Posts
22437
Joined
6/15/2010
Location
Bowie, MD, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/27/2012 7:57pm
Had discussion with some friends, some mx some ,basketball and football players, I also play basketball,I was trying to explain to the non mx crowd how difficult this sport is! I stated that a mx er can play basketball to a point but a pro nba or Nfl dude could nt ride a lap of a National outdoor track,, Question is how far on a track do you think a non mx er pro athlete could go? I thought there were a few dudes who ride a little mx, How far would Kobe get around Glen Helen before he shit his pants LOL!
Riding a bike takes a certain skill, like all sports. Ricky Carmichael isn't anywhere near the shape he used to be in and could still destroy all but a handful of guys in the world.
Every athlete at the elite level in their sport is amazing at what they do. Jump in a pool and swim laps as hard as you can for 15 minutes and you'll be more tired than after a 15 minute moto. Maybe you'll even die! That'd be badass and girls would want you.
There are some very fit pro MX riders but there are plenty of slouches too. As far as being athletic goes I think pro basketball players would come out on top.
Of course there are the super humans like Jeff Ward (125mx, 250mx, 500mx, 125sx, 250sx multi time champion who "retired" only to go on and master indy cars and then supermoto back when it was at its peak) and of course Travis Pastrana who is still breaking all the rules of human behavior and accomplishment.
In the stick and ball sports very few have mastered multiple disciplines ie football, basketball, baseball. Even Jordan couldnt hang.
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I cant believe I just wasted 30 sec of my time replying to this....Hardest thing to do in professional sports is hit a baseball.....
This is how I explain the physical aspects of Motocross to the non moto athletes that I hang out with. I've never typed it out before, but I will try here.
There's no back of the seat no sissy bar, when you accelerate you will fall off the back if you don't hang on. There's no seat belt no 5 point harness. When you slam on the breaks or decelerate due to hitting a jump you will go over the bars if you don't hold on tight.
Imagine standing in the back of a pickup truck holding on to the top of the cab while someone stomps the gas accelerating to 35mph and slams on the breaks, cuts it side ways, accelerates again while hitting about 5 parking curbs in a row. You also need to keep the bike balanced on two wheels during all of this. It's a physical challenge to just hang on and keep the bike upright, but this is racing and you want to go fast right?
Just like all forms of motor sport racing traction is king and if we assume that tires are out of the equation then it is all about weight and where that weight is when we need traction.
In 4 wheel racing the driver is a very small percentage of the over all weight of the car. You often here drivers talk about the "balance of the car" which is basically where the weight of the car is at different points on the track and while breaking or accelerating. In moto where the bike is approximately 220lbs. the rider is a very large percentage of the overall weight.
Yes a rider could sit in the middle of the seat and go around a track at a slow speed but if you want to go even slightly fast then you have to move your weight around on the bike to increasing traction where you need it. When your on dirt traction is scares and the riders ability to increase that traction due to shifting his or hers weight around is key to going fast.
The combination of trying to hang on while maximizing traction makes for a very physically demanding sport. Add in the ever changing track conditions and hard landings from jumps and it is by far the most physically demanding sport that I have ever been around.
I know full well that motocross requires an immense amount of endurance and strength, but I don't necessarily think inherent athletic ability is as much of a must. I've seen some pretty average looking dudes excel at motocross. Not superior athletes in anyway, just hard work ethic and natural skill on a bike. That kind of logic won't get you by in basketball or football or soccer. You have to have natural or learned talent, coupled with a god given gift of athleticism.
Motocross gets a bad rep, no question about that. But I hear alot of motocross guys talk it up way more in comparison to other sports than it probably deserves. Just because motocross is a million times harder than it's perceived to be, doesn't make other sports not physically demanding on the body as well. I know alot of kids that would flat out smoke me on the motocross track, but couldn't touch my nuts on a basketball rectangle.
JWAT over and out. CCHHH
Then when they see the pro's ride you just explain that they're like horse whisperers. They know how to talk to the horse and make it go where they want without a fight.
This analogy is helpfully assisted when the pro class is run right after the 125 beginner motos.
This sport has been sold and promoted based on risk, and jumping- not athleticism. The general public will never look at a guy riding mx and think "wow, he must be in shape."
Plus, if you honestly think that RC would have a fighting chance of keeping his internal organs intact on a football field, or any hard contact sport against athletes twice his size, you're dead wrong. Those guys are freakishly huge and strong and would put a hurting on him as bad as if he cased the biggest of SX triples.
Pit Row
Suffice it to say that the skill level required in motocross will result in an inexperienced but otherwise well-conditioned athlete having a terrible time beating himself up just trying to make it around the track. But that's down to the skill, not the conditioning.
If you run over the typical 150 lb motocrosser with a 300 lb lineman or 250 lb linebacker, he won't fare well. But that's down to physics and mass, not the conditioning.
If you measure strength, agility, endurance, and so on, a professional motocross racer (or even just a good amateur) will be just as much an athlete as the pro ballplayer.
also most people who jump on a bike, can't ride it fast enough to realise how hard it is.
To go extremely fast on a bike takes extraordinary skill, as does performing at the top level of any sport. But I get tired of the "lack of respect" argument. Someone who has made it to the top of soccer, basketball, baseball, football, golf, or any major sport has out played many, many more people to get where they are than the guys at the top of the heap in MX/SX. No disrespect, just a numbers fact. Being the best out of 10,000,000 > being the best out of 10,000.
I think many of you are thinking about yourself riding, and local racing...when you are talking about 2 30 plus 2 minute motos, you are talking about the top of the sport. The guys that are out of shape get weeded out in Pro motocross, you can see that they are tired right away. It is also mentally straining as well. I think that when you guys say that out of shape guys do fairly well, sure at your local track, but how many of us on this forum could ride for 40 minutes straight on the ragged edge on a full on national (super rough) track without blacking out or crashing from fatigue...
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