by Mark DeGross

Chicken Strip:
chick-en strip  [chick uh'n strip] noun
1. A thin slice of breastmeat from a chicken,  often baked or deep fried in batter.
2. The area on the side of a street motorcycle tire that is unused because the rider is afraid, ie chicken, to lean the bike over farther, using all of the tire.
Clearly my riding skills have improved, my chicken strips are nearly gone!

Maybe you were like me when I started riding sportbikes.   After every street ride, I would look at my tires and see if I was able to decrease the size of my chicken strips a bit.   More often than not, they stayed the same size, but occasionaly they would get smaller.  I thought that meant I was improving as a rider and I’m ashamed to admit, would subtly brag about it to my riding buddies.   Us males are so ego driven (you female riders are too), always wanting to brag about our recent accomplishments or conquests to a certain degree or another.  So having small or no chicken strips at all is often seen as trophy for us to display to the world and a chance for us to pat ourselves on our back.  How shallow, huh?  Now if you are honest enough to admit it, I’m betting you’ve banged your chest a few times as well.   However, I want to challenge that thinking and have you take a closer introspective look upon your riding.  If your chicken strips are small or non-existent, then you are using a good amount of lean angle.   You are risking much to be at those lean angles, especially if you are on the street vs. the track.  One small error and BAM, you’re surfing asphalt which typically will leave a mark.  So why use all that lean angle if you don’t have to?

Paradigm:
par·a·digm [par-uh-dahym, -dim] noun
Grammar
1. a set of forms all of which contain a particular element, especially the set of all inflected forms based on a single stem or theme.
2. a display in fixed arrangement of such a set, as boy,boy’s, boys, boys’.
3. an example serving as a model; pattern.
Synonyms
mold, standard; ideal, paragon, touchstone.
Maybe if you got out of the paradigm you’re stuck in you’d see things for how they really are.

Let me take my screw driver and turn a few clickers in your head to adjust your thinking, a paradigm shift if you would.  How about being the smoothest, safest, smartest rider of the group and still be the fastest by using the LEAST AMOUNT OF LEAN ANGLE needed, rather than scrubbing those tires to the edges?  ”What?  I can be all of those things without risking as much as I used to?”  I can hear many of you saying.  Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.  Believe it or not, they are not a contradiction at all.  Many of us started riding motorcycles on the dirt.  The technique and body position for cornering on a dirt bike is to push the bike underneath you.  Inside arm straight, out side arm bent, using the knobby tires and berms for grip.  As we began to ride street bikes, many of us didn’t break this habit.  As such, we are habitual on the street of doing the same.  However, on the street, we don’t have berms and there’s no such thing as knobbies for the street, so we end up using too much lean angle for our speed.  It rewards our ego though, because the high lean angles use up chicken strips, thus fooling us into thinking our riding skills are higher than they are.  Or maybe you didn’t grow up riding dirt bikes, but have quickly figured out that by pushing the bike underneath you uses up more chicken strips, thus giving you bragging rights to your friends and riding cohorts.  By whatever means you’ve arrived at this point,  I don’t mean to burst your bubble, its just not the optimal body position to ride a sportbike.

Ballast:
bal·last [bal-uh'st] noun
Grammar
1. Nautical – any heavy material carried temporarily or permanently in a vessel to provide desired draft and stability.
2. Aeronautics – something heavy, as bags of sand, placed in the car of a balloon for control of altitude and, less often, of attitude, or strategically placed in an aircraft to control the position of the center of gravity.
3. anything that gives mental, moral, or political stability orsteadiness: the ballast of a steady income.
4. gravel, broken stone, slag, etc., placed between and under the ties of a railroad to give stability, provide drainage, anddistribute loads.
In the past, lead was sometimes used as heavy ballast to help keep a ship steady.

Ever been on a spirited street ride or maybe at a track day and some “dude” just flat out paces you through the corners?  Then you get a chance to chat with him afterwards and notice his rear tire has noticeable chicken strips, wondering to your self, how the heck did he just do that without using as much tire as I am?  I’d wager that he is using his body as ballast, getting his upper body off  low and to the inside of the bike.  Just the opposite of what I described before in the dirt riding example.  By getting his upper body off the bike to the inside, not so much his lower body, he is actually pushing the bike more upright because his body is acting as ballast for the bike rider combo.  This adjusts the center of gravity for the combo, resulting in the rider not needing to use as much lean angle as other riders.  Less lean angle equals less risk equals more safety.  You get the picture.   A rider using this technique can use less lean angle, yet more speed or pace than other riders who push the bike underneath them.   When that break comes at the local latte stand, a quick comparison of tires shows the rider using his body as ballast has larger chicken strips than the other rider, yet he ran a faster pace and was safer by using less lean angle.  We’ve been teaching this method in our schools since inception in 2004 and many of you reading this know exactly what I’m getting at.  Its a great tool and skill to master that will pay dividends on both the street and the track.  Hence the title of this blog post…we need to get more riders to understand this concept.

