The sling shot theory

So I've had a few people ask me about this over the last week. If you have ever looked under the gymnastics tag on my front page you will see it seems to be unfinished. You are right. I never really got back to finishing that thought. This is an idea that I started trying to coach by, about four or five years ago.

For a lot of good coaches this is nothing new to you. I guess I have never really finished this thought because I figured this was a simple idea. But what I have found are a lot of people never really think about coaching this way. Also, I do not coach lower level athletes anymore, so I don't really get a chance to practice this theory. I have talked a little bit about it with some of my coaches, and for the most part we are all very much on the same page. So here it is.

My sling shot theory is basically that there are only a few skills in gymnastics that are really important to learn. These are pretty basic level skills for a level 8, 9, or 10 gymnast, but can take a while to get to. The theory works for learning these skills as well but for the most part I am talking about the skills listed next. They are a roundoff, back handspring, back handspring step out, a front handspring, and flyspring, a layout back flip, a giant, a tap swing fly away, and a cast handstand. These are the skills I feel you need; to be able to learn just about any other worth while skill in the sport. I am sure there are other ones that other people might feel you also need, and that is fine, this is just what I think.

If you think about a sling shot, you put a projectile in the rubber band and pull it back as far as you can. The farther back you pull it the faster that projectile is going to go when released. It will fly farther and straiter hitting the target instead of dying before. So what does that have to do with gymnastics? Imagine that the projectile is your athlete, and the amount you pull back on the rubber band is time, repetitions, and the work you do on any particular skill. So if I am working on a giant swing, all those drills, time, and strength I put into working that skill goes into pulling that imaginary rubber band farther and farther back. Once I determine that we have done all the work that needs to be done, I let it rip. The idea is; now I and the athlete have basically perfected this skill, and this makes it so that I don't have to spend time later on re-training this skill. So she would be able to go farther in her gymnastics without showing a weakness in her ability. I could add half, or full turns to that giant easily. Inbar skills are learned faster, all at a fraction of the time. If I had a gymnast that was rushed into a giant swing and had problems, it would show up when I wanted to train any new skills. Once I have to go back and re-train a skill, that is when the "projectile" stops. The athlete isn't getting better, they are stuck in one place relearning what should have been done right the first time. The ultimate goal would be that once the gymnast/projectile is let go, it would go on forever without ever having to reteach it.

All of the skill that I have mentioned are the ones that if an athlete can do very well you would see a fast learning curve later on in her career. It takes a combination of strength, flexibility, talent, and drive for a gymnast to do all of that. And to master these skills can take years to do, they are not particularly easy to do at the beginning. I believe that this is what all of the great coaches do and use to get their athlete's to the top of the sport. They might not call it what I do, but they know that there is a lot of extra crap out there that you don't need to do. And they know there isn't a lot of time you want to waste when training. So they spend a lot of time on the important basics, and that allows them to learn much more much faster.

The final hard part about the sling shot theory is what is a perfect, whatever? That is up to you. Again the good coaches know, and that is why they are good. Just because you know what skill you need to focus on, getting them perfected is the hard part. With a lot of studying, and determination it can be learned and done though. My last thought on this is kids will still have to do basics every day. But doing a good set of 5 giants or something like that isn't retraining, it is just making sure the muscles are all still remembering what they are supposed to be doing. Basics are the most important thing in our sport, in any sport I suspect. And skipping them will show up in a big way when you want to improve. It is like building a house with no foundation.

Can you see the similarity?

This Chinese gymnast most likely has some great basics, just used the pic for the crumbling.

More thoughts on winning.

I once read a football t-shirt that said "Football is 80% physical, 30% mental". The point of the shirt was to show that Football has a mental aspect as well as making you think, because the math was more that 100%.....

This is one of the great things about sport, that there is more to it than just pure brute strength. Even a sport like power lifting has a huge mental aspect to it. You will often hear elite athletes talking about their mental preparation for an upcoming competition. Most of the time you will hear them say they feel no pressure. But on the other side most of these guys, when it is time to step up, are the ones that want the "ball". They have no problem dealing with pressure. So what is it that allows great athletes to feel no pressure and win when it is all on the line? I think it is because they were first allowed to fail.

Sure there are going to be guys that from the word go win all the time. You can read about how Lance Armstrong was winning races against grown men while he was a 13 year old. But even Michael Jordan failed when he tried to make the varsity team as a sophomore. For me it was key that I had a chance to try things out in real competition. If I was given a few shots to show my stuff, and didn't have to worry about earning my spot each time out, I excelled. I had some really good coaches in my life that somehow saw that in me. There were a couple that didn't though, and I never made it far with them. That is another tale however.

From my experience an athlete that can figure out the difference between good failure, and bad, is the one that is going to get the the next level. It is the job of the coach to help that athlete figure that out. I have been working with one of my athletes all year with this. She is a very talented kid who has had a lot of problems with injuries. This year we got her started late, but have kept her healthy. This has been tough on her though as she has not been able to train skills or routines as much as she should have or even could have. So she has struggled during competition. Not because she has not trained hard, but just because of time. It takes time to peak, it takes time to gain that feeling of self assured-ness it takes to be a great competitor and athlete. One day when she was having a particularly tough day and she was getting really down on herself, I told her "just don't care so much". WHAT!!!??? Did that just come out of my mouth? Yeah, and I meant it.

So here is the thinking on what I said. This kid, and 99% of the kids that I work with care, a lot. Just like I did, or any other elite athlete does. So telling her not to care wasn't going to be a complete 180. No one is going to make a great athlete that really wants it, let go of their dream. But what I was telling her was that it was ok to not be perfect all the time. In turn I am hoping that this takes the pressure off her a bit. Then while the pressure is off, I am hoping that things start to turn around. The only problem is that there really isn't a lot of time left in this gymnastics season. She has one more year with me, so maybe I can make some headway with the time left there.

So I guess what I am saying is at first, some people just don't care if they win or lose. Then when it becomes second nature it doesn't bother you that people expect you to win. I think this is a very simplified generalization though, and I know all people are different. I have known athletes who only did well under horrible situations, like not hitting a skill in weeks, or being injured, or sick. These people used it to fuel their competitive "fire".

