JC had a lot to learn when he first showed up for two days of DHMA. That isn't to say that he's got it all down pat by now, but the course was a perfect starting point.
In the months following the Holiday Season, I found myself on more than one occasion relishing the fact that I didn't have to return to a daily grind of university lectures and countless hours of studying. The working life has its drawbacks, certainly, but I've never been one who relished in a night of homework. After a much anticipated graduation last spring I swore off the institutionalized learning and embraced my future as a working stiff.
Landing the MotorcycleUSA gig was just what I had in mind, riding dirt bikes all day, trying out new products, the works. Well, the powers that be had some other ideas which I found out about soon enough. When I did get to ride with my new cohorts, they quickly evaluated my moto mojo, or relative lack thereof, and set about improving the situation. I could get around a track well enough, and I even picked up a local 250cc Beginner class championship awhile back, but my style and overall speed really wasn't anything to write home about. While it's important to have a novice's perspective, stronger riding skills are necessary to fully evaluate our test bikes.
We contacted former AMA National champion, Donnie Hansen, to see if he could work me into one of his popular two-day MX schools, which he gladly did. I've been getting schooled on the track for as long as I've been riding them, but this experience was on a whole different level. Instead of taking a back-row seat at the school of hard rocks, I would receive detailed instruction on riding techniques and be critiqued first-hand as myself and the rest of the class took to the track for controlled practice sessions.
At the time I was recovering from the brutal awakening otherwise known as birth in November of 1982, Donnie was coming off his most dominant season ever as a racer. He won the 1981 Motocross des Nations alongside Chuck Sun, Johnny O'Mara and Danny LaPorte, and then wrapped up the 250cc Supercross and outdoor National titles in '82. After an injury the following season cost him a chance to defend his titles, DH took up coaching as a way to stay involved and to give back to the sport.
"I've been through it and I know what it takes," he says. "I just thought I could communicate how to excel in the sport."
Learning the very basics was the first step to achieving motocross dominance. Body positioning, grip and riding stance were all discussed before ever hitting the track.
He's done well in that respect, having now taught for 22 years at
Donnie Hansen's Motocross Academy and as a personal coach. Some of his more notable clients over the years include Mike LaRocco,
Travis Preston and
Andrew Short. And let's not forget to mention his own offspring, son Josh Hansen, who narrowly lost the 2005 125cc East Coast Supercross title in a tie-breaker. Donnie usually hosts roughly 30 sessions per year in the form of three- or four-day camps held in both California and Colorado. The two-day seminar I attended wouldn't be quite as extensive, but it was sure to be a blast anyway.
All it takes to get signed up for a DHMA course is an enrollment fee ($275) and then show up ready to roll at 8:30 a.m. prepped as though it were race day. I made the drive down to Lake Elsinore the day before, setting up camp in a shady hotel not far from the track. Despite my best efforts at finding Lake Elsinore Motocross Park the next morning, I had reverted to my college ways and was the last person to show up at Elsinore's intermediate track. A quick self-introduction was all I had time for before having to strap it on and meet with the other dozen riders to get things started.
All eyes were on me as I rolled our
CRF250R project bike away from the van and took the final spot in the back row of bikes and riders. The group was pretty evenly split between small and big bikes with several 80cc machines on hand, including a trio of brothers, and one KTM 65 piloted by Darrell White. Despite his minuscule size, White turned out to be one of the fastest in the bunch.
Donnie opened the class by covering the basics of body positioning, including gripping the handlebars, foot placement and proper elbow height. Little did I know that all were interconnected, and I was feeling more stylish by the end of the demonstration alone. Before the information could slip from our minds, we put it to use as we practiced braking. Using barrels to form a loop, we circled the pit area in an attempt to stick our eyeballs against the inside of our goggles. Grabbing a nearby KTM 300 XC, Donnie blasted the big 2-stroke back and forth across the parking lot, showcasing his championship-winning style. Our motley crew of students then took to the track for some actual left- and right-handers under Donnie's watchful eye. Team Green rider, Michael Hall was there aboard his '06 KX250F to show us the proper way to do things.
Don't screw this up, Michael... The Team Green rider was an important part of the seminar providing actual riding demonstration to illustrate the messages Donnie was trying to get across.
As the more fatigued of our group retired to the pits for lunch, myself included, a few riders tried to squeeze in a few more laps only to be cut short due to an unfortunate accident. Two of the three young brothers collided atop the largest tabletop on the track sending one of them over the edge and toppling down the embankment, snapping his femur. The boys' dad loaded them all up for a trip to the hospital, substantially decreasing the size of our roster. Munching grimly on sack lunches, the rest of us got to know one another a bit while the ambulance crew did their thing.
The more I got to know my fellow classmates over the next day and a half, it became clear that motocross schools aren't solely for the race-oriented SoCal squad like I had originally suspected. A couple guys were active racers, but more prominent were the occasional weekend warriors and casual riders like Darren Sheets who simply wanted to learn the basics of motocross in order to become a better all-around rider. Riding a KTM 525 EXC, Darren was looking for ways to increase his level of safety as much as he was berm-blasting secrets.
