Winning mentality

I think everyone is different. Some dudes wilt under pressure and others thrive on it. 

Imagine yelling at Haiden Deegan all day and telling him he has to win tonight. My guess is he'd win just to ram the trophy down your throat. Do that to Joey Savatgy and he'd have a nervous breakdown. 

That’s called appreciation and counting your blessings. Doesn’t mean Macadoo isn’t working his dick off to crush everyone. Just stopping to smell the roses 

I think the toughest part is being at your best/100% every weekend at the races….Some days we all feel like crap, maybe woke up with a headache, sore neck, didn’t sleep for shit due to a cold, crabby, just not feeling it, wife pissed you off, kids irritating you,,..etc. These guys need to be perfect every time. Those who handle this the best (mental toughness) are the ones winning…I don’t think that can be taught…

Which is why Jett is interesting to me. Because he is so young and a kid still(according to those around him). He understands the effort but he doesn’t have the shall we say maturity to understand the full gravity of situations? Almost like his lighthearted innocence allows him to be less stressed and ride more to his true ability. Where as others say, a rider with a family and focusing on future etc may be more likely to back it down. 

The 'light hearted innocence' is derived from superior speed.  Wait 'till he is tested.

Remember James' 'light hearted innocence'?

There super serious now, almost like this is not about fun.  The video is a fantasy, or an image of fun. 

Light hearted and fun is fine til the illusion is marred by losing/being tested.

Maybe we can get Lewis to ask Eli a few different ways this weekend if he still thinks he has a "Winning Mentality" 

Its truly amazing just how important it is having good mentality and a belief in yourself to win. I've said before its like when a rider gets on a roll they have a lot of confidence and there's almost like a kind of good luck bubble around them at that time. Usually with winning streaks. Its like everything just falls into place perfectly. Even take St. Louis., Both Kitchen and Tomac got 3 great starts and clean sweep the motos. (Yes Jett with the Race 2 Penalty, but that's part of racing). Look at Jett's crashes this year, he must be the luckiest guy on the planet to crash that many times and crash so damn gracefully that nothing happens to him. Its as if the Moto Gods lay down a big fluffy pillow for him with every crash until he got BAM BAM'd. All I know is a rider with high confidence can usually gain a large advantage.

The Mental aspect is something that can not be taught.

When they click they click.

I think it's just something riders say.

They all want to win, and very few are really satisfied with 2nd, or just having fun.

There is no "winning formula", everyone is motivated in different ways.  Dungy is one of the nicest people you'd ever meet but the dude has championships and was one of the best in the world. RC was a prick most of the time. Reed had the "me against the world" mentality and that worked. 

I remember hearing a quote once that said "winners recall past wins, losers recall past losses" and thought yeah that makes sense but it didn't work for me personally. What motivated me the most from the moment I woke on race day up until I was on the gate was remembering how painful and miserable my losses were. For me the fear of losing was far more powerful than feeling confident I could win and it worked pretty well. 

I can understand your thinking but of all people Macadoo should not be your example. From what I've heard, read, and seen, nobody pushes or works harder than Cameron.

But I mean, taking an hour or two to do an interview to satisfy sponsors, really?

He's not laying on the couch playing video games, saying I got this 

Well said. I never feared or hated losing; I just made myself promise to ride the fastest I possibly could, and that way I knew if I didn't win, there's no way I could have. For me, my attitude was always about the start. I felt like I was going to holeshot no matter what, and then the rest would come. I nailed a lot of starts.
On days when I won, it was almost always easy. Great starts, solid breathing, smooth lines. 

For the love of my dog, can we all just agree to spell his name McAdoo, McAdoo.  Not Macadoo. He's been in the sport long enough for that

"Crash-adoo"???