Winning is a state of mind and a belief in yourself, and team. If you doubt for a second that what you are doing wont lead you to the promised land, then you wont get there. Vince Lombardi said "Winning is not a sometime thing, it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing." This sounds quite different from what I am saying, but he isn't talking about never making mistakes. Only an idiot could think that people don't make mistakes. And Mr. Lombardi was no idiot. What I think he is saying is that you have to know you are going to win, and you have to live your life expecting that what you are doing is going to lead to victory. Just because you missed turning the double play at practice doesn't mean you weren't thinking of winning, you made a mistake, learned from that mistake, and next weekend will turn a double play to win the game. If you get so down on yourself for every mistake, you will never do anything right. And then you can never win. And in every real athlete's world, winning is everything.

A Break Away Cycling League?

I read on Bloomberg today about the break away league that is being created to compete with the UCI. It is being reported that a group of investors and leading managers in cycling have come together to put on a series that would split profits with the teams. They are working for this so that cycling teams are not so dependent on major sponsorship. Just this year the best team in the world HTC Highroad was disbanded because HTC, the maker of mobile phones, decided they wanted to go in another direction with their advertising budget.

The new league hopes to emulate the formula of american sports like the NBA, or NFL, maybe even the Euro soccer leagues. The president of the UCI, Pat McQuaid said last year that the group would fail in trying to fit cycling into this "box". There are no stadiums for screaming fans, and filming cycling races can be hard. The action is very hard to predict, and you can go through hours of coverage without anything really happening.

I think that if this group of people hadn't thought of that already and had an idea of how to overcome that obstacle then yes it is doomed to fail. I don't necessarily think that this is a home run sure thing. But I can't see why it would be bad to try.

Why is this happening? There are a lot of reasons really, and I think that I am still too new to the sport to know all of them. But the final straw might have been the ban of race radios that the UCI has enacted, in an effort to make racing more exciting for the fans. There are many people out there that are on both sides of this issue, the riders and teams say it is a safety issue. The riders claim that they need the radios to know when there are dangerous roads, a rider down, or anything else that could make their dangerous jobs safer. The UCI claims that the riders have just become robots and pawns moved around the "board" by a mastermind team director. They no longer think for themselves, and there might be something to that when you watch last year's Liege Bastogne Liege and watch Frank and Andy Schleck do absolutely nothing to beat Philip Gilbert. They claimed he was too strong, but they didn't really even seem to try. Did they not try because they were too tired, or because they didn't know what to do? I think the later. The UCI create arbitrary rules without the census of the riders, teams, companies, or anyone else under their rule. They quash anything that might seem too different, Graham Obree being the first that comes to mind.The race radio debate, and Graham Obree are a side track to what I am talking about though.

I think that the UCI is very afraid of this league. Why wouldn't they be.....? They are a huge juggernaut of an organization. At the top are men with a great deal of power, but have in my opinion, lost site of those they govern. Their stubbornness for the status quo, and inability to change could create havoc for the UCI. And for men who have worked long and hard to amass such power it can be a scary thing to think about losing it. It will take a Grand Tour like the Tour de France to plunge the dagger deep into the UCI's heart, but so far that has not happend. That might be the UCI's saving grace, and another complaint of the team's. The large races share none of their profits with the teams, and in the new league they would have to. This will show who really needs who however.

So how would a new league make anything better? Competition. Competition requires you to improve or die. If it is found that this new league is somehow better than the UCI they will, in the end, win. But if the UCI sees where their weakness' are and fix them before too many teams jump ship they may be able to hold on. In both cases things could get better for the riders. Competition doesn't always make things better, sometimes it can squeeze out the little guy.

It seems that this is how governing bodies are created though. The UCI is not the first group that has been in charge of cycling, it is just the latest. Just like in the USA, we have gone though a few different governing bodies before we landed on the USAC. Each time it is the riders that have had to make the hard choice of choosing who to support. Generally you have had to choose just one, any contact with the other organization would cause you to be banned from any competition hosted by the other. For a country like the USA that outlaws monopolies this seems like a strange thing. At first this new league will probably be a great change for the riders, teams, and owners. Then if the money starts coming in they will turn into the new UCI. Making sure all the money flows to certain groups. The riders might create their own unions to argue on their behalf, and we in the USA have all seen how that goes this last year with the NFL and the lockout.

I believe that this is a step that has to be taken. Not only because of the radios, I really don't care too much about that. Really I can't even tell what races they wear them in and the ones they don't anyways. But change is good. When people get too stuck in their ways things tend to start going bad. It always takes someone to come along and stir shit up to get things back on track. I don't know if this league will be the silver bullet that will save profesional cycling and bring it into the same league as US football, soccer, baseball, Formula 1, and other major international sports. But it is worth a try....why not?

The UCI gets it's power from the IOC who controls the Olympics. You control the Olympics you control athletics.

Couldn't Do It Without Sponsors

So I just wanted to take some time to thank the people that make racing and training possible for Quantum Mesa Cycles.

First is Quantum Solutions owned by co-owner of the team Mike Rickey. Quantum Solutions is a systems engineering firm in Columbia, IL. Mike and his partner started this business out of their homes with a laptop and a backpack. Now they are one of the largest firms in Columbia. Mike is a huge proponent of racing in the St Louis area and his pasion is racing and designing systems for large companies like Craft Foods.

Then we have Mesa Cycles, owned by Russ and Adrianne Murphy. These two have been racing and supporting racing in St Louis for years. They helped build Jr racing teams, supported women's teams, and now they have partnered with us at Quantum Racing. Russ and Adrianne own one of the premiere bike shops in the St Louis area. The guys and gals that work there are some of the most knowledgeable I have ever encountered at a shop. That was one of the biggest reasons that I first choose to shop there. Chris Connolly is there top sales man, you want to know anything about anything about a bike, he is your man. John Farinella, and Rick George are in the back of the shop wrenching on the bikes. These guys are like DaVinchi with bikes, wheels, and anything that rolls on two wheels.

