Practice or natural talent

In a place like southern california where there are many tracks around, you begin to get a "feeling" for how fast you need to go to hit things. Actually, i wouldn't say this is due to having lots of tracks, moreso just being able to ride often. So if you go to a new track or go to a track that changed its layout/has new jumps, you kind of have an idea how fast you need to hit it.

TL;DR: Just send it because you have a general idea how fast you need to go because you ride often.

I had a track at my place with a backhoe so I could rebuild it from time to time. I would get comfortable on my track at home but it didn't seem to translate to raceday nearly as much as going and riding with other people at different tracks. Showing up to a new track has its own challenges. At home I had a few days or weeks to build up to hitting the bigger jumps or a big set of whoops. At the races you have minutes to try different things and build up.

Riding once per week with people who are faster than you will go further than riding alone on a practice track.

Some would say that a lot of talent , comes from practice. Look at guys like Jeff Stanton.....he even said he didn't feel like he had much talent compared to some of the guys he raced against. But he practiced and trained his ass off , and look where that got him.

Practice, practice, practice.

If all you had was an empty field, that's what you would become skilled for. I bet you could rail that field faster than a lot of guys.
If you had a supercross track in your backyard, you'd get better at that.

Practice > Natural Talent.

Back when I was 21/22 years old, I got back into riding. I would ride at Piru Mx in socal once a week and I could do most of the jumps. There were two jumps I just could never do, a back canyon uphill double that was 90ft (or so I was told by the track owners) and a 70-80ft front table. I could do the short doubles in a rhythm section and the shorter tables.

When I got to 23 years old, I decided I was going to go every Wed, Sat & Sun for a whole summer. By the end of the summer, I was doing all the jumps, every lap without hesitation. Even when I felt like I came out of a previous section kid of sketchy, I could still nail all of them.

I think it is just repetition that helps build skill and confidence. That's huge.

With someone like K-Dub, RC, or Stew (or most pros), it is a combination of that natural talent AND riding all the time for repetition.

like the ole saying goes....practice makes perfect...

Dont be a bitch. Just send that 100ft triple step up

It depends on what you rode more of. My home track growing up had the biggest jumps out of any of the tracks we would go to. I could hit every jump on that track so when we went to any other track the jumps were not a concern. This track was also built where an old quarry was. It was extremely hard pack and if any ruts formed they were tiny. Consequently i suck at ruts

If another guy can do it.....so can I

Drugs, balls, talent, practice. In that order.

Airick wrote:

Back when I raced 80s I always wondered if the fast kids that were doing all the doubles had tracks, or at least a few decent jumps at home to practice on? My practice area was a flat field and some trails, so on race day I would only do the smallest doubles, if any at all.

What's the consensus, did you guys have practice tracks, or did you just show up and send it?

I had jack shit but a corner track. I was (and still am) slow to learn and clean new jumps. I know what I need to do, just takes me a while to get comfortable doing it. But, I'm dam friggin good at corners which ultimately transferred over well to offroad...

Lots of seat time can definitely pay off. Knew a kid growing up. He was so slow but he rode ALL the time. Prob 3-4 times as much as me and I could smoke him easy and hadn’t been riding that long. I took a few years off, and when I came back to the sport he was flying. Guess something finally clicked. All his riding paid off for sure. Don’t think he woulda ever went pro, but he got damn good on what I would say was little talent to begin with.

Jammin Jimmy Weinert told me one day (about my son ) That hard work will beat his talent any day of the week. He was right though.

I think its a mental thing. But mostly practice/seat time. I went to a track the other day after not riding for months, and was eyeing up the only jump i wasn't hitting. It was a 80ft uphill triple that bottomed your suspension on the face and had a booter of a lip. I usually sit for a little and listen to the bikes around me to have a understanding of how hard on the throttle they are. Then I simply followed a guy over it. From there, I went back to the pits, set my sag, installed the purple power band, tightened the sprocket bolts, and had a blast.

The more you are able to ride on a track with some jumps the better off you will be. I raced from the age of 4 until I was 17 and then got out of the sport for 4 years. The first couple of rides back I was timid about jumping but now it's like I never skipped a beat.

Airick wrote:

Back when I raced 80s I always wondered if the fast kids that were doing all the doubles had tracks, or at least a few decent jumps at home to practice on? My practice area was a flat field and some trails, so on race day I would only do the smallest doubles, if any at all.

What's the consensus, did you guys have practice tracks, or did you just show up and send it?

Monk wrote:

I had jack shit but a corner track. I was (and still am) slow to learn and clean new jumps. I know what I need to do, just takes me a while to get comfortable doing it. But, I'm dam friggin good at corners which ultimately transferred over well to offroad...

Yep, and that's why I don't race mx anymore, only harescrambles. No where to practice mx, I'd be a hazard if I tried again. Gotta think the lack of place to practice mx has contributed to smaller turnouts, but larger numbers in gncc type events.