"How to Practice"

RIDING MOTO’S- When a rider is young, and not at the point where he or she has decided to try and make motocross a career, just going to the track and riding haphazard moto’s isn’t so bad. But once motocross becomes one’s central focus, I feel there are reasons to time your practice moto’s. First of all, for time on the bike. A serious rider must ride at least 3 or 4 day’s a week, and once they are in good enough shape, and at the high intermediate or pro level, as much as 5 day’s sometimes (this includes race day’s). A good recovery drink like EnduroxR4, and a proper diet, will help recovery tremendously. The goal should be to ride two strong 45-60 minute moto’s, 2-3 day’s per week, without killing yourself. The other day’s you can concentrate on drills or shorter "sprint" moto’s. Each day should be started with 5-10 minutes of stretching and warm-up exercises, then a short 10 or 15 minute "warm-up" moto. This allows the rider’s body to warm-up, loosen up and prepare for the harder moto’s ahead. Also, if you get arm pump, this will greatly reduce it. If you haven’t been riding long moto’s, start with shorter one’s, say 10-20 minutes, then increase the duration as you get fit. If you ride short moto’s do 3 or 4, instead of two long ones; this will give you the time on the bike.

The reason’s for timing moto’s are super important. By timing them, it makes you more committed to press on, to work through things like thirst, lack of focus, riding tired, sweat on your goggle lenses, sore hands, arm pump, track conditions and to quit worrying about the "social scene" at the tailgate of your truck. Let em talk while you are working and getting better. Remember no excuses. You must learn to focus when tired, and you will find that when your body is tired, it tries to become more efficient, more relaxed and you will find things like missing bumps and proper line selection out of necessity. Plus, if you get really thirsty, or start to "bonk", you will realize the importance of hydration and nutrition. Again, practice days are the HARD days, and race day should be the EASY day.

Also, by timing moto’s, you can track your progress. If a month ago you were struggling to ride two 20-minute moto’s, and now your ripping during them, try increasing them 5 more minutes each. During these "endurance" moto’s, you should ride at about 80%-90% effort, fast enough to work hard and keep the speed up, but not at the limit or on the edge. Also be sure to drink and eat something before, during and after you have finished. Once you get to the point you know you are strong for two 45-minute moto’s, imagine how confident you will feel on raceday.

On the alternate day’s from endurance moto’s, you can do shorter, faster moto’s. One way is to line up on the start, get prepared, do a GOOD start, and sprint one hard fast lap at 100% effort. Then return back to the start, rest a minute or two, and then repeat the process again. You can do this several times. Don’t worry if you make mistakes at first, by practicing this way, you will start to develop the first lap speed that is so important. After a while, you can increase to 2 lap sprints. Also you get start practice. Always do QUALITY starts just like you would on race day, this is the ONLY way starts should be practiced, perfect.

You should consider having a log or chart to track your successes and failures. Make notes of how you feel, what went right, what went wrong, what you ate or drank, this helps you reflect on the day, a way to look at weeks or months as a whole, and really just to keep learning and experimenting and progressing.

DRILLS- There is two basic types of drills we teach at the 5 Magics MX Schools. The first are "Stationary Drills", where you put your bike on the stand, and you can learn and train your sub-conscience mind movements and techniques.

The other of course is "Action Drills". These are designed for improving certain techniques and finding new levels of speed through repetition. Every single technique or track section can be learned this way. Repetition is the mother of skill, do it enough, and you will get good. Look at flat track or speedway riders. Boy do they haul going left, but are they as fast to the right? Look at golfers; drill city, driving, irons, short game, sand traps, putting, and all the many little things that go into making a good golfer. In motocross, we have starts, cornering, (flat, berms, ruts, off-camber, sweepers), jumping, whoops, rhythms, use of the controls, body positioning, attachment points, pivot points, proper grip, passing drills and many other things that make up a complete motocrosser. I don’t have enough time or space here to list all these drills in detail, that’s what schools are for, but there are circle drills, oval drills, jump drills, whoops drills, start drills and more. These can be practiced on "off days", or used for warm-up’s and cool downs before and after your moto’s. You must know what you’re practicing, and you must practice it correctly.

LINE SELECTION- Yes, line selection. When you are practicing day after day, it can become monotonous and boring, especially if you are only riding at one track, which is a problem in itself. So the best way to cure this and stay stimulated is always practicing different lines, goods ones, fast ones, passing lines, weird lines, bad lines, slow lines, inside lines, outside line, middle lines and combination lines. Learn to move the bike around, try to get where you can put it anywhere it needs to go at any time. This will keep it challenging, and you will learn to ride ALL the lines, and become better at passing at the same time. The only really bad line is the one you never try. The track is your "canvas" and you are the "artist", now go out there and paint a picture, the question is, are you a DiVinci or Van Gough?