MX Adventures

A Supercross is usually filled with its share of dramatic moments. From the jump off the gate to those first turn pile ups, all the way to that finish and everything in between, the action at Supercross is always nonstop.

The 2010 Phoenix Supercross had more dramatic moments than your normal race. However it was in those days that followed that the drama grew with various opinions that were blasted across message boards and blogs. I certainly appreciated the hot topics brought to the surface by the many people who love the sport of Supercross. And like you I have my own thoughts on the James Stewart and Chad Reed 'incident' ...

It was just one year ago when a controversy made headlines with Jason Lawrence, Josh Hansen and Steve Boniface were 'fighting'.

The backlash for those guys were met by AMA officials. Last year the Rules stated that the following offense is subject to disciplinary action:

An attack on a Racing official and/or engaging in a fight. This includes any person who attacks or is involved in a fight anywhere on the premises prior to, during, or after an AMA Supercross meet. There will be no maximum fine or suspension period for this offense.

My point here is that Supercross is no stranger to its share of drama but in the aftermath of last year, and now Phoenix, what does it take to show some true sportsmanship and character in tough occupation?

James commented thru his blog initially. Info on Chad Reed came thru Kawasaki and Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Manager Mike Fisher stated that Chad would not return to racing until he is 100 percent. Chad is expected to miss a minimum of six weeks to heal his broken left hand. Six to seven weeks puts us near the Daytona Supercross and by then there will still be eight races left on the schedule.


The racing action for podium finishes at Phoenix were thrilling. To see Ryan Dungey take control of the 450 Supercross main event, and take over the points lead was amazing. Ryan Villopoto and Josh Hill were right there to capture the remaining two two positions, with Ryan taking second and Josh third. Villopoto is definitely working on his game plan of improving one race at a time. Hill also made huge improvements in Phoenix over his performance at the Anaheim season opener. Below are some of Josh's thoughts ...

It was great to be on the podium. The team puts in a lot of work and it is finally paying off. I could not thank everybody on the team enough. The Sam Manuel Yamaha team has done so much for me to help me turn around my career.

Before this race this coming weekend in Anaheim (Round 3) I've done some training and I rode out in the hills with Jeremy Stenberg and Josh Hansen and that was really fun. We had a good time and I have not had that much fun in a while. So this week was not all that bad and I feel that every time I get on that bike I get better and I believe that going out in the hills and riding for hours definitely helped.

The Sam Manuel people have set up appearances for us to go to the Boys and Girls club and hang out and talk with the kids, sign autographs, and show them that if you work hard you can achieve good things. The Sam Manuel Yamaha people are doing a lot to help promote the sport and at the same time give kids some inspiration, it is a good situation. The kids are cool and they are always excited to interact with us. I would have been stoked if someone like Jeremy McGrath came and hung out where I was hanging out as a kid, so it is a cool experience.


There has been a lot of rain here in southern California this week. All week. But Saturday is looking good as far as the weather is concerned. Both Blake Wharton and Trey Canard were two guys who opted to stay back in Phoenix to ride for the week, and stay away from the rain.


The Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGR/Yamaha team has two contracted rider - Justin Brayton and Josh Grant. Unfortunately Josh Grant will continue to heal his injured shoulder but it was rumored that another rider would hop on board his bike for a few races. I talked to Jeremy Albrecht, Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGR/Yamaha Team Manager about this rumor and he told me that they are working with Michael Byrne for this upcoming weekend.


I talked to Mike Young, Manager of Team MotoConcepts, and asked about Dan Reardon and if he is ready to get back to the racing. Dan had that harsh crash in his Heat race at Anaheim 1 and decided not to race Phoenix after suffering a grade 2 concussion. Mike relayed to me that Dan wanted to be 100 percent when racing and he did opt to wait a week to fully recover. The brunt of Dan's crash broke his neck brace in half! Dan did get an MRI done on his knee and everything came back OK, but he'll probably not be back racing until the San Francisco Supercross.


Ange

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Why Coaching is the Way to Go in Team Management

When you hear the word “coach”, what comes first into your mind? Do you picture a basketball team with a man/woman shouting out directions? Or perhaps a football team with a man/woman pacing to and fro and calling out the names of the players? Coaching is no longer reserved to sports teams; it is now one of the key concepts in leadership and management. Why is coaching popular? Coaching levels the playing field. Coaching is one of the six emotional leadership styles proposed by Daniel Goleman. Moreover, it is a behavior or role that leaders enforce in the context of situational leadership. As a leadership style, coaching is used when the members of a group or team are competent and motivated, but do not have an idea of the long-term goals of an organization. This involves two levels of coaching: team and individual. Team coaching makes members work together. In a group of individuals, not everyone may have nor share the same level of competence and commitment to a goal. A group may be a mix of highly competent and moderately competent members with varying levels of commitment. These differences can cause friction among the members. The coaching leader helps the members level their expectations. Also, the coaching leader manages differing perspectives so that the common goal succeeds over personal goals and interests. In a big organization, leaders need to align the staffs’ personal values and goals with that of the organization so that long-term directions can be pursued. Coaching builds up confidence and competence. Individual coaching is an example of situational leadership at work. It aims to mentor one-on-one building up the confidence of members by affirming good performance during regular feedbacks; and increase competence by helping the member assess his/her strengths and weaknesses towards career planning and professional development. Depending on the individual’s level of competence and commitment, a leader may exercise more coaching behavior for the less-experienced members. Usually, this happens in the case of new staffs. The direct supervisor gives more defined tasks and holds regular feedbacks for the new staff, and gradually lessens the amount of coaching, directing, and supporting