Archive for November, 2009:
Visualization – Mental Game part 1
Most motorsports are a combination of skill and confidence. Sure, skill is an essential ingredient, but having confidence plays a big part in racing. When JS7 first turned pro, many thought he was arrogant. However, this “confident” front helped turn James into what he is today. So, how does one get this confidence? Visualization. Seeing and knowing that you can win is half the race.
A good place to explain visualization is on the start. This is where YOU determine whether the race is going to be easy or difficult for yourself. Sure, having quick reflexes and good starting technique are going to help, but having that confidence could be the difference between holeshot and midpack. Okay, this is where it starts to get a little weird, but it works. Close your eyes and see yourself getting the holeshot from your perspective, through your goggles. Think about making clean shifts and staying straight out of the gate. Then put yourself in a spectators place; see yourself getting the holeshot from their perspective.
This gives you the confidence needed to get that start. If you say to yourself, “Holy crap, there are 39 other guys here and they are all fast…getting a good start is going to be impossible”, you are setting yourself up for failure. The visual aspect and confidence aspect go hand and hand; if you can see yourself crossing the finish line first, you have already beat 80% of the competition. I remember a few years back, I went to Seminole Tribe Motocross to race the Loretta Area Qualifier. At the time, I was in C class and there were so many riders, they had to have 2 heats. This was my first qualifier and I psyched myself out. I even had lap times in practice that were just as good as the top 5 guys.
However, I kept thinking that I was going to get caught up in traffic and bottlenecked. What happened? I got bottlenecked and came out of the first turn, mid pack. It played over and over in my mind and that mindset was set into motion on track. Motocross has a lot to do with riding technique and training, but if don’t have that confidence, your mind is the only keeping you from reaching the next level. Tomorrow I’ll give a little look at what Tiger Woods does for mental training….it’s pretty crazy, but it works.
Corners with Ruts – Reader Request
Turns are where races are won and lost. The G.O.A.T. has always preached to practice corners. When you can jump the same stuff as the rest of your class, your only option for faster lap times are corners. However, throw in some ruts and you have a pretty tricky situation to deal with. It may seem like a daunting task, but you can actually use the ruts to go faster.
As with any corner, you want to approach the corner at a wide, arcing angle. This allows you to really lean into the corner so you can lay the bike down and really commit. If there are multiple ruts in the corner, it is always a good choice to pick on that hasn’t been used as much. When you get used to the main line, the rut gets chopped out from slower riders and it gets too deep.
Once you have your rut picked out, you want to make sure you have the bike under control. Squeeze the bike with your legs and keep the elbows up. When you get closer to the rut, braking becomes more important. A good balance between both front and rear brake should keep you straight for the rut. However, the more comfortable you become with the turn, you can use more front brake to get the front end to dive into the rut. When you transition from standing to sitting, it should all be one motion. Get off the brakes, sit close to the gas cap, inside leg out and get on the gas….one, smooth motion.
Now that you are in the turn/rut, you want to keep your vision ahead. Don’t look right in front of the fender or you’re going to start making mistakes. You want to look further ahead in the turn and at the apex of the corner, you can even look at the end of the turn. Since ruts can catch your feet and throw you off balance, be sure to keep your inside foot up. You can dab you foot if needed, but only if you absolutely have to.
If you feel your front tire wandering a bit, drag the front brake SLIGHTLY to keep it in the rut. This puts more weight on the front tire and keeps it in the rut. Since you have that guide of the rut, you can get on the gas a little harder than normal. You shouldn’t stab the clutch and have the throttle wide open, but a good, hearty handful of throttle will do the job. Don’t forget to put weight on the outside foot peg throughout the corner and you’ll be through the turn before you know it!
Leg Workout
Your body is like a pyramid. If you have a strong base, then overall you will be a strong person. That is why it is important to have strong legs. Your leg muscles are much, much larger than your biceps, triceps and chest. They can take more abuse for longer. Let’s say you hardly ever strength train your legs. After riding on a rough track, your legs will begin to get tired. You won’t be able to grip the bike as hard; the bike is going to dance under you. That’s when trouble starts; you get headshake and your upper body turns to jelly and so on.
Try this out:
Warm Up:
Light Weight Squats: 15 squats
Light Weight Lunges: 15 each leg
Stretch for about 10 minutes
Workout:
Front Squats (Place the bar in front of your neck): 12, 10, 8
Lunges: 12, 10, 8
Wall Squats (Find a wall and lean against it with your thighs parallel to the ground): 30 seconds, 3x
Calf Raises
You get the point. It is crucial to have strong legs so you maintain your form and keep the bike under control. If you have seen my previous leg workout, try this one for a few weeks and you should see a big difference in not only your riding, but your overall strength and cardio.
