get a degree on the cheap quite easily via state school systems.
I'm just talking on a grander scale of things. For every one of you, there are probably 100 guys out there that went at it, couldn't make it, put themselves and their family in debt, and then didn't have that same drive you had to make it work in another way. Now those guys sit around wondering how to make life work for them.
I'm not saying a degree is a guarantee that you will be successful either. But I can say with confidence, you're going to have one hell of an easier time finding a career that will pay well, that you can also enjoy, all because you have that piece of paper.
I wasn't trying to crush dreams with this post. I just think more families just need to look at the whole picture.
Parents need to teach kids the deeper meaning in life and its lessons while racing, not try to cash in. Racing offers a lot of tools to be successful later in life. If the parents understand that, and realize they can instill these values while getting to spend time with their kid, that is the key.
As a parent now, I have such a deep respect for my mom because of what she helped achieve, where she helped me go and how we got there. I want to be that parent to my kids.
Just as you said, I am a minority in racing, however, I know a lot of people that got through college and they aren't anybody, living in debt and making no more than they would had they not gone to college.
If you want to be successful, you will find a way to be successful. That is what I am teaching my kids and I am trying to show them.
Pit Row
For me , it was "just take it as far as I could". I didn't get much help from mom or dad because they couldn't afford it. So I just had fun with it.......which is where people need to be honest with themselves and do the same. Have fun with the sport and focus on a good career or something along those lines.
Mini Dad's : I see it every where , as I'm sure most of you do. But there are a ton of Mini Dad's out there that push their kids in this sport more for themselves than anything else. "Living through their kids" is what I'm getting at.
Touchy subject.......and most parents don't want to hear it. They know for a 100% fact that their kid is going to be the next RC.
I was never a hot shoe amateur, or even an A rider for that matter, but the lessons I learned when I was young riding and racing with my family help shape who I am now. If it weren't for MX I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be where I'm at now career-wise. Not only just because the things I learned, but for the connections and networking opportunities it gave me later on. But for me, personally, without education tied in, that wouldn't have flourished as completely.
Amateur racing isn't a bad thing. That I'm sure. The over expectations some put on it can just be a killer though.
And as for college, it isn't for everyone and there ARE exceptions, but statistics don't lie On average people with degrees make a significant amount more money over their lifetimes than people without.
I really liked Motox505's comment,
"I definitely have excelled in my work life due to the ethic I gained by hanging it out in motocross. The confidence you gain, the ability to endure pain and uncertainty, make anything you will do in a real world job seem pretty trivial. "
I can tell you that is what got me through my first two years of college. There were so many times I remember thinking, if I can do a 90 foot jump, then dammit I WILL find a way to pass this stupid Bio test!!!
If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, accountant, etc., its obviously required. If you want to be a tradesman, it probably isn't. There's a ton of other professions out there where college can help, but isn't required, and that seems to be where the debate comes from.
Personally I encourage my kids to go to college. If you've inspired a work ethic into your kids already, and then combine that with education, that's about the optimum situation in my book.
If my child decided to become a heavy equipment operator but had a good understanding of philosophy or anthropology from a community college class, I'd consider that worthwhile.
Amateur racing is one hell of an experience for itself.
To be succesful after it, you just need to apply the same work ethic requiered to excel at racing in whatever you choose to do, and you will be OK
So I went and got my degree, got a real job, and started racing again in my mid-20s. Guess what? The discipline of college had helped me become better at setting goals, figuring out my weak points and maximizing my strengths. I became a better racer and moved into the B class in SoCal. I never turned pro but I can say I raced against some pretty fast guys who later did, and that's good enough for me. I feel successful in motocross.
I am going to provide my son as much support as I possibly can in both life and motocross. If he has "it," I'll know. If not, I will also know, and we'll both be just fine.
Not the amateur MX scene.
Post a reply to: The Amateur Moto-Dream... A Cancer?