Lessons and Reflections | Ft. Andrew Short 4

There are many lessons learned from racing motorcycles. Responsibility, work-ethic, determination, and sportsmanship are a few core examples many of us have learned through our years of riding and racing. With Lessons and Reflections we want to hear from past professional racers and have them reflect on their careers so they can tell us five lessons which impacted them and helped post-racing career. These lessons may impact them in business, relationships, personally, or some other way. In this edition we talk to the Smiley Faced Assassin, Andrew Short. Shorty made his pro motocross debut in 2000 at Steel City Raceway and finished his moto career in 2016 at Ironman. In his sixteen plus years as a professional motocross/Supercross racer he won a number of races which included a 450 Supercross win in Seattle (2012) and was part of the U.S.A. winning team at MXdN (2010) in Lakewood, Colorado. Andrew Short was as fierce as they come on the track while being one of the friendliest people you could ever meet off the track. He recently took some time to reflect on his career and tell us some lessons he learned that he would like to share.

For the full interview, check out the Vital MX podcast right here. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.

Lesson #1

If I were speaking to a racer coming up, one of the main things from my era is everyone had their own track and facility. Everything was a real secret; nowadays there are training facilities, team facilities, and other things. We had the test tracks, but I spent crazy money at home to prepare our own track. Time, money, and energy is a huge thing. Still, to this day, you reflect on where you’re dedicating these things and you only have so much energy to go around in the day. So, where are you dedicating it to? During my era, I spent a lot of time, money, and energy and I could never turn it off because I had so much passion for racing. That is a huge regret because I was always trying to maximize everything. I could never escape or recover, so I think it’s cool to see how everything has evolved and gotten better with these training facilities. It’s interesting for me to see riders such as Levi Kitchen leave some of that because it may have been too much. In my case, it would have been nice to have someone to push you or a carrot to chase, and then when you leave the track you can turn all that off and start recovery. I would have structured that differently. That may just be my personality. When I do something, I go all in, but that’s something I would have done differently. 

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: It’s interesting because there are guys like Eli Tomac or others back in the day who didn’t want to show their competition what they were doing. They didn’t want to train with other riders. To me, you could feed off training with someone who’s equally as talented or even better. I guess it depends on the person.

Shorty: I’d be interested to hear when Eli left home. He lived at his parent’s place where there are tracks and where he trained. At what point did he decide to leave and leave the tracks at the house? I wonder if it was because he wanted to become his own man or if it was when he got married and started having kids. I’m not sure when that was. Did he just need the time to get away? Everyone is different. I see these things and I reflect on what I did. 

Lesson #2

A coach and trainer. I feel in life you need a mentor. There’s an importance to it. I really valued training and I had a lot of trainers. Eddie Casillas was the first one that helped. He also helped Ping (David Pingree). Then Michael Johnson, who worked with (Jeremy) McGrath and (Ernesto) Fonseca at Honda. Later on, Jeff Spencer and then Coach Seiji (Seiji Ishi) who is still a good friend. I valued training off the bike, but think I ignored on the bike training. I also used Michael Byrne and Nathan Ramsey for a bit. I think Byrne is still tremendously talented and you see him around the Lawrences. I wish I had tapped into that more because you see some successful people and the mentors they have. I think kids today need to work more on technique. I feel I got so focused on fitness, and I was super fit, but needed to be faster. For some reason, I undervalued having a coach. I heard a parent say that Wayne Gretzky was the greatest of all time but a horrible coach. Sometimes you see a coach and ask yourself, “How can he coach somebody? He’s slow or not a good rider. How is he going to teach me anything?” In moto or anything in life you need a good mentor. Someone who can help you with good technique and be honest with you. That’s something I wish I had adapted to. You also need a new coach all the time. Don’t get sucked into one person. Every other year you need to change coaches. That’s a hard conversation to have but sometimes you need to have those hard conversations to maximize and be the best you can be. Sometimes you need a fresh outlook. Now that I’m older, oftentimes I ask myself, “Why do I believe that? Is it because my parents told me that? Did I learn it in school?” It’s good to understand why you think what you do. 

