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You have a rider who says they are looking for a "trainer" but in reality is looking for a MAN FRIEND/YES MAN. These riders want to show their team that they are training but in reality they are doing NOTHING productive. Talent gets them by for awhile. Also, if the MAN FRIEND actually tries to say something well they get fired.
Some teams won't actually hire a trainer instead they will APOINT one, either a previous rider or a sponsored athlete form another sport. The riders are then asked to pay for him/her even if the rider already has a trainer. I have seen this happen first hand. A young rider who had been working with a friend of mine throughout his mini days and into his pro debut was later asked to leave his trainer (my friend) and pay the teams "trainer". The athlete has struggled with results since then.
I believe teams and riders should do a better job educating themselves on what an a proper trainer can provide them. There is a science to training for moto and with the competition getting even closer I believe this is where the next level of racing will come from. Trainers that understand the science and how to apply it to moto. Riders have been taken to the extremes in training with a disregard to proper recovery, proper nutrition, proper rehab. This is noticeable when you have riders getting "chronic fatigue syndrome", early season fades and non-contact injuries.
So what kind of trainer am I?
I am an ATHLETIC Trainer very very very different from a personal trainer. You must have a college degree and have successfully passed an accredited ATHLETIC TRAINING program in order to sit for a very demanding certification exam.
I am also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) a certification that also needs a college degree.
There are quite a few individuals in this sport that label themselves as trainers. I know a few that have taken the proper steps to at least get a PERSONAL TRAINING certification. There are so many personal training certs. all vary in content that is taught. Some you can pay a fee take a quick online test and within minutes get "certified" others require a certain amount of book work hours before sitting for exam.
Certified athletic trainers are educated, trained and evaluated in six major practice domains:
1. Prevention
2. Clinical Evaluation and Diagnosis
3. Immediate Care
4. Treatment, Rehabilitation and Reconditioning
5. Organization and Administration
6. Professional Responsibility
Students must receive formal instruction in the following specific subject matter areas:
Basic and Applied Sciences
Human anatomy Human physiology Chemistry
Biology
Physics
Statistics and research design Rehabilitation
Exercise Physiology Kinesiology/Biomechanics
Professional Content
Risk Management and Injury Prevention Pathology of Injuries and Illnesses
Orthopedic Clinical Examination and Diagnosis Medical Conditions and Disabilities
Acute Care of Injuries and Illnesses
Therapeutic Modalities
Conditioning, Rehabilitative Exercise & Pharmacology
Psychosocial Intervention and Referral
Nutritional Aspects of Injuries & Illnesses
Health Care Administration
That was awesome of you to go into such great detail for your answer. I really appreciate the honesty and this gives some great insight into the "industry."
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What do you think is the next step for the AMMC? Where do you see AMMC in the future and what do you think you could do better?
What's the your top 3 changes you'd make in the sport–all levels. What grinds your gears?
What a great idea. It would help everyone but particularly the non top ten guys who don't usually have the same resources as factory riders.
Here are my questions:
Upper body protection is required in 2016 for MXGP. Do you think that will help reduce injuries? What do you think about the trend for each track to have one humongous jump? Positive development or overkill?
Thanks for your time.
This question is tough to answer because of my position within the industry. I have since the moment I started working in this industry become really good friends with a lot of the riders, I have lived with them, we have gone to each others weddings, I have shared there highs and lows, seem them make and loose money, seen them fight addiction, watched them get burned by team managers, agents, parents, wives.
The one thing major thing I would like to see change is. Give the riders a seat at the decision making table. How that happens is not for me to say but it does need to happen. To give you an idea how this would help the riders from a health care point of view. When I was designing our concussion program I looked into a program by Wells Fargo that provided an insurance policy for head injuries. The way the policy worked was it provided funding to get all baseline testing done and in the event of a concussion it would cover all medical expenses related to that injury. The cost was between $5-25 per rider. Here was the problem, Wells Fargo needed to know how many riders where in the pool and could compete. I couldn't give them that number because as you know we have guys coming through RC AX program as well as having guys that sign up for only one race a year. Wells Fargo wanted a total number of riders prior to the start of the season and that number could not change until the following season. Its a small thing but I hope it gives you an idea on how riders might benefit from working with each other.