Computer Trade, owned by Scott McClendon. Computer Trade is a computer and electronic recycling facility. They offer secure data protection, thorough inventory process, complete packing removal, and certificate of recycling. They take in computers, printers, ipods, anything you can plug in, they can recycle.

St Louis Gym Centre is where I work, and they even help me play. SLGC is one of the oldest and most successful gymnastics training gyms in the St Louis area. Our gym offers recreational boys and girls gymnastics, pre-school, field trips, parties, and competitive boys and girls gymnastics.

We are happy to have Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Jason Jenson back as sponsors once again this year. MSSB offers all the financial products you could want or need. They are also a great group of people, and from personal experience I can say are very eager to help young people like myself start to set up for the future. I have always been told that I had to put something away for the future but never know how. Now with the help from MSSB I am on my way.

Hawthorn Bank located in Clinton, MO is a new sponsor for this year. We are very excited they decided to work with us. Their commitment to the Kansas City, Jefferson City, Columbia, Springfield and Clinton, MO area and their desire to get into cycling has made it a great fit. They have been serving families and business' in Missouri for the last 100 years with a commitment to making sure your experience is pleasant and rewarding.

The Sloan Clinic is owned by Dr Bradley S Sloan and specializes in sports medicine. Located in Jefferson City, MO their practice is geared towards keeping the active student athlete and weekend warrior in the game and on the field.

We are very excited to have Specialized bicycles and Sram components as contributors as well. I am a huge fan of Specialized bikes, they are one of the few companies that spend a lot of time and even more money on research and development of their products. They have been a supporter of cycling, and grass roots cycling in the US for years. Sram, a Chi town (my home town) company with a desire to do "it" better. For years I was a pure Shimano man. Last year I crashed my bike and had to quickly get a new one for the next week's race. I had to make the decision to go to Sram so that I could have a bike in time. I have been very happy with my choice ever since. One of my favorite aspects of Sram's groupo, is the "sprinters" shifting. I can grap the shift lever and hold it while I sprint, allowing me to blast through gears and I sprint for the line.

All of these companies have many options for what to do with their money, time, and resources. And their decision to go with us is always on our minds. We are grateful for their support, and we hope that we can show that with our racing and our support of them as well. If you are looking for any of these services please take a minute to check these guys out.

First Ride Zipp 404 Fire Crest Clincher

Over the last season Mesa was supper awesome with helping me out with some great race wheels, and letting me borrow Zipp 404s all last year. These were the last generation of the 404 as well as tubulars. They were great wheel, and I had never ridden anything like them. The only wheel that I had been on that were better were the Zipp 808s.

About a year or so ago Zipp made a huge discovery about the shape of their wheels. It was so revolutionary that they decided to scrap there lastest and greatest design that had only been out for a year maybe and re-tool for the new wheel. The Fire Crest is a compete shift from what people always thought was aerodynamic, creating more of a bulbous shape. They claim that they had created a leading and trailing edge that funneled the wind in such a way around the wheel that wind would no longer push you wheel around in a strong cross wind. From what I have experienced so far, that is not true. In the last two road races I have done there have been major amounts of cross winds and I am spending a lot of mental energy trying to not get blown around by a surprise gust of wind. I would say this is the ONLY drawback of the wheel, and of any deep section wheel. The Zipp might do it better than most but it is still there, and you will for sure still get pushed around.

My first impression when I got on the bike though was that it just rolled, and rolled, and rolled. And I was going into a headwind. The pedals seemed to be easier to push, and I felt like I was not having to use as many watts to make the same speed. This compared to my heavy training wheels though, and not compared to anything comparable. So how is this a good opinion about the wheels? Because I never thought that about the previous version of the 404s. They felt good but compared to my China carbon wheels the only thing I noticed was that they were stiffer when I stepped on the gas. Other than that I couldn't really tell a difference. I would think that would be a pretty bad thing for a wheel that is supposed to cost 6 times the amount as the Chinese carbon. 

The Fire Crest is worth the cost!

I decided to go with the clincher wheel as well. My last couple years with tubulars I never really got why they were any better than a clincher. The tires were really expensive, and I never used then till they were spent. They either got a tiny leak, or once I hit a pinch flat. Every time it cost me over $100 to replace a perfectly good tire. It also cost me a few hours to get the new tire ready, with glue, stretching, and mounting. I feel it was not worth it at all. So why go with the clinchers? All I have to do is replace a cheep inner tube! I can by tires that are better for racing and I know that I can use them till they are spent. Now I know there is a possibility that I slice a tire open, but that has only happened to me a couple times in the 40,000 or so miles I have done in the last 5 years. So I'm not worried. There has been a lot of data shown as well that clinchers role faster than tubulars, I am not sure why, but I'll just throw that out there.

Over that last year or so wheel builders have improved their techniques in laying up their carbon wheels for clincher wheels. It was often feared that the carbon would not be able to hold the pressure on the side walls of the wheel while also taking the heat caused by braking hard into corners. With time, a lot of money, and trials, they have come up with a strong light weight wheel, with great braking.

When I was looking into buying the new 404s everyone said that they were better than the last generation of 808s. I would have to agree! I have talked with some friends about buying some 808s at some point, at which point someone always has an old set of 808s to sell me. But why now would you ever buy a set of old 808s? If they are not as good as new 404s you are just buying something heavier and as expensive. Sorry Zipp but you just out did your self. What I will do in the near future though is buy some 808s. Why? Because they would be AWESOME! If the Fire Crest 404s are this good, I can't imagine the 808s, hell the 1080s would have to just be about illegal, like having an engine on your bike or something. The great thing about riding on 808s is the noise, it is like a freight train rolling up on you. Might not be a good thing if you are a sneaky racer, but if you are a power house (I wish) you might like the idea. I liked it when I was racing the rev3 tri bike leg last year, powering past hundreds of racers with the roar of these wheels announcing I was coming.

In conclusion, BUY THESE WHEELS!!! After a power meter, I would say this is the best investment you will ever make in your racing. Yes money does buy speed, and at least in my case, when I know I am riding on the best I have nothing to blame on my loss except myself. And in my mind that makes all the difference.

Beyond Blacked Out, Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory Style!

