Multi-time off-road champion, Steve Hatch, has joined MotoUSA.com to offer some of the many insights under his helmet on how to make dirt bikes go fast. His regular columns here are supplemental to his all-inclusive website, www.stevehatchracing.com where members can find fresh content every week including high-def video on all aspects of off-road racing. Keep your eyes peeled every month for a new speed secret from Steve and his wife, Denise. If you're as impatient as we are, go to their website to soak up as much know-how as possible.
Preparation
Steve Hatch has been winning off-road races for two decades, and his wife, Denise, has been right alongside providing assistance. The duo has morphed into the role of educators and are offering riding tips for all levels of riders.
After a successful 18-year off-road racing career, I have learned from first hand experience what does and doesn't work in riding and racing a motorcycle. I can tell you mistakes you make on a motorcycle hurt a whole lot worse than mistakes you make in other sports.
In transitioning from racing to mentoring off-road riders and racers, I have compiled 25 years of motorcycle do's and don'ts to help off-road enthusiast to be safer, faster and be more successful at any realm of riding or racing they want to do, from beginner to pro.
MotorcycleUSA has asked me to offer my speed secrets to you, so let's start from the beginning. That would be the fundamentals. Even pro riders have to work on the fundamentals. Greats such as Ricky Carmichael often revisit and work on fundamentals because they are the basis to all riding and speed.
The Number 1 thing is preparation in the areas of riding skills, bike prep, body prep and mental prep. Many riders can make the mistake of just focusing on one or two of these areas, but not all of them. I believe they are all equally important. Some require more emphasis at different riding levels, but all must be addressed. Here is how I would rate the four areas of preparation based on riding habits:
For the rider who rides just for leisure or fun:
1. Riding skill
2. Bike prep
3. Body prep
4. Mental prep
For the novice, taking riding a bit more seriously and wanting to get better:
1. Riding skill
2. Body prep
3. Bike prep
4. Mental prep
For the experienced or pro: (I am assuming that the riders skill and bike prep are both excellent)
1. Mental prep
2. Body prep
3. Riding skill
4. Bike prep
Bike prep:
Bike prep takes plenty of shop time to get the machine in the best condition possible, but it also requires time in the saddle to figure out what works and what doesn't for your needs.
It's about cleaning the bike, checking all the nuts and bolts, knowing the hardware is solid, knowing what the bike needs for the terrain it's about to handle, motor modifications, and suspension and handlebars testing to make the bike fit the rider. All of this is important because you would not go to the shoe store and buy running shoes that are five sizes to big would you? No way! Yet, I see it all the time, a rider will not set up his or her bike to fit them if they are tall or short, etc.
I believe the bike set-up should be an extension of the rider. Basic things like all the levers need to fit your hand placement, and brake/shift levers at the correct height for the size of your boots and riding position on the bike. My bike prep skills use to be horrendous! I had some great teammates, Rodney Smith and Randy Hawkins, who showed me how to prep my bike and how to make sure it was going to finish races! Like the old saying goes, "You can't finish first if you don't finish!"
Body prep:
Serious racers have intense workout regimens, but even if you don't compete at the top level, getting your body ready for the abuse of riding and racing is still important.
The cardio, strength and flexibility training, with equal time spent on each. My wife, Denise, and I train our riders with specific heart rates based on age and resting heart rate. It is just as important to train the body how to use stored fat as fuel as it is to train the body to use glycogen as fuel. The heart must be trained in cardio. Only riders who race, however, should train at heart rates above cardio, which are redline anaerobic rates. Anaerobic training prepares the body for being stuck in a mud whole and pushing and pulling without passing out and recovering quickly after getting back on the bike. This is a tricky area because if you're training too long and too often in these redlines it breaks the body down and recovery becomes difficult. Recovery is essential for the body to handle the stress of racing and training hard.
The strength part of the body prep can come from many things like lifting weights strategically so as not to produce arm pump on a bike or using yoga, Pilates or specific exercises to add core stabilization and balance. Some of the top racers and riders have done a great deal of trials riding because this helps core stabilization and balance to be light on a big bike.
Flexibility gives the muscles, tendons and ligaments pliability. This reduces the rate of injury in all sports, especially dirt bikes because of the nature of the beast! Flexibility can be added through stretching or yoga. Denise teaches our riders yoga techniques and heals injury through specific yoga therapy - realigning the body to its optimal blueprint for healing. Many professional sports teams have adopted yoga programs for athletes because not only does it give the flexibility, but also strength and mental focus. Body prep becomes more important as the levels of riding go up because higher levels of fitness are needed to handle the bike and to ride and race hard for large amounts of time.
Practicing the basics, even if you think you don't need to anymore, will give you a solid base for expanding additional skills.
I believe that 80% of riding is starting, stopping and braking, because this is what we do the most. The rest is the technical stuff: rocks, roots, logs, off-camber, ruts, jumps, whoops, etc. When I first start teaching riders how to ride better it doesn't matter if they are a complete beginner or a pro. I have seen time and time again that all levels of riders can improve on these three areas. If I can get a rider to increase their skill in this trio, their overall speed and safety increases the most. I have had the privilege to work with some of the best riders in the world and I always found that we can improve these areas!
When you first start riding you can just learn the basics, but as you advance you will have to start working on all of your riding skills. As you get to pro level with more speed, you need to have all areas of your riding skill polished! I also see many riders don't like to work on their weaknesses, so they don't. You can make major advances when you go to work on what you are not good at! I worked on my weaknesses until they became my strengths! Denise and I have seen such a need for this knowledge that we combined our career knowledge and spent one year developing and refining these key riding skills and designed a how-to virtual riding clinic on our website. We have put all of this information into videos and documents offered on
www.stevehatchracing.com .
Mental prep:
Keeping the right frame of mind is critical to success. Steve envisions the entire race before it even starts. He says not to ignore the power of positive thinking.
Being in the right frame of mind on a bike is important. More so when the speeds are higher and risk is greater. I trained with Dr. Jeff Spencer (Lance Armstrong's right-hand man) for a few years of my career. Dr. Spencer use to tell me that if my mind wasn't present in my practice and I couldn't get it there, to hang it up for the day because that is when you run the risk of getting hurt. I can tell you, in race mode when you aren't mentally focused you are lucky if you loose the race, and unlucky if you get hurt because the risk of injury is far greater when you are not present and focused. The top athletes will always say the mental is the most important. Michael Jordan says it best by claiming other players had more skill, could jump higher, and shoot better, but no one was stronger mentally in the game of basketball than he. This is where the confidence and conviction comes from that is needed to be a champion. The mental focus is also needed to keep your mind in the game and on the track. Winners race the track, not the competition. This is part of mental focus.
The other part of mental prep is to do visualization work. Before races I would visualize getting the holeshot 1000 times before I ever got to the start of the race. For 99% of the time, if I did my homework on and off the bike, it worked, which led to my nickname, "Holeshot Hatch." I did the visualization work by walking tracks and then visualizing myself racing them smooth, fast and mistake free. Racers who live in areas that are snow covered can do the work through visualization when they don't have the ability to get on the bike. A great deal of racers underestimate the power of the mind and it's the most important piece in winning!
For more in-depth information, check out
www.stevehatchracing.com , and stay tuned for more on www.motorcycle-usa.com.
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