Gunnlaugur Karlson was participating at
DHMA as part of his winter vacation from Reykjavik, Iceland. The 16-year-old "Gully" had borrowed a KTM 125 SX for the trip and was one of the few who races competitively on a regular basis. For regular racers, the actual amount of riding time afforded in our practice sessions probably wasn't all that taxing, but it was enough to sufficiently convert my arms to jelly by the day's end.
After lunch we spent a couple more hours working on weighting the outside peg in flat, slick corners and controlling rear-end drift. That was followed by lining up at the starting gate and spinning off the cement pad. The goal, of course, was not to spin out, but of all the insights I discovered during the moto-course, my starts definitely emerged as the wimpiest of my racing repertoire.
Gully, our Icelandic import, found that America's motocross scene is significantly advanced compared to his home country. He was as eager to learn as the rest of the students.
Afterward, a few of us stood around and bullshitted with each other, bolstering camaraderie. Ever the gracious host, DH hung out and answered all of our pertinent questions before taking his leave. Despite the good company, I eventually had to check out for the night as well, and check in to another turd of a hotel.
The 16 hours between the end of our first day and the beginning of our second was just enough for the soreness to take full effect. As I'm sure he's experienced a thousand times, DH utilized the first portion of our second day to cover proper stretching for the major muscles we had abused the day before. The early warm-up was a welcome addition to the itinerary seeing how I hadn't put in a full day of moto in quite some time.
Keeping in mind the lessons from the previous day, Gully, I and the rest of the gang took off for a few warm-up laps. Donnie quickly waved us off to get the lessons started for the day. We jumped right into it, literally as the first thing on our assignment sheet was the big tabletop that had already claimed one femur.
Jumping is another of my weak points, the primary one that I had set off to improve, actually, so I paid special attention to DH's words of wisdom. Even though the tabletop was fairly large, it was safe and easy to clear, which I had been doing regularly. Still, I looked like a moron while doing it and Donnie taught us a couple of ways to tackling flight-bound obstacles depending on approach speed.
Hilderbrand was getting the hang of the whole jumping thing in only two days. Imagine what he'd be doing after a week of DH magic?
Because I wasn't having trouble with overshooting my landings, I spent my time practicing the preloading method, using my legs to compress the suspension and get greater lift to clear the obstacle. By the end of the day, however, my speed had increased to where I was performing the opposite and using my legs to soak up jump faces, limiting the suspension's rebounding action. Both styles are useful for differing scenarios, and I was impressed by the amount of confidence I had gained with such little practice. Having an old pro in your corner does that for you.
Having bested the challenges of gated starts, braking, railing corners and clearing doubles, the final obstacle before reaching the finish line was a nefarious set of whoops that had been hammering me every time I circled the track. Michael went blazing through a half-dozen times, making it look a lot smoother than in reality. Always having liked whoop sections, though never good at them, I raised my hand and volunteered to be one of the first to provide an attempt. My first few runs were pretty rocky as I tried to focus on weight positioning and entry speed, the latter of which was my biggest problem. Wallowing through the slick right-hander immediately before, I was struggling to pull a tall enough gear as I hit the first bump. Little Darrel White emerged as my personal motivator as he pummeled the tops of the whoops alongside me on a bike that could almost fit between the damn things.
Everyone can benefit from a few pointers here and there. A motocross school like DHMA gives more helpful hints in one dose than you'd likely receive all year at the racetrack.
I ended the day with a few decent runs, enough to satisfy my own goals. Putting in a few extra laps and trying to put everything together was enough to finish off my arms and send me back to the van. Now that I had the tools at my disposal, all that was left was to keep practicing and force myself to focus on the little details.
Going into the seminar, I was already capable of performing in my mind just about any technique that could have been discussed. Having read how-to's and riding tips for years, I can explain almost everything from the basic attack stance to FMX-quality whips with decent accuracy, but demonstrating them is another story. The real benefit of attending a motocross school is having a skilled veteran take the time to explain and demonstrate techniques in person. This kind of instruction is absorbed much more effectively than trying to digest a page of informational text and photos from a magazine.
"It's a matter of taking the information and practicing it," says DH. "Don't think that you're too good to listen."
Animated and enthusiastic, Donnie makes learning fun. He also speaks fluent braaap.
Due to class size and demographic, the DHMA seminar that I attended was geared at less experienced riders, which was perfect for my needs. It seemed like some of the faster guys probably didn't get as much out of our two days with novices, youths and a range of different machinery thrown into the mix. The three- or four-day seminars might be of higher value for experienced riders looking for those miniscule gains. Even better would be one of Donnie's one-on-one instruction sessions.
Warming weather at home in Oregon has me looking forward to the first days of open track time. I enjoyed a class or two during my tenure at Southern Oregon University, but never before has homework been so appealing. Consisting of ripping off starts, fine tuning my braking technique and attempting obstacles previously out of my skill range, practicing the methods learned at Donnie Hansen's Motocross Academy has given me a new outlook on after-hours studying.
Those of you suffering from tardiness and absenteeism should seriously consider enrolling in a DHMA seminar. It's not often that one of Donnie's students elect to skip class.
For more info on the schools including bike rental, lodging and scheduled camps, check out Donnie's website at
www.dhma.com.
Give us your thought on DHMA and other MX schools here.