Hell's Kitchen Recap

Hell's Kitchen went really well for me, way better than I ever imagined in fact. I left of the race with my good friend and teammate Mike Rickey. Mike is also my coach so we did a lot of talking about mine, and his training, my racing, and what I needed to do this year to do well. We talked a lot about how I needed to be mentally tougher in races, and how mentally I go into races not thinking about winning but about working. A lot of it is just how I had to wire my mind in college I think. I was not a top super star in college. Compared to high school I really had to rethink about how it was ok to just be the helper and I was never going to win, but I did a job and that helped the team win, and that was what was important. I still believe that, but if I want to win some races I have to start thinking a bit differently on the days that I am supposed to win.

So we got to Fayetteville, AR and it was beautiful out. I mean perfect weather. We had great roads great temps, no rain, we got ready quickly and took a quick hour ride. After Mike and I met up with teammate Eric Finks to get some dinner. We went to this little hole in the wall called Pesto Cafe, that you would never think was a good Italian restaurant, but it was great. Turns out a lot of cyclist know about this place, as we saw Steve Tilford and a whole lot of other racers there. While we were there Eric, Mike, and I talked about where we were fitness wise for this part of the season. At this point I asked the guys if they minded if they raced for me this weekend. They said they were really happy I asked and we made our plans.

Now I am no climber, and I have to be pretty much on my game to climb with any type of form. Hell's Kitchen Road Race gets it's name from the big climb on the course and we were going to be going over it 3 times during our race. We determined that if we could get me over the climbs the first two times they guys would keep me out of the wind and get me close to the hill where I would take a dig with about a mile to go, try to get a gap, and hope I could hold it all the way. It didn't quite work that way, but pretty close.

At the start of the second lap Mike came up to me and said a team had talked to him about getting one of our guys into a break. We would have 3 of the stronger team members in the break and the guys in the pack could do a lot to shut down the rest of the race. As soon as I told Mike I thought I could go, the break went flying by. I asked Mike "those guys?" and took off. We began working together right away pretty well, and as soon as I saw there was a gap I fet we had almost a 99% chance of staying away. I felt my teammates could do such a good job that we were going to make it stick. It felt like in no time we had two and a half minute lead and I felt like we weren't really even trying. The little problem with that though was as soon as we heard that lead, we slowed down and settled into the rhythm of the break, but when the pack heard, I hear things started happening.

Our break made it over the Hell's Kitchen climb with 3 of the 4 originators still together and we put some hard work into a fast downhill section. And then all of a sudden our two and a half minute lead was down to a minute! And we started putting in some hard work for the next 15 miles. We were down to 40 seconds when we hit the hard headwind section of the course and we thought we had made it. The gap stayed at 40 seconds until we hit the final hill.

Now on our second time up the Hell's Kitchen hill, which is where the finish line was located at the top, I determined that the two riders with me were better climbers than I was. I was not going to be able to beat them to the top if I started the climb at the same time. So like Mike, Eric and I had decided the day before I was going to have to take a flyer and hope it sticked. I just didn't really know how far out I could go and still have any type of power to make it up the hill. So I did it as close to the hill as I could, but with enough time to get a decent gap. It wasn't nearly enough though, and I was only able to hold my gap for maybe a quarter of the climb. When my two break mates passed me I was pretty bummed, but when I saw the pack was closing quickly and there was a speedy dude from Big Shark gaining even faster, I really started to freak out! Big Shark passed me and one of the other break away guys from team OKC for second place. As I closed in on 200 meters to go the pack was breathing down my neck. But at the same time the road started to level out to a grade that suited me just a little more. I was able to find just enough power to put down some power again. I have no idea how close I was to being caught, but I'm pretty sure I threw my bike at the line. I couldn't have handled going from a "sure thing" podium spot to 5th place. 4th was still good and I was very happy with it! I waited for Eric and Mike to finish to give them the news. They were both really happy.

The result was beyond my expectations for the weekend. Like I said, I am not climber. I have great teammates that worked their ass off for me, and most likely did more work than I had to. It really has opened my eyes to what could be a great year for me, and that most likely all the hard work that I have been putting in for the last 6 months will not be for nothing.

We're the three best friends that anyone could have! :-)

The Yellow Line Rule

In cycling we have this rule called the Yellow Line Rule.

3B1. Center Line. If a course is not closed to traffic, all competitors must keep to the right of the center line or enforcement line, but may pass on either side of another rider [warning for accidental crossing of the center line with no advance in position; relegation or disqualification for advancing position; 10 day suspension for a flagrantly dangerous attack].

This is a good rule and a tough rule. First it is a good rule because of the safety of the riders. Many road races are run on roads that have not been closed to traffic. It is just too costly, and many locations just wont allow it to happen. With races taking a large portion of the day it would just be imposible to close of a large loop of road to cars. So what happens is promoters set up a type of rolling closure for the right side of the road and all riders must stay to the right of the center line. Cars on the road are allowed to pass the peloton on the left.

It is a tough rule when the race has strong winds, a race that might not have a painted line down the center of the road, and small roads. In races where there are strong cross winds, (Froze Toes, Hillsboro Roubaix, O'Fallon Grand Prix RR) the peloton will for echelons across the road where riders attempt to hide from the wind.

This is a problem when the wind starts blowing form a riders right side. (in the US) A smart rider or team will move to the left part of the lane to make it difficult for riders behind them to get a draft. In theory riders are not supposed to go over the line to stay in the draft. If they do not get into the draft they will for sure be dropped if they are not supper strong. With the prospect of being dropped from the race, a rider will for sure look to their left and see plenty of open road to use and will break the Yellow Line rule. If the wind was blowing form the other direction, riders would have to ride in the grass, or gravel to remain in the draft, which isn't really possible on a road bike. I know that when a riders is riding their brains out to stay in the race they don't think about cars coming at them. These racers come out to races to win, not enjoy the ride. So crossing the line is not a problem for them. It is only a problem for the promoter and the moto ref. I am sure that there is some racer that would cross the line, get hit by a car and then sue the promoter, also I'm sure it would fault could fall on the promoter for a car owner who's car was damaged by a cyclist not following the rules.