Cold Weather Hydration
It is finally getting to be a reasonable temperature here in Florida. It said it was 74o in my truck today. For the rest of the country, you guys have probably been feeling this season called “Fall” a lot sooner than I have. In Florida, it goes from hot to cold, back to hot. Everyone knows when you are sweating a lot; you need to drink a lot. But, what do you do for cold weather? Even if your pits aren’t like waterfalls, hydration is more crucial in cold weather than you think.
In hot weather, your body naturally needs to cool itself off by perspiration. This perspiration is water and a bunch of other minerals that your body secretes. It is a lot easier to get dehydrated in hot weather because you do sweat so much more. However, when it is colder out, you do not feel that need to drink as much because you are not as hot. You should be wearing long sleeves and long pants (depending on how cold it is…in layers as well). The layers insulate the body and heat it up, producing conditions much like regular, warm weather.
A good rule of thumb is to drink about 12 fl. Oz 2 hours before training and then another 12, 30 minutes before. It’s a good idea to keep drinking during exercise every 10 – 15 minutes. Remember, if you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated. If you look around the pro pits during SX, all of the riders have a water bottle and they sip on it all day long.
Get in the habit of this because you will be able to train harder and longer because you don’t have cotton mouth. A solid starting point for your hydration is to drink your 8 glasses of water a day. This will ensure that you have plenty liquid in you. If you replace your caffeinated sodas or energy drinks with a bottle of water, you will be glad you did at the end your moto.
Soakin’ it up
Everyone wants to scrub like JS7. He makes it look effortless and fluid; making the rest of us mortals to think that we can do it. However, you don’t run before you can crawl, so you have to take it slow. Most of the time, people just try to turn the bars on the face of the jump and get the back end out. That does nothing for your lap time and it only looks cool in the Beginner class. So, where do you start? The best way to stay lower on jumps is to soak it up.
This is a hell of a lot easier than the scrub. Scrubbing takes commitment, skill and a lot of speed. If you don’t have any of these, try to soak jumps up first. The first thing you want to do is approach the face of the jump with more speed than normal. This gives you plenty of momentum and drive to get over the jump without coming up short. As you get closer to the face, you want to be in attack position, but your body needs to be further away from the bike as possible.
As you feel the suspension compress, stay in your “further” attack position. Just as you get the front wheel in front of the lip, you want to bend your knees and elbows; throwing your chest towards the bars and hips to the seat. Don’t slam your body into the bike; you want this to be one controlled, quick motion. When you throw your weight into the bike, the rebounding suspension is met with your body weight. Your weight sends downward momentum to counteract the upward, rebounding suspension. It sounds more complicated than it really is. This takes timing and getting use to. This works really well on jumps where scrubbing isn’t necessary and it can save you a lot of hang time once you get it down, no pun intended. Try it on singles to feel it out.
Training with more efficiency
What’s up guys? I took the weekend off and I’m ready for the week. Sorry the articles have a bit lack luster, but school was bogging me down a bit. Today I was really thinking about heart rates. I have never really thought about using your heart rate to train until I did that “simulation” training article last week. I thought I would take it a bit further and break down the process to finding your prime moto zone for your heart.
One of my first articles was the basics of interval training and how to find your heart rate zones. The same Karvonen Formula still applies to this subject. The formula goes like this:
Target Heart Rate = ((max HR − resting HR) × %Intensity) + resting HR
Let’s take for example a 20 yr. old who has a resting heart rate of 60 bpm (beats per minute). To find you maximum HR (heart rate), simple take 220 minus your age. So, the 20 yr old’s max HR would be:
220 – 20 = 200
Plug this into the formula and you get your zones. For the intensity you need, use decimals (example: 60% = .6).
Now that you have your HR zones, you can begin to set up your workouts accordingly. If you know your average HR during you motos, you can train in this zone as long as your normal race is, or even longer. This puts your cardio system and body in that range of intensity.
A good way to switch things up is to do a day of circuit training in that zone, take short rest, then do the circuit one or two more times. Then the next day, do some interval cardio. You could have higher than moto HR range intervals and recover with lower than moto HR range. This gives you an opportunity to train way more efficiently than just spinning on a stationary bike for an hour. You stress your body in a very similar way to riding and this results in a stronger and healthier racer.
