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A friend told me a story about taking a Donnie Hansen school and they said he made Josh on a 65 at the time ride around the track nonstop with a cone in one hand or the other and Josh was beating guys on 250s not holding a cone. 10 years later everybody just says the guy is a 'naturally gifted rider'.
Some have some God given ability to be blessed with the ability to ride the bike like a high level ballet dancer...A very exacting and well balanced natural ability
Others have the ability to just pin it and hang on. It may not be as pretty, but can be blazing fast and effective.
Tomac is a good example of just raw speed. He can go stupid fast, but you can't say it's a pretty style or very "flowy"
Windham, Pichon, Bayle (Lot of French guys, actually) and even Roczen have the ability to go very fast without looking it, because it's very precise and exacting....it has a natural looking "flow"..... that's talent
You may be able to teach less talented guys to have speed, but you can't teach talent.
Just like not everyone can be Jimi Hendrix or SRV
You might be able to play, and play very well, but you weren't blessed like they were
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Of course, Josh is just a place order for all riders/players that do that.
Donnie knew what he could do and pushed him to hone that
We don't have to agree
Pastrana is another example of just pure talent, where he can go fast in or on anything....it just a gift
But the one thing that is obviously true is that among priorities in overall development of a person, footwork sequences (or bike control in our sport) should not be the main focus.
I can vividly remember watching k-dub go through the s-turns at Washougal after passing RC in 2001 and thinking “holy shit, no one in the world can do that” he wheelied out of the first turn into the right hander wide open then basically wheelied out of the right hander and landed his front wheel perfectly into the drop after it... raw talent.
Also Musquin going up horsepower hill at the end of a moto as fast as anyone but 10x smoother. Raw talent.
Pourcel, Michael Byrne, Chase Sexton, Christian Craig, Chad Reed all come to mind. When James Stewart was on he was on a whole other level though.
To say that Tomac isn’t on the same level of Roczen as far as raw talent is ridiculous, but I get what RC is saying. He was really trying to highlight how fast Roczen was going through the whoops. He was absolutely flying through them last night. Raw talent.
I agree with Ozy, watching ET3 power slide out of corner boots on the pegs is something special.
Tomac has the skills, Roczen the raw speed.
Tomac has better skills and balance- especially evident on rough tracks and in his ability to ride off line- and is stronger, and fitter than the smooth, effortless raw speed of Roczen.
Raw speed = the balls to hit a section wide open in difficult conditions
Raw speed = wrestling with the crocodile and winning, the track and the bike has to bend to his will. Usually attributed to riders with a strong physique and good stamina.
Pit Row
raw speed: lock the throttle and deal to whatever happens later
Raw Balls Speed = RC/ Tomac/JS7
Raw Finesse which is more than Technique= Windham/ JMB/ Pourcel / Roczen
Raw No Talent Hardwork = Peick, A-Ray, Brayton, Osbourne
The only thing faster than Eli is how fast the Eli fanboys get their panties in a bunch whenever you don't bow your head when you say his name.
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