This is an interesting rule, and like many rules or laws it takes someone to enforce it for it to matter. I have been in races where the rule was strictly enforced, races were it is kind of enforce, races where it has almost ended races because of the racer's complete disregard for the rule, and races where the rule doesn't seem to exist. I have heard that Cat 1/2 races are generally allowed to race all over the road. I don't know this at all for sure, just what I have heard. I have been in a Cat 1/2/3 race where a lot of the pack was over the line, and the ref was doing everything he could to get them back across. I think it was a pretty hard job, and I don't know that he was able to accomplish it. I was dropped from the race because it felt wrong to be breaking the rules and going over the line. This put me in a bad spot and I was not able to hold on for long.

I have seen a lot of racers plead, beg, even demand that promoters run rolling closures in road races where the road was seen as too small to race on half of the road. I would have to assume that this would cost a fortune. You would need at least two or 3 police officers, follow cars, lead cars, marshals, wheel trucks, and motorcycles. for each category of race. Generally there are Cat Pro/1/2, Cat 3/4, Cat 4/5, Cat 5, a couple levels of Masters, maybe a couple Women categories, and Juniors. That is a lot of cars, trucks, police, and volunteers. It might need as many as a UCI Pro race. The cost would be very prohibitive for a promoter.

So what to do? I don't think there is anything that you can do. This has been a rule in use for some time now and really it works pretty well. We still get to race, and yeah there is a rule that sucks a little, but what rule doesn't suck? People will still take their lives into their own hands when they decide that going into oncoming traffic to stay in or win a race is the right thing to do. People are not very good at making good decisions all the time. And I think the cost of racing if we used rolling closures would make it imposible to race in the first place. So I say, let's keep racing, stay in your lane, and remember, we all have other jobs, families at home, and we are only racing for pride, a small amount of money maybe, an a medal.

Not what you want to see when racing!

Hell's Kitchen

I am taking my first trip to Arkansas this weekend to race at the Hell's Kitchen road race. I got a flyer for this race a couple years ago and was very intrigued by it. Over the last couple years it ran into work though so I skipped it. This year my work schedule has ran into a lot of races that I usually do, so I was glad I could get to this one.

The route seems to be pretty easy till you hit the namesake of the race. Hell's Kitchen is the name of a massive climb on the course. I think compared to climbing a mountain it won't be too bad, but going up it a race speed will hurt. From what I hear the race is generally determined by wind though. It is supposed to be very exposed and cross winds can cause a lot of splits.

I am a little concerned about the hill as I have not done a whole lot of hill work yet this year. I have been working on bumping up my endurance and power and the plan was to start getting more of the hill work in, in the next few weeks. So this will be a tough race for me, but it can always be good to just jump into the fire and see how hot it gets.

I am planning on doing some races this year that are also known for their great climbing. Again, not compared to races that may happen out west. But great climbing for the Midwest. The next race I will be at with a well known climb will be Snake Alley in Iowa. It is one of the croockedest roads in America. There are something like 7 switchbacks in one city block, the entire stretch is paved with bricks and during the race is lined by screaming fans. It is the closest thing most racers will ever get to racing up a cobbled climb in Belgium like the Muur. Last year was my first time up the climb and even though I finished near the back, it was one of the best races I was in. It was just so much fun. The next one will be the Missouri State Road Championship in Ste. Genevieve MO. This year they have actually cut off about 1500 feet of climbing per lap, but it still has a mile long climb with a KOM at the top and only 5 miles from the finish line. This is where the race is generally determined. Last year the final group of about 20 guys was all that was left after the climb. This year with the shorter course I am not sure how that will play out. The idea is that it will bring more riders because it might be an easier race. But I think it could also make it tougher, as in faster, the whole time. There are some guys who can go balls out for that distance and they may go at the gun. It could be tough to control all those guys, but we will have to see.

Another race that has some great climbing, and is also in Missouri is the Tour of Hermann, in Hermann MO. This race not only has a hilly time trial, they have a hill crit, and a super hilly road race. The road race starts with a massive climb right at the start. On the second lap (and 3rd for Pro/1/2) there is a climb that is just crazy that then connects to the first climb done at the start of the race. Last year this climb was the end of my race. And for some reason I decided that I was going to go ahead and suffer though the rest of the 35 miles. I am just a glutton for punishment. This year I will miss this race for work as well. It is sad, and scary. I am hoping that I will do well enough this year to Cat up to 2 next year which means a big jump in the difficulty of the Hermann road race for me next year. Just something for me to think about I guess.

I am just happy that racing has started, and I hope I can get to close to as many races that I got to last year. The best way to compete better is to compete more, right?

Excited, and scared, all at the same time.

Michelle Burns Vault at Northn Lights 2012

Mich's vault is getting better, I wish I had my other athlete's new vault as well. She did a laid-out yurchenko for the first time and it looked great!

Twin City Twisters and Monday Mueller

This weekend was my gymnastics team's last regular season competition. This was a big one! It is the same location that regional championships will be this year and National Championships next year. We like to go to these meets to give the girls a chance to get a feel for the meet. I don't know if we will be able to do this every year, but we have done it the last two years and it seems to have worked well. Last year I took the girls out to California because L9 and L10 Nationals were both in Cali. As a gymnast I always did horrible traveling and competing in California with all of the travel, time change, and the distraction of being in California. So when we went last year we talked about that a lot and made sure to make the girls prepared.

Twin City Twisters is the best team in region 4 I think. They have a huge team and just about every kid on that team would be a super star on any other team. I would love to get to that level with our team. The coaches that work there I think have been coaching much longer than I or my coaches, and they really have it all together from what I see. We have a long way to go, but at least we have a bar to shoot for. Since TCT is so good a lot of good teams attend their competition. The amount of good teams there was amazing, and only a few other meets in the country get a meet like that.

A nice little extra that TCT throw into their competition is an event final. Most competitions don't do this as it is not a money maker. In fact the entire session is almost a total loss. The only income for the session would be ticket sales from viewers, and compared to the size of these meets that really isn't a huge amount. The event final was like being at National Championships. The girls were all amazing and were doing skills at the extreme end of difficulty in our sport. There were glimpses of elite level skills, that is crazy! That means there are kids out there way beyond what I thought we needed to do with our athletes. Every year though I am surprised by the skill level that I see, and I then go back and raise the bar for what I have to shoot for. Then around this time I start to feel like we are doing better and starting to gain some ground, and then BOOM! I get hit with how hard some coaches and athletes are working.

