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Making the Connection
 A
Sportbike Northwest 2009 Preview
3 time AMA superbike champ, Reg Pridmore will be one of the
featured speakers during Sportbike Northwest. One of the three
seminars he will be teaching is called 'Making Contact.' Knowing
that Reg isn't all that interested in speaking to extraterrestrials
we thought we'd ask him just what that seminar was going to be all
about. This is what he came back with.
One of the ways I challenge my students is on their
consistency—or lack of it. I’ve known a lot of my students for a
long time, and some of them can get around the track very fast. But
one of the things that makes me faster, and safer, is my
consistency. I define consistency as the ability to repeat a certain
exercise properly, over and over. You should constantly critique
yourself and strive to be better. Don’t repeat bad habits.
Consistency doesn’t come naturally. It’s learned. For instance,
students might string together three or four good corners using the
correct line, weight shift, and throttle control—but how many of
them could do five out of five perfectly? How many of them could do
the same corner perfectly three times in a row? It’s not as easy as
it sounds.
Discipline is one of the keys to consistency. Being a good racer
requires lots of discipline: the discipline to train and stay in
race form, the discipline to do what it takes on the racetrack, and
the discipline to stay as safe as possible. It takes discipline to
hold back rather than try to pass when the stakes are too high. It
takes discipline to stay focused and tell yourself: “This is where I
need to be, in this gear, and this is where I begin my turn.” You
need discipline to hit your shift and brake markers at the same
place each lap. When you go beyond these markers, you do so
deliberately, as a means to study the effects. In this way,
discipline provides a foundation from which to experiment—a path to
self-knowledge. If you are disciplined enough to know your exact
cornering line, then you can begin to experiment with a second or
third line. In a race, this provides a means to pass or outwit your
competition.
On the street, discipline means positioning yourself in a way
that makes you visible to other vehicles at all times. It means
always maintaining the right rpms to accelerate out of a bad
situation. It means constantly painting a picture of what might
happen around the next corner. For example, in a blind right-hander,
you need to imagine the biggest, ugliest thing possible waiting for
you around that bend. This way, you can meet any challenge that’s
ahead.
Want more? Join us for Sportbike Northwest July 29-Aug2.
CLICK HERE for
more details.
SR!/Spring 09 |
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