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4622
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4/4/2015
Location
GB
Edited Date/Time
9/29/2022 10:49pm
My cousins lad has just started riding MX.
He’s 20 years old, averagely fit. Complete novice.
He can ride ok. He can get around the track without a problem. Operating the bike without a problem, standing, seated, His posture is actually pretty decent. If you give him a tip on lines or body technique, he will take note and do it,
But his problem…
No intensity! He’s literally rolling around the track like he’s riding to the store to pick up a soda. There’s no ‘rush’ in his riding. Not pushing to try and go faster.
He won’t hold the throttle tapped. He won’t Rev it out.
How do you teach intensity?
He’s 20 years old, averagely fit. Complete novice.
He can ride ok. He can get around the track without a problem. Operating the bike without a problem, standing, seated, His posture is actually pretty decent. If you give him a tip on lines or body technique, he will take note and do it,
But his problem…
No intensity! He’s literally rolling around the track like he’s riding to the store to pick up a soda. There’s no ‘rush’ in his riding. Not pushing to try and go faster.
He won’t hold the throttle tapped. He won’t Rev it out.
How do you teach intensity?
Then from that point it turns into risk vs reward. and people are all over the board with this,
For instance myself, I want to go as fast as possible on vet tracks and bang out laps.
but when i hop on main tracks, the risk skews the feeling of reward for me. so i start to not jump and my confidence goes down and i ride slower.
When my oldest first started racing i was in a similar situation as he was not very aggressive at all....
Well as we all know the start is the first part of racing that can be won with an aggressive approach....
Very hard to teach to a non aggressive racer...LOL
After he witnessed me putting in to practice what ive been teaching him and a couple tries of his own , he then experienced it for himself ..... and continued to do so....
The rest of the race was very vanilla for him , for the most part anyway....
At times he would fight but he is just a very calculated rider and im actually glad for that....
Would i ;love to see more aggression, yes, but if it isnt in them then it is what it is....
With all that said if there is something tangible for them it may "help"
If its just pushing them harder that may help as well but probably not on a very consistent basis at all....
My advice would be to give advice but dont get crazy with it , you may end up regretting it....
Let him ride within his comfort zone and enjoy himself!
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My son is a lot like that. I wanted to have a supermini pro when he was younger, but now I see that he's just content to ride around and have fun. There's nothing wrong with that. He'll be injured a lot less.
Why the hell do you want a "complete novice at 20" to have "intensity" anyways?
Once a week or so we do the same thing but for a 15-20 minute full moto. On occasion he will do this with other riders, but usually it's solo on a private track to reduce risk. Mine is 16 with 10 years of race experience.
There's no point in going for intensity if you are not racing and don't have a goal in mind. More speed, more intensity, higher risk. It's actually a bit scary at times because I can see how close to the edge he is, and the goal is to stay there, get comfortable, and move the edge out farther.
Cos if he is just rolling the local track for 'the gram' , then he will never get it.
Unless your ride starts behind a gate, intensity is pointless.
Build his riding base up. 20 minutes at that slow pace you are reffering to for like a Month or even more.
Then as a lot of other folks said. 1-2 lap sprints. Intesity in takes time. Racing will help speed that up.
i cant ride now , unless its a race, i cant get motivated to just ride round.
But my son gives me tons of shit if i dont race well .
i have a a mini dad for a son,
Pit Row
Look to the operant conditioning method of motivation for the results you seek.
No matter how hard I try I’m never as intense as my brother…he’s faster than me…on the gas harder, brakes later, hits bumps harder…he’s just rides with more intensity than I do.
My son is like me…he has incredible balance, great throttle control, great line choice…but very little intensity on the track.
Some of us have it, some of us don’t…we all can’t be fast or none of us would be fast.
I think alot of you need some hormone help lol.
Its the same thing with why some people will jump some big risky jumps and others wont.
as sandman said, riding pissed off always drops lap times
I should’ve mentioned, he IS racing and he DOES want to go faster.
Oh and I’m not trying to be his ‘mini-dad’.
I raced for 25 years to a half-decent level. He and his dad look to me to give him the answers on how to improve. I don’t really know what to tell him other than at this point he needs to just ride with more effort.
Oh and I think he’ll be having more fun if he’s getting better race results. At the moment he gets down in the dumps because in his words he’s “shit at riding”
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