We have 3 athletes that made the event finals. One on beam and vault, and the third athlete qualified for bars and floor. The line up for the events were set up so that the best athlete that qualified into the event competed last. This makes it pretty easy for the judges to know who should win, which I don't really like. I think it can make it pretty hard for a mid pack athlete to show a great routine and move up. But on the other hand if I was a coach of a kit that qualified first I would want to make sure my kid comes out on top still, soooo I can see the other side too. Our kids all did a great job and hit some really great routines. They didn't really move up or down in their placements though. I do think that the girls that won however, were the best ones and they should have won.

I was really hoping that my level 9s had a really good weekend and turns out they DID! I didn't think that our scores really showed it but their gymnastics was so much better. We hit more routines, and made improvements in all the places we have been focusing on. I was also super proud of how well they did without our beam and floor coach Laura there. She is SUPER preggers and couldn't travel up to MN for the meet. Some of the girls really need their pre-meet routines, and Laura is a big part of that. But Laura and I had been talking about her not being around and getting ready for it for some time. The girls really took more ownership of their meet and also had each others backs the whole time.

Unfortunately the level 9 meet ended on a little bit of a sour note with one of our better girls getting a score a good point lower than what she should have had. As a coach all I really have to help raise an athlete's score is called an inquiry form. And it is just there so the judges don't have to talk to the coaches when they FUCK UP! So there was nothing I could do. I could have started screaming and swearing, maybe throwing some things. All of this is stuff I would love to do, but it really isn't how I work. It most likely wouldn't have changed anything, and could have hurt my rep, or helped it. I doubt the second though. The silver lining was that she still won the all around title for the meet, but she should have been much farther ahead, and the improved score would have put her into the floor finals as well. Another nice little bit from the meet was we won the top three all around spots in that age group.

Our level 10s did well also. One better than the other, the other really didn't think she did that well, but she did. I have one level 10 that has been struggling for some time now. She has had some major injuries and has worked extremely hard to make it back. The schedule we had to work with getting her back didn't really allow us a lot of wiggle room. She has been able to qualify for state but has not been able to hit many of her routines. This, because she is still struggling with her injuries. She is really frustrated, and I feel like she wants me to give her some magic speech that fixes it all for her. But I don't know what that is. All I know I can do is help her in the gym as much as I can. Try to get her as consistant as I can. But I don't know if all that I have is enough. My other level 10 is a little more lucky, she got her major injuries out of the way a few years back. Over the last couple summers however, she has been sidelined with small injuries that have made things more difficult that they need to be. This weekend she came one more step to getting everything pulled together though. She put two of her vaults on her feet, hit a perfect beam routine, and an amazing floor routine. Bars did not go so well, but I think it was because she was trying to be too perfect. She was holding back trying to make sure she hit all her handstands and other positions. But it made her too tight, and got all her timing off. But with a little work she will be right back on track.

There always has to be crappy things that happen at these away meets. This year it was that the level 5s did not get any awards. They did not rank the girls, or get any medals, or anything. I don't know what they were thinking, but I had at least one parent that was PISSED. And for some reason when these things happen they think that I had something to do with it, or that I knew it was going to happen. Last year we had a whole level that competed on their own. We traveled all the way to California for an intra-squad. Ya that didn't go too well.

So we go home from the weekend this morning and it was 80 degrees and sunny here in St Louis. I had planned on going to a meeting for the Missouri Bike Racing Association, (MOBRA) but just couldn't pass up the amazing weather and a chance to ride with some of my teammates. They do this ride in St Charles called the Monday Mueller. It leaves from Mueller park, which is just a soccer field on the side of the highway, and does a 30 mile loop with no elevation change. This ride is basically an unsanctioned race, and I have seen some crazy stuff happen. This ride went well though. The wind was tough and all it really took was being near the front when the speed shot up to make the selection. Turned out that all the QMC guys made it! That was good because it was 3 QMC, and 4 Momentum guys. And it was all out for the whole ride. I still have a lot to learn about riding in a break away. I know how to keep in a draft, and make it to the end. But when it comes to getting the win, or even getting my teammate the win, I make a lot of mistakes. I guess that is why you do training races though, to make mistakes and learn from them.

What was great though was how good I felt riding. The legs just kept going and for the first time in a long time they didn't feel heavy, tired, and slow. The three days off really helped, and I am looking forward to this weekend, and racing in Arkansas with some of the guys. It is a long hard road race with a huge climb in every lap, so no exactly to my strengths. But I am going to give it my all and maybe we can get another win for the team.

It was a busy last few days, and it is going to be even busier for the next couple months. A lot going on, at least with so much happening, time will seem to fly.

Race fees going up......

I just read a post by Steve Tillford about the cost of racing, especially for the young developing bike racer. Like everything else the cost is on the rise. Bikes cost more, gas, food, kit, all of it is more expensive that "back in the day". Steve talks about how when he was younger races actually paid elite racers to show up to Nationals, maybe even other high level events. Now kids have to pay upwards of $75 per race.This seems like a lot when you read a lot of the comments left by readers who host or race at races costing anywhere from free to $10. When compared to other youth sports I don't know if it is out of the norm. I think Steve did have another good point, that racers race a lot more than many other sports compete, I did 45, Steve had over 80! For example my gymnasts will compete 11 or 12 times a year. Each competition will cost from $60-$130 for really 4 min of total competition time. Triathlons cost upwards of $600 for one event. But how many Iron Man length triathlons can people do in a year? Maybe 3 or 4 I would guess if you count half, or shorter triathlons, and those don't cost as much.

