Technique (lack of)

Motorcycle Zen involves scraping foot pegs when you turn

The first time I rode a motorcycle was when I pulled out my new bike out of the dealership. My parents assumed that I knew how to ride. I assumed the same. Having driven a car before, I knew that clutch was my friend. I managed to bike home stall-free. I might have chosen the wrong gear a couple of times, jerked awkwardly on traffic lights, but I had made it home with my new silver bike. And while I had a crash on the very next day, I eventually got better. Much better! My teenage-adult years were littered with many top speed runs, peg touching on turns and pointless duels with other similar idiots on the road.

There wasn’t an ounce of technique learnt or practiced. After completing my three day motorcycling endorsement class here, I realized that almost everything I ever did on my motorcycle was not just insanely wrong but could have easily killed me through gyroscopic physics. I am convinced now that even with just a few simple techniques, I will be a better rider than I ever was.

This makes me wonder how much of my life has been reverse engineered. That I have worked backwards to understand to ways of the world. Every sport I know has essentially been picked up by watching better players. Coaching was minimalistic to none. This explains every weak backhanded I strike and every game that I lose when I am leading.

Even of my truest loves, driving a car has only been bettered after I came here. I drove a car through mind boggling traffic, through Ferguson road and CBS intersections. I surpassed Western Ghat mountain passes overtaking three trucks at a time but technically I was useless. No threshold braking, no throttle over under steer control and certainly no friction circle exploitation.

The lack of technique seems to have been constant even through much more consequential things. I was never taught the right way of keeping relationships longer. No technique existed in my friend making skills and then making them stick. What about loving your own parents the right way? Was there a weekend class for that?

I am convinced that every skill comes with a technique. Not only does it improve the quality of work, but it also reduces the effort required.

My lack of techniques in everything I do outside of employment is a very disturbing trend.

Going forward, I plan to have a choice. To do things my way or do them after knowing what the right way is. However, considering I have been making the same wrong decision for the last twenty years, I am fairly certain that this is all a very big moot point.

If you can save yourself, do it.