In June 2011,  I was asked to help instruct a large group of municipal motorcycle policeman along with Chris Johnson of  Washington Motorcycle Safety Training.  We were brought in to help the officers with their high speed cornering techniques.  Moto-Cops are renown for their technical ability on these big bikes  to do slow speed 180° turns in one lane along with many other  low speed maneuvers.  After watching them perform these skills, it was quite obvious they were pushing the bike beneath them, which clearly was required to pull this off.  When it came time for them to work with us, many of the officers were still trying to push the bike underneath them, resulting in poor cornering speeds, frustration, and unnecessary risk.  Chris and I worked with them, explaining everything and more that I describe above.  After two days we were successful and the officers showed much  improved riding, comfort, corner speed, and confidence.  We look forward to going back to work with them again in 2012.  I use this experience as an example of the effectiveness of what we are teaching. It works, it’s more efficient, and it’s a safer way to corner.  I wish I could take credit for the technique, but I have to give props to Nick Ienatsch who wrote Sport Riding Techniques and is the Chief instructor at the Yamaha Champions School.   I can’t say enough great things about Nick’s teachings and I strongly encourage you to read his book as well as attend one his courses at the school.  The following video is a quick unscripted impromptu shoot we did from the day, giving a glimpse into what I’m discussing here. Thanks to Rey Sabado of Shobaby.com for the video and posting.

This may be a round about way of getting my point across, but truly, I want to see it come to fruition.  Nothing would make me smile bigger than to quietly be a part of a group ride and hear riders arguing who had bigger chicken strips while simultaneously  bragging who was quicker.  How’s that paradigm shift coming for you?  Got chicken strips?  I hope you do…if you want to keep improving them, come see us at one of our Performance Schools this year, where we teach this more in depth with our lean machine in our S3F – Smoother, Smarter, Safer . . . Faster training system.  Until then, ride safe and keep those chicken strips.

by Mark DeGross

A staff member and friend sent our staff a video today and it was so good, I just had to post.  Yes, its a commercial…albiet a bank in Taiwan, its more of a commercial for the passion that we have for riding and the sensation of living life it brings when we do.  Thanks Bill for sending this out and I hope the rest of you enjoy it as much as I did.

by Mark DeGross

The 2011 Supercross  season recently started and I can’t help but watch these riders in amazement of what they do.  Doubles, triples, blitzing the whoops section; they make it look all so easy with the mastery of control they have over their machines and bodies.  When I go ride, I struggle with bigger jumps, have never done a triple, and the last time I met a whoops section,  it bit me back bad enough requiring knee surgery and supplied many of my buddies with gut busting humor from the not so gratifying pictures on the internet of my carnage, compliments of a friend.  I’ve only been riding in the dirt off and on since 2005 and my talent level on a dirt bike pales in comparison to these young studs. Stewart, Dungey, Villapoto, Reed and others; they are like gods on dirt bikes, doing things the rest of us only dream about or dare attempt after a few beers!  However, as someone whose parents and grandparents ingrained in my psyche to form the belief system that there’s nothing in the world I can’t do, I wrestle as to why these guys are so dang good and how they would school me like a child if I ever were to have the chance to be on a track with them.  I know what unbelievable raw ability looks like…having played Division 1 NCAA football; I’ve seen guys that had the gift of speed and agility to perform like no others.  Yet, they’ve also developed that talent for years and years.  Somehow my anal retentive mind wonders if there’s a correlation of time and talent.  These Supercross & Motocross riders have been riding since before they could walk and have had their young butts on the saddle of a dirtbike for eons.  My thoughts ponder the hours of practice these iron horse jockeys have put in and I begin to compare that to the grueling hours any other top athlete pours into their sport or for that matter, anyone who is a master at their profession.  My thoughts are not purely my own…let me digress for a few moments to explain.

Dungey Airs it Out

I’ve also been bouncing between a few good reads: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance by Boris Groysberg and Outliers – The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.  Groysberg’s focus is challenging the myth that professional talent in the workplace is portable and transfers with the individual.  While Gladwell’s intent is pretty much surmised by the point that someone becomes a master at something when they’ve put in 10,000 hours honing their skills and knowledge at it.  Both authors write persuasively about their premises and I want to tie Outliners into my own thoughts first.

