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No they didn't. They did a great job raising a fast rider, sure. As a human being though, he's an insufferable, trashy little prick.
No one has a "right to be cocky" I'm so sick of people saying things like that. Sure, you can be cocky, it's not illegal, but it says a lot about his character. I'd have more respect for it if he said it's all for fun, but he flat out said in a press day interview that the cocky, trashy attitude is the real him because he was raised by a bunch of so cal bros.
Mad props to his riding ability though.
You know what at first glance it sounds like this would make a lot of sense and it does, but in reality almost all of the best riders have done it to not let their parents down. The major difference is most of those kids were poor and if they failed the whole family is hosed.
Ryan Villopoto famously hated racing. He has said many times he hated racing but did it because its all he was good at and it paid good. The heart he had was forged in the fire of alessi whooping his ass every single year with better equipment as well. Ricky Carmichael famously has a mom called mean jeanie. She was hard as hell on him and he was terrified of her chewing his ass if he messed up. Ricky has also said a million times he hated losing a million times more than he loved winning. That comes from thousands of hours of him mom scrraming at him and him being afraid of letting her down. The lawrences sold all of their shit and moved to europe. The entire family was gonna be homeless on the street if they failed. Hunter and Jett were terrified of letting their parents down, because their parents had bet the whole farm on the boys.
So I think being afraid to let your dad down actually can be a very strong motivator towards making a great racer. It is different for each individual kid, and the reeds are obviously well off now and are not going to be homeless if tate fails, but neither were the deegans. You know for a fact haiden doesnt want to let his dad down either. I think it can work for tate chad just needs to find a way to put that fear into his heart, or the hatred of losing. Brian knew he couldnt motivate haiden by saying were going to be poor if you fail so he did it a different way. He got haiden a youtube channel and put him under enormous pressure from all of the fans expecting him to win and if he loses he just doesnt let brian down but all the fans as well. This could also work for tate. You gotta find an edge wherever you can find it and if doing it that way works for rich kids then thats ok too. Haiden is also afraid of ppl saying he was handed everything cuz hes rich so he works twice as hard. Just gotta find what tate is afraid of and play into that. Its a dog eat dog brutal sport, but chad knows this too. I’m sure he has a good idea of what it takes. We shall see. I’m excited.
I guess that reinforces my point 🤷♂️
I think the cameras being on 24/7 would desensitize someone and take pressure off. Deegan doesn't give a sh*t if a camera is rolling. He has had one rolling in front of him his entire life. He has felt expectations his entire life.
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One more case of genetic predisposition - Lux and LaLa Turner. Fast brother/sister. Was Dad and/or Mom fast too?
Interesting question. There is the desire for a son to make his dad proud, Villopoto apparently outgrew this. There is also the fear of losing, is my identity what my results are? There are a multitude of factors, perhaps that’s why there seems to be more Sports Psychologists now than before.
But ultimately it’s got to be that the kid wants to do it and is willing to pay the price for it. David Bailey and Stefan Everts come to mind as two kids that surpassed their father’s accomplishments. No doubt instructed by their dads. But they did so before the internet and social media existed in their current form.
Too often parents live vicariously through their kids and suck the fun out of it for their kids, and also become insufferable jerks to be around too. See Lavar Ball is a prime example of this, Brian Deegan on a basketball court.
So the question becomes, are you helping your kid achieve their dream or yours? One big difference is that Brian Deegan is a master self-promoter. Chad Reed hasn’t mastered that yet.
"Too often parents live vicariously through their kids and suck the fun out of it for their kids, and also become insufferable jerks to be around too. See Lavar Ball is a prime example of this, Brian Deegan on a basketball court."
I have not witnessed this from Brian Deegan. He is Haiden's father and will obviously have a direct involvement with his son's career in professional racing. How that Brian handles his personal relationship and involvement with his son's racing, will always be up for critiquing and likely criticism, no matter what.
I think that 99.9% of the people are nowhere near privy or close enough to it, to make any claims or criticisms based upon anything more than pure speculation.
So we’re forgetting the bike claiming incident where, allegedly, Brian intimidated the AMA official? And I’m pretty sure that at the amateur level, there was an incident at mini-o’s where Casey Cochran returned a “favor” to Haiden and Brian and his entourage went crazy running their mouthes to the Cochran family.
Brian never won a SX or MX championship at the professional level. He is a master marketer. Kudos to him for marketing himself and his kids. Are you in the .01%?
I'm not sure if you are attempting to refute what I wrote in some way or what your goal is.
I don't really see the relevance of things that include words like "pretty sure" and "allegedly". At the same time, it wouldn't support the narrative that I was responding to even if these things you speak about were some corroborated, absolute reality.
I think it's really hard to say. HD seemed to just be a natural talent and has the drive to be the best, from a young age. Tate doesn't seem to quite have that at his stage but plenty of riders are late bloomers. Justin Cooper, Levi Kitchen etc. So him having a legend of a dad, the money, the name, the social media etc certainly doesn't hurt. They are just different people and not everybody has the same path. Plenty of time for Tate to come into his own.
Deegan has always had a hyper-competitiveness that I just don't see in Tate. For Deegan, I think Brian was a good guide, but even if he'd not been so hands on, Haiden would still be where he is because of that competitive drive. If Chad backed off, I just don't see Tate keeping on the same trajectory he's on now because he doesn't seem to have that drive to be the best. I really like the Reeds, and will be more than happy if Tate proves me wrong, though.
How old is Tate R?
13 or 14 i think, not totally sure.
What could chad do as a parent to breed that deep seated desire to win at all costs? Theres a few different options that parents take like being a huge asshole, putting the entire familys success or failure on the kids shoulders and they dont eat if they lose, letting down the family name and not carrying it on if they fail, putting a ton of pressure on them with youtube and fans since young where if they dont win they feel like a loser to the thousands of ppl watching, not being good at anything else and having no other option, knowing if you dont make it youre gonna be working a 9-5 making shit money and everyones gonna ask what went wrong for the rest of your life… and many more. Each kid is different and will be motivated by something different. Theres plenty of things that can be applied to tate that chad could use. Its gonna be interesting to see what works and what doesnt.
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