I would like to see more money put into research of safety equipment through independent facilities to develop an off road safety certification for these products. Imagine the advances the industry could make.
I would like to see custom painted helmets make a resurgence.
Many of us here mountain or road bike to compliment our MX riding/racing and improve fitness but obviously we're not pros. I think in one of your previous posts, you have been critical of pros using mountain bike racing (and maybe road bike racing). Can you expand on your opinion? We're starting to see more and more riders adopt mountain and road biking into their training program. Very notably Barcia. And his results have been improving as of late. Do you believe that is just a timing coincidence that he has now been healthy enough to get back to speed? I don't recall if your point was that there are more efficient training programs or if it was from a risk side.
Once I learned who you were a year or so ago, I started reading your posts and you have some of the most well thought out insights on this board. Will you be posting again any time soon?
Best of luck!
And wait...you've been a member of Vital since 2011?
Has anybody ever questioned your posts or given you 'shit' for posting your opinions/insight?
Do supplements work? Yes. There have been lots of peer reviewed studies to prove the effectiveness of certain supplements. i.e.. creatine, protein caffeine BUT there is A LOT of stuff out there that has been proven NOT to work as claimed. Which leads me to my next statement.
The supplement business is 99.99% MARKETING. There is no rider that I know of that is getting paid to endorse supplements. If you notice a top tiered rider endorsing a product they are more likely doing it as a favor to someone or perhaps have a small stake in the company. These companies or often times a single person will comb through vast amounts of data to try and find a little nugget of effectiveness and RUN with it like its the next big thing. What they won't tell you is that this ingredient was only effective in a very small sample size, in extremely sick individuals or the dosage was so high that it would not be tolerated well by the majority or cost prohibitive. This is often the case with companies that look towards CHINESE MEDICINES.
Here is an example: Japanese wasp venom promotes increased athletic endurance.
Below is a link to a study done to test the effectiveness of Vespa Amino Acid Mixture (VAAM). If you read the first paragraph of the abstract only you would probably want to go buy this stuff immediately but if you read all the way through you will see that the test subject where sedentary older women and results where minuscule.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20609003
But here you have a company selling this stuff and promoting its great benefits and testimonials out the ass but NO scientific proof.
http://www.hornetjuice.com
The other tactic that companies will use is terms such as PROPRIETARY BLEND, PATENTED FORMULA, EXCLUSIVE DELIVERY SYSTEM blah blah blah. If you see this put it back.
The minute you put something in your mouth, inhale in your nose, inject it or put it up your ass the body breaks it down to a molecular level. Whatever it needs it will use, whatever it does't it will piss or poop it out.
Example: Protein, it doesn't matter if you buy the WalMart brand or the MEGA Expensive MONSTER brand of the same protein, your body will break down the molecules until it get the aminos it needs and gets rid of the rest. I have a very good friend who is has a Ph.D in Analytical Chemistry who rides moto and is a competitive triathlete. He has tested analyzed various brands of proteins to see how clean (banned substances, heavy metals) they are. He found that the WalMart brand was the cleanest compared to other brands sold there. For example the powder form of a competing brand when consumed as directed on the label put you significantly over the limit for HEAVY METALS. If you have one scoop you would be ok, but if you follow the guidelines one scoop pre workout, one post workout, one prior to bedtime you can see how that would add up. This company hasn't changed its ingredients it simply changed the label and how you should consume the product.
People give the pharmaceutical companies crap all the time but these companies can not put something out on the market unless it has been proven to work and warnings of all possible side effects. Plus even after all that BIG Pharma still gets sued because something that perhaps took an additional 10-20 years of consuming to produce a side effect.
Imagine if supplement and homeopathic companies had to play by the same rules? It would go from a $3 billion dollar industry to a $10 dollar industry.