Like I began in the opening paragraph, the current crop of top Supercross riders have sown in a massive amount of seat time on their dirt bikes.  How many for each?  Certainly a hard number to quantify, but I’m betting it’s around Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule.  To give you a feel for this, 2080 hours comprises a full 52 week, 8 hour a day work year…so one can safely say after 5 years, the time would be met.  A more realistic approach that is laid out in Outliers, is 3 hours a day for 10 years.  Hmmm…these young dirt hounds begin around age 4 to 6 and by 14, 15, & 16 we see them emerging as top riders who in just a few short years after their debuting, have the shot at being crowned a world champion Supercross rider.  Imagining mom and pops dragging their boy to the local mx track for a few hours each day along with entering many a race in the process, it looks like Malcolm’s rule isn’t far off…but is his theory unconventional or just common knowledge packaged into a book for the rest of us to nod and agree?  I believe it to be the latter.  For years I’ve listened to my mentors and teachers pound into my head; seat time, seat time, seat time…that’s how you’ll get better Mark.  Now I find myself encouraging students and friends to do the same.  There is only so much information you can cram into your cranium and after that, you gotta get down and dirty with application, trial and error, success followed by failure then re-applied with wisdom from what you’ve learned which will eventually lead to talent or what I would say is a mastery of skills.   And after all, isn’t that what we deem talent to be; a set of skills that have been mastered and the ability to perform those when needed?  I believe it to be so!  Thus these young riders are a result of ability coupled with lots of long hard hours of practice.  Or as what my coaches always drilled into me…paying the price!  Pay the full price, so you can reap the full rewards that success can offer!  These riders are doing just that.  Riding a dirt bike so well, at such high rates of speed, against gnarly terrain…on top of that, getting paid the big dollas that they deserve.  Hard work has paid off for them and it can for all of us too…perhaps not in the form of high grossing salaries, but in the noticeable improvement of our lap times and ease at which we do them.  Seat time, seat time, seat time, put in your seat time…

Mr. Groysberg challenges the myth that talent is transferrable in the workplace.  He illustrates that a star employee of one company, when lured away and hired at another company will NOT produce the same stellar results at the new company, even though the commensurate salary and expectation is that they will.  Only a very small percentage do, who are the masters at their profession and have put in the ‘time’ having learned to recognize what changes they need to make to produce top results in a similar, but yet different environment and situation.  One can read his book to understand his point in depth, but he shows a good case study where this employment transfer phenomenon happens regularly in the financial institutions of New York City.  So if Groysberg is correct, why have and do we see riders switch the “color” of bike they are riding, yet still produce smilar, if not identical results?  Carmichael, Reed, & Stewart are three big names that come to mind. Because these top riders have paid their “10,000 hours” price and it really doesn’t matter what brand of bike they are on; their skill level supersedes the subtle difference in machinery. (Oh sheesh, how the manufacturers hate that point I’m sure!)  Not every rider makes this successful transfer from one team to another or the bump from the 250 class to 450 class, which is right along the lines of what Grosyberg is stating.  I’m willing to bet that the top 5 riders, along with the intangible of good ability, have just worked harder longer than the other riders.  If those other struggling riders continue to intensify their work habits, I’ll argue we’ll see them rise from a good rider to a top rider.

I can hear a few of you now, wondering why the heck I’m bringing up these two books and their points to discuss on my blog.  Most of us ride to get away from the stresses of the business world, not delve back into it, analyzing nuances to help our riding!  I however believe that principles transcend disciplines, and thus we can apply them unilaterally to help us achieve the success we desire in our riding.  A classic example we see in our schools many times are the people who have grown up riding in the dirt or have raced motocross in the past.  These folks have put in many hours and have developed a good skill set they’ve honed, specific to an off road environment.  To make the transition to road riding, we work mostly on body position changes and the effectiveness of the front brake on pavement, while trying to break them of their habitual rear brake use.  Most students struggle with these changes, but if they are tenacious and don’t give up, they typically show great ‘talent’ as their lap times drop dramatically.  Case in point…we have two staff members that raced motocross in their past and recently came into the OMRRA novice program.  They worked hard to learn the changes specific to road racing and now are throwing down very respectable times most experts would be proud of.  It won’t be long until they are petitioned or graduated out to expert status and I expect them both to be challenging for podium positions in their first year as experts.  Are they talented?  Certainly so, but that talent was developed by hard work, study, tenacity, along with certainly a bit of God given ability.  However, I’m willing to bet that the amount of time they’ve spent ‘in the seat’ riding a bike, is sizeable and most likely out weighs that of their other novice counter parts.  Another example we all will be able to watch this year will be Rossi on the Ducati.  If preseason testing is an indication of regular season results, he’s got his work cut out for him.  Knowing Rossi though, he will find a way to put an Italian rider and bike on the podium and probably win on it by the end of the year.  A master of masters?  Isn’t that what being the GOAT is?

Italia on Italia - Doctor Rossi

What I’m trying to illustrate is how to bust the myth of talent by putting in the hours on your bike.  That you can approach mastery on a bike with more seat time and track time.  I’m sure we are all pretty dang good at what we do for a living…Lord knows we ought to be, we’ve been doing it long enough.  So let’s take Gladwell’s principle (forget the exact amount of hours) and hone our skills as best we can, the more time we ride, the better we’ll be.  Soon enough, our friends will be calling us talented and marveling at what we can do on a bike.   For those that have hit a wall or are struggling to learn the different styles to go fast on a sportbike, don’t accept it to become a statistic that Grosyberg describes.  Press on, keep improving and press through that breaking point to achieve a new personal best.  With time, mastery will come!  So when you set that HDTV of yours to watch the next Supercross or MotoGP race, just realize, the riders you see competing are not freaks of nature, uniquely blessed with ability from Zeus himself.  Rather, they are the products of countless hours of track time which you can develop a bit of yourself, should you venture to put the time in.  I encourage you to do so and let the results speak for themselves in the coming year.

I’m looking forward to seeing you at the track!