Motocross is just one of those sports people don’t think is hard. They are always saying “Oh that’s not hard at all, it’s just sitting and twisting the throttle.” Well, I can guarantee you that’s not how it actually is. I’m sure for all the people that say this, they couldn’t last on a rutted track for one lap and do every jump without the proper training and equipment. All my friends that I race with know how hard it is. We all think we have the win on the first lap, then after that, you start falling back behind other racers. That is exactly what happens to me, and here are a few things you could do to help avoid this.

Endurance is the number one key to a good race. Eating healthy will help out a lot; like no drinking pop, no junk foods, and try to eat as healthy as you can without going back to those bad food habits. This helps you by not getting arm pump during a race, and if you don’t have arm pump it makes you ride a lot better. Arm pump is when your arms start getting tired, and you can’t move them as much as you could before. Working out for hours after hours is how the pros are trained. They will hire proper trainers to help motivate and push them to their limits. Doing this will help you to be able to maneuver the bike better around turns and big jumps. When you are racing, it really pays off to hit jumps and corners fast to either help catch up in a race or stay out front. Being mentally smart on and off the track is another helpful skill. By riding smart and not going over your limits you won’t crash.

Technique is another important skill in racing, and this helps you ride faster. One way is to keep your elbows up which helps control the bike around corners and straight-aways and keeps you in good balance. You also need to ride loose. When I see people riding at the track they are usually stiff as a brick. This makes them a slower-paced rider compared to racing loose. Terms like “scrubbing” or “whipping” are other words for staying low on a jump. This will make your speed faster because you are on the ground more than you are in the air in-between jumps. But this is definitely not something you can do your first time on a bike, it will take a lot of time and practice.

Lastly, to have a successful race, you need to have mechanical maintenance on the bike itself. This is basically how your suspension, tires, or gearing is set up. This is very important depending on the type of soil on the track or what state the track is in. For instance, down South they have tackier dirt than up North. You also need to prep your bike and take care of it so it will last longer than if you did no maintenance at all. The pros have mechanics, who have books for all the specs on the bikes. These things play a major roll for racing, and it has really helped me to maintain good maintenance on the bike and study the track surface.

These are all ways to help train for motocross, As you can see, it is a very long process and it takes a lot of time to get good at it. If you were to ask any of my race friends, they would definitely say it is a tiring sport, and it’s not just sitting on the bike and twisting the throttle. For just one race, you have to prepare for weeks in advance. It may be a lot of hard work, but the key is never to give up, which is something I will never do.