The interesting thing about the increase in the price of racing, is the winnings seem to have diminished. Not that I would know this as my winnings have been kept to a minimum. I have read on Steve's blog and from other older racers that races often had huge payouts upwards of 10K. I have rarely seen a race with this kind of money. I think that a big change in the payout amount is the amount of sponsorship associated with races. Also I feel like many towns, cities, and municipalities have backed away from helping with these kinds of activities. I think it really takes someone in the right place in government to get support from the town. With what I have seen in terms of the hostilities towards cyclists I can see why there are more and more cities and towns getting rid of bikes. People are prejudiced towards them and think we need to stay on the walking paths in Forest Park, on the Katy Trail, or Grants Trail.

I think there are some great promoters out there that are working really hard to make a great impact on a lot of cyclists. I know for a fact though that the more people you attract to your race, the more complaints you get. And I also know it is easier to listen to the one negative than embrace all the positive.

My team will be putting on a few races this year. One of them will be a crit, a race on the pricier end of bike promoting. This is because of road closures, police rental, and other city permit fees. We will be hoping to just break even on it. We are also thinking we are going to keep things really simple and streamlined. With only a few categories on offer it will hopefully make the city happy that we can run a quick, fast, clean, and neat event that keeps just about everyone happy. Then I am hoping we can keep the price down as low as we possible. I would love to have sold out fields instead of 20 fields with 10 riders. So we will have a Cat Pro/1/2 field, Cat 3/4 field, Cat 5/Junior field, Women's open, and Masters 40+ open. I think we are going for a hometown, grass roots feel. I don't think we will do online registration, just sign up when you get there. It might take us a little longer to get people their numbers, but that is money we are saving, basically not transferring money from one bank account to another. Last year I stopped pre-registering for races, unless you were staged based on your entry time. (Memorial day races in Quad Cities was the only one) Other than that, paying at the race was often times cheaper than paying online. With keeping the price down I think we will be going with the Wal-Mart model of business, as long as we get big numbers in entries we will be good to go. It will help if we can get sponsors, but I am not going to count on it.

A lot of people really got on Steve's case for his criticism of the cost of racing. Many of the haters commented that he shouldn't complain because he has never done it. I don't really know what that has to do with it. I don't think Steve was bashing on promoters. I felt like it was more of a critique of all of USA cycling, which isn't something new from Steve. I think that USAC has a lot of problems that another governing body that I am associated with does, USA Gymnastics. Both have gotten too big, neither support their top athletes very well, and both are loosing touch with why they started trying to represent their sport. Governing bodies should be there to cultivate new talent, and to do that you need large pools. In USA Gymnastics, there are under 100 elite level gymnastics girls in the country. For cycling there is no support for young athletes coming up. There should be grants for bicycles, race fees, travel, the lot. Cycling is not an NCAA sport so being considered pro status by the NCAA for cycling is a non issue. Now if it does one day become an NCAA sport then athletes cannot be supported in that way. But again, the only way to have the best chance to find the best athletes is to have a bigger pool. My gym will go through hundreds of gymnasts to find one level 10 athlete. The thing with cycling is everyone rides a bike, now get them to a race. Just like every girl at sometime in their life was a "gymnast", why can't everyone say they did at least one bike race in their life? If I was in charge of development in USA Cycling, my goal would be to get every kid who owned a bike to get into a race. So take some of those license fees and kick them back to race promoters to host free Juniors races.

I think the only way to change the current culture of high price race fees, low payout, and low attendance, is lower the price of racing. It might seem crazy but if all your fields are full, wont you make more money? I don't know for sure yet but I am willing to try it out on my race. I am thinking $20 is a good place to start. If we do well then I will drop it more the next year. One example of this working for me in the past was this last year we dropped to entry fee for spectators at my home gymnastics meet. When people showed up for the meet and it was free to get in, now they had more money to spend on sweatshirts, t shirt, food, and anything else we had on hand. Then when I can show local businesses that we are brining in lots of business for them, then maybe the sponsorships start to role in. Once that happens the payouts go up. All these steps make sense to me, but just because something makes sense doesn't mean it makes good business sense. We will just have to wait and see.

To be continued................

Downtown Maplewood has a great small town feel just outside the City limits of the STL. It also has some great streets for crit racing!

The changing race calendar

Bike races are awesome! The people that go are always great, and they are different between road, mountain, cycle cross, and I am guessing track, but I have never really been to a track race. Some say that the mountain bikers are the nicest people, but I rarely have met a mean road cyclist. I think that you find very serious racers, all the way to more recreational racers at every race.

Last year my bike team hosted it's first bike race, and for 99% of the members on the team it was all of our first race. Mark French was in charge of it and he put it all together in less that a month. I never thought it would be possible, but when you really want something and you have a government that is willing, things go very easy. It also helped that our race was not on roads. It was a cycle cross race, this is a race contested mostly on grass, some sand, hills, and over other obstacles that may require riders to dismount their bikes, run and re-mount. The race was hosted in a great park in Columbia, IL called Veldrijden Columbia. It was a great day and we had a good enough turn out to turn a small profit that we donated to Helmets First. An organization that gives helmets to kids for free or at a discounted rate. The hype around the race was great, people were really happy with the event and if we had been able to put it into a better weekend we would have most likely sold out our heats. This coming Fall, we have been able to secure a very good weekend and are looking for an even bigger turn out, and even more success for the race.

This year we are also very excited to be able to host the famous Lost Valley Luau. This race is famous for it's amazing course, first race of the season status, and the fact that it gets rained out all the time, and has rarely been run. Hopefully with my luck though it w ill go off on a perfect 65 degree and sunny day. I have only been able to experience this course one time and if I was able to mountain bike more I would be there at least once a week. It is a perfect trail, almost World Cup good even, too long though. It is an 11.5 mile long loop with great technical areas and all out fire road sections. This gives every type of racer a chance to put the hurt on the other type. Although I think if you are a decent all power rider, with a lot of handling ability and great flow, this is the race for you. Lost Valley has a great promoter that is running it with Matt James at the helm. Matt is a master mechanic, super personal trainer, mtn bike/cx shredding, all around mellow dude, who knows his shit about putting on a mtn bike race. So if you are looking for some good off road fun, with a get back to the roots feeling, this is the race you cannot miss this March.