Here is something else worth noting. There is I believe 3-4 companies that make all the supplements in this country. You want to start making your own protein and sell it? Call up one of these companies, tell them what you want, bring in a competitors label or use one of their standard mixtures and they will make it for you.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/startyourownline.htm
This is what I tell my riders, begin with a well balanced diet, easier said then done, if after getting on a well balanced diet you need some help we can start supplementing on a per needed bases. If you are still struggling, set up an appointment with a DIETICIAN not a nutritionist and begin the process of figuring out what needs to be done.
Getting your nutrition right is like trying to figure out where the bog is coming from on your bike. Everybody has an answer and if you start trying each of those answers you mostly likely will end up worse then where you started. Eventually you will take it to a QUALIFIED mechanic who will probably return everything back to the stock settings and begin the process of SYSTEMATICALLY going through the entire bike to find the problem. It will probably cost you some money, more if you really F'ed it up listening to your friends, but it will get fixed.
One last note, this is not an endorsement but because you did mention Ryno Power supplements. He stuff is no better or worse then other brands. He gave me some protein powder to try and it tasted great and mixed well in a shaker. His price point is on average with other mid to high end brands. So if your a believer of supporting those that support the sport by his stuff.
I hope this has been helpful.
You know that saying about the squeaky wheel gets the grease? Well in this industry they just assume replace the wheel. I am very fortunate that Dr. Bodnar and Tom Carson went to bat for me. They know where my heart is, I am just not good at articulating what I am thinking into words sometimes.
Pit Row
And yikes, that is a scary deal. I think what makes our sport so cool (the relatively smallness), also makes it a little risky for people that do have insight on certain topics....
Also, how many NBA players do you seeing racing MTB races during the week as part of training? How many NFL players do you see playing rec league basketball during the week for training? Do you think there might be a reason for that? Its not to say that the NBA player can't go for a MTB ride during the week, or the NFL player shoot some hoop with friends but by no means are these considered TRAINING.
Its my belief that when these MX riders race MTB races they are PERFORMING and NOT TRAINING. What possible stimulus can a rider get that will transfer over to moto from an MTB race? Wouldn't a rider benefit more from doing something on the motorcycle?
You TRAIN the way you PLAY and you will PLAY the way you TRAIN. Simple yet very difficult to do. It requires the ability to analyze movement mechanics, understand cardiovascular and physical demands of the given sport. Also must be able to analyze the athlete to see how he or she fits into each category. They will demonstrate strengths and weaknesses in each. Does the athlete have an injury or permanent disability that prevents good mechanics. This sport has a high incidence of shoulder dysfunction. Leading cause of ARM PUMP, poor riding mechanics (arm up attack position) and breathing issues.
This is not say you shouldn't incorporate MTB/Cycling into a training program. I use cycling as a component to my training of MX riders but its mostly done in the off season.
The battle I fight is that someone like Barcia wins races and now I look like an ass and don't know what I am talking about. So to that I say lets take 20 pro MX/SX riders have them all race once a week and see what the results are on Saturday.
The most neglected component of training that I see in this sport is PROPER RECOVERY. I always hear riders say I am going for a 30 mile recovery ride on Sunday after the races. On days that riders are suppose to rest and do any activity I will find out they went on a 10 mile hike or spent all day in the sun building dirt jumps. It wasn't on the dirtbike, gym or MTB so its recovery/rest.
When I am talking to riders, team managers and parents about training I often loose the deal when I talk about how much rest I ask them to take as a part of the program. The mentality in this sport is if your not sleeping you are grinding away in the heat doing something. Down the road when your future RC,RV, JS isn't making the gains or consistency is not there, injuries are stacking up and it turns out he has CHRONIC FATIGUE, EPSTEIN BAR or MONO you are left scratching your head wondering how the F did this happen.
This sport can be amusing at times. If say next year we find out that the SX champ entered a surf contest every week as part of his "training". How many moto kids do you think would go buy surfboards the following week? I think surfing is a better tool than MTB or Cycling but I am not going to make it 50% of their training program.
Thank you very much for your honesty and insight. It is appreciated.
Post a reply to: Vital MX Forum QNA: Eddie Casillas