Lesson #3

Effort doesn’t equate to results. I believed if I worked harder than the next person that I would beat that person. I never wanted to leave anything on the table. I got to where I was through hard work because when others wouldn’t do the work I could beat them, get an advantage, or be more consistent. I wish I would have worked more on technique and less on motos. That goes back to the coach lesson. Sometimes in life, you need to flip the switch and try something different. You also need someone mature enough to recognize that. In our industry, you see so many people who are on the payroll and they are either ‘yes’ men or they let you be lazy or whatever because they want to keep that going. You need someone who loves you and actually recognizes that you have to have a balance and put in the work. You can’t be lazy, but you also need to hone in on your skills and constantly adapt. Once you find something that works for you, you can’t keep doing it. You need to find out how to be one step better. If I would have been more open-minded I believe it would have helped. I was all in and would do so much work and I valued that the effort would get me to where I needed to be. Sometimes I needed more balance and a different mindset. Whether it was recovery or something else. Those were some things that hindered me in my opinion. Reflecting back I think I could have been a lot better. I know I left nothing on the table, but I would have structured it differently. For instance, with rally, once I learned about it I was all in. I did everything I could to learn about it and I may have done too much. 

Vital MX: In your situation, these lessons can also be used to help your son, Hudson, who’s at the beginning of his racing career. You can guide him and make his experience more fun and successful.

Shorty: Yeah. We’re basically on the fun program with how I approach racing because I was so serious. I want him to be internally motivated. I don’t want it to come from me and I want him to figure these things out. Yes, it will be like a shortcut if he asks me a question since I’ve been there, but I want it to come from him. 

Lesson #4

I wish I had talked about money. It’s kind of Taboo and uncomfortable, but sometimes you have to have those uncomfortable talks. Whether it’s agents, girlfriends, wives, prenups, parents, etc. I wish I had talked more about money with my parents and how it would look if you did make it. All those conversations need to be had. Even negotiating with your agent what their percentage will be and simple things that you take for granted. Then when you get there, it isn’t right. I really wish I would have had those discussions. I was so young, straight out of high school, and I wish I would have learned how to negotiate better. Even to learn about investing because you have plenty of time when you’re on the road to learn. When you’re a rider you are so one dimensional. You only care about riding, or at least that’s how I was. It was my dream and my passion, and I didn’t care about the money, which I think was bad. It helped me stay focused, but it’s definitely a tool to help put you in the right place. If you’re good at negotiating you can get to the right team and with the right people and structure that around you. I wish I had been more comfortable with that. For instance, if I was talking to a team manager or even my mechanic about year-end and race bonuses and what that would look like. To this day it’s something I don’t feel super strong with. Now, I care more about money, but I want to be around people who are passionate and want to be at a high level and care about racing. When I’m around people like that I’m happy. So, I still struggle with that and I think it would have made a lot of my relationships better in terms of business and family. 

Lesson #5

You see the same people on the way up as you do on the way down. Be a good human being. To be a good athlete you almost have to have an ego. So, what makes you a great athlete doesn’t always make you a great human. You have to balance, and I think I did ok at that. The Golden Rule is to treat people how you expect to be treated. In our industry, the goggle guy or trainer could be a team manager in five years. I love that aspect of our industry because if you’re a hard worker, can communicate, and have passion for it then people recognize that. I’ve seen people who abuse that or don’t invest in the people around them. It’s important to invest in those people, whether it’s the suspension guy, chassis guy, or motor guy. These people are a huge asset to you on race day and that can get lost. 

Bonus Lessons

I’m so thankful that I got to travel everywhere and do something I can look back on that makes me happy. The life experiences from racing motocross and Supercross, the like-minded people, they are a huge blessing. It was a dream come true for me. I continued that with rally and the reason I like it is getting to travel to crazy places. I did that in motocross, too. I got to travel to Japan and all over Europe. With rally, I went to South America, Russia, Mongolia, China, and all over the Middle East. Some of my best friends are from the other side of the world. These racers have a massive opportunity that normal people don’t get, so they need to enjoy the moment. When you win, I feel I didn’t celebrate it enough. I was always focused on the next race and I didn’t live in the moment. Whether you’re traveling the world or winning a race, you need to enjoy it. We’re on this Earth temporarily so make the best out of the situation but keep the balance. When something goes well, enjoy it and understand all the hard work and sacrifice. Live it up because it doesn’t always happen and it might not happen again.