The toughest race we might be putting on this year is a cirtirium in August. We were able to get a great weekend, in my opinion, the week before the MO state crit race. With not a lot of crits on the schedule for this time of the year, and crits disappearing  from the calendar all year, this is an all around good thing. Some of the greatest races in the St Louis area have been canceled this year and it wears heavy on my heart. These were great races that were canceled not because of a lot of motivation, but because of a general lack of local governments to support these sports.

Many of our races have been happening in fairly affluent areas and these types of people are the squeaky wheel. They make your ears bleed with why you shouldn't do something, and unfortunately those on the opposite side either don't say anything, or don't say enough to outweigh the negative.

Luckily our local government found us. Maplewood had hosted a race in the past, from what I understand, and they had always wanted it to continue. I have no idea why it didn't but we were lucky to have this race fall into our lap. God works in strange ways hu? We have been given many options on roads that we are able to use for the weekend, and we are currently looking for an exciting, challenging, fast, and spectator friendly race that will keep people coming back for more, for years to come.

Unfortunately road bikes seem to bring out the worst in people. Once you are on a bike you no longer are a human to many people. And a bike in the road is not a person getting their workout in, traveling to work, or riding to the market to buy dinner, they are a road block that shouldn't be there. I think that many people in government feel the same way and it shows in their willingness to approve of new, or even long established races on roads or even parks that are lightly used by people and or vehicles. It really feels a lot like a prejudice and it is really hard to take and or understand. It is in no way as bad as other discriminations that have happened throughout the thousands of years, but it still hurts.

I guess the only way to really start to find a spot for cycling is to make our own place......but what does that mean. Right now I don't know and I am not in a place to make anything I have on my mind happen. But maybe someday. (My wife hates when I say that) I may be young and in many ways naive to many parts of cycling culture and governance, but sometimes coming in and looking at things from a new angle can mean new innovations, and evolutions in an area. One thing St Louis needs is a veledrome, and I don't even race on the track, but it seams that any hub of great cycling has a great veledrome. Our current track is outdoors and sadly in need of a lot of repair. Put a 250 meter smooth wood track inside one of the million vacant buildings and you would have a new cycling hub in the STL, and a rallying point for all STL area racers. Maybe the Chicago Velo Campus is something we should be looking at?

Lost Valley Luau is part of the Unitedindirt.com series under USAC

Built outside by mostly volunteers. This could fit in a warehouse easy.

You can't teach winning IMO.

Coaches have a large amount of influence in what their athlete does. They teach them how to throw, block, run, flip, and any other verb you can think of. And up to a certain point a coach can teach their athlete how to do a lot of things, but winning isn't one of them. What do I mean by that, isn't that what great coaches like Vince Lombardi, or Bobby Knight did? In my opinion no, they motivated, they taught, they pushed, pulled, and everything else. But winning is an attitude, a way of life, a belief, almost like faith.

Some people reading this my say no way, "I teach that kid how to win", or "my athlete always wins, and it is all because of me." In my opinion there is only so much a coach can do, and a good coach can do great things for an athlete. But I have known amazing athletes who win practice every day. They do things that no human should be able to do. And that is all because of their coach. But when that athlete walks out onto the field, floor, gridiron, it is all them. No one is there to help them, to make sure everything is perfect. The athlete has to make the block, shot, or goal, their coach can't do that. This is the point where winning becomes instinct, desire, as important as air. I have known athletes who were amazing in spite of their coaches. These people were born winners and all they needed was someone with a basic knowledge of the sport to take this person to the top. These athletes are who I am talking about, these are the guys/gals who can't lose. Not because they are so good but because it hurts them to do so. Take Mark Cavendish, the man who is considered to be the fastest sprinter in the world. He gets physically ill when his team works for him and he isn't able to win for them. Nobody ever taught Mr Cavendish to win, he needed to win.

I was speaking to my friend who is also a coach about this idea the other day. He told me he didn't learn how to win until he was almost done with his gymnastics career. The moment it happened was when he lost his spot in the lineup before a big competition. He used his frustration, anger, and new found understanding of what it meant to win to turn the end of his career around becoming one of the best pommel horse workers on our team. The point is that with all the great coaches, and even shitty coaches this guy had though his career, no one could ever tell him how to win.

Now I think winning can mean different things to different people. Can leading a league in assists be counted as winning, can spending a day in a futile break away so your team doesn't have to waste energy winning? I don't know. What I do know is being a winner means not making excuses for you not doing what you are supposed to do. You screw up, you take the blame. Like I have said in earlier posts, you chose your coach, said coach is supposed to be the best you could find, coach teaches you to the best of their ability, then it is up to you to finish strong. I know most coaches would rather be out there themselves than send their athlete out there, because we have no control over what they do once on the field. When I first started coaching I was amazed at how nervous I was compared to what it was like when I was competing. Now I think I have done a better job of coaching and I know what my kids are going to do most of the time.

So in conclusion winning is not a teachable skill. It is something that has to be learned on one's own, or is something that you are born with. It's like all those times your parent's told you not to do something, but you had to do it anyways to learn for yourself. Those that do learn how to win are the ones who got fed up with blowing it, wasting all their time training for no result.

Those that don't have "it" my win once in a while, but when they don't it is someone else's, or something else's fault. A winner wont always win either, but when they lose they take it personally, they know they blew it and they are the one who has to fix it. Someone in the cycling world I am starting to think is in the first category, and I used to be a big fan of his, is Tyler Farrar. He recently blasted his team for not being able to escort him to the line, and compete against teams like Sky and Omega Pharma Quickstep. From what I have seen from him in the past his he is a consistent second place, and appears to blame those around him, be it a rival or a teammate. While the philosophy of his team is to ride as a team and work as a team. Their credo has seen them go from a nobody to a multiple tour stage winner. In my opinion everyone else is trying their best and he needs to do better.

As a cyclist I have not learned how to be a winner yet. It has been a long time since I expected myself to win. There were a few times last year where I was close but I think I made silly tactical mistakes that cost me and my team the win. If I want to be a winner I am going to have to pick up my game in all areas of my sport. And if I want my gymnasts to start to win like I think they can, I have to somehow get them to start seeing what I see. That if they want to be the best, they are going to have to take it. No one is going to give it to them, and there are girls out there who want it as much or more. And we all know that sports is all about who wants it more.