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And I say: “well your technique is good, your lines are good, you just have to ride with more heart and intensity”
Hence asking- how do you teach someone to ride with more intensity??
I get it, it’s got to come from within him.
He Says he wants to go faster, but does he Really want to go faster?? I guess only he can answer that.
2. Does he want to be taught?
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Keith Code has written a few street riding technique manuals and runs CA super bike school. One of the big things he talks about is attention allocation, and it’s something that really transfers to every activity you can park take in.
The general concept is that you only have so much attention to give. When you first start, just riding the bike takes a lot of attention. As a beginner, coming into a turn, for example, might need 20% focus on braking, 50% on body position, 20% on steering, 10% on looking through the turn correctly. You spend just about everything on just getting around the track. When you advance you start doing things without thinking about them. Maybe braking takes 5%, body position 20%, steering 10% and vision 5%. By developing good habits you can free up attention to focus on different aspects of your riding or, in your nephew’s friend’s case, upping intensity.
As usual, seat time is #1 and developing good habits is a close second.
1- he’s just finishing up his first season of racing. That’s 12 race days and multiple practice days.
2- he Says “can you help me go faster”
But if he really means it, who knows?
Even if he doesn't get to the 'intensity' level desired by 'whomever', he'll learn the right / better techniques, and, through that, be a better, safer, faster rider, and, possibly have more fun - because that really is what riding is all about.
If he says "can you teach him to go faster" than maybe focus on the specifics of that. As someone who rode a bike later in life, you feel jacked and feeling quick, then you watch some video and it's an embarrassment. He might already be feeling quite intense.
He’s just finishing up his first season of racing, that’s 12 race days and multiple practices.
He can RIDE perfectly competently…. Just at ‘commuter’ pace not ‘racer’ pace.
Do a full lap with every 4th or 5th start.
Really work on form and line choice getting into the 1st turn including “closing the door”/defending the inside.
Form…body position and posture. Study some races of his or your favorite pros from recorded SX/MX/GP races and try to utilize what you’re seeing the pros do by getting him to replicate their from/style where he needs it. Simple things like where your feet are on the pegs matters quite a bit (balls of your feet versus arches). When to sit and when to stand…getting up and down/on & off the seat smoothly with purpose and how to hold on with your legs…etc.
Practice doing laps for time periods that are a little longer (10-20%) than the length of his races. Have him start each session with some practice starts.
Getting good starts will usually, on its own, ramp up “intensity”. Giving some purpose to practice days also ramps up an athletes purpose and intensity.
Good luck!
Manny
Pit Row
Some people can ride for years and still look they won the bike in a raffle that morning, others, are a slow burn, but understand that being on the right place on the track , is the key.
The best advice i can give is to ride with different people , racing the same place every week, gets you in a mental rut, go different places, and race different folk.
And know when to stay home and leave it alone.. i have friends ( no, really , i do) who will be out all winter wherever is open , learning nothing, other than how to wash bikes and fit worn out bits, rather than picking their days.
Where you are in the UK matters too, as to what riding you can get done, that is worthwhile.
There are lots of 'training days' , some good, some bad, depending on what level you are at , which can help, but at the end of the day, you have got to want to go fast.
You might try videoing his riding to show what lack of intensity looks like.
But in terms of motivation, it's usually easier to guide people to dial it down rather than to dial it up.
Maybe focus on fundamentals now.
Is he saying the things you want to hear?
Maybe he's riding in his comfort zone. If he's new to the sport, maybe this is intense "to him". You know your brain is calibrated over a long period of time to realize danger.
You have been riding long enough to be desensitized to it.
What are his other hobbies and habbits that would lead you to believe he'll jump on a bike and risk bodily injury for a plastic trophy? Is he an otherwise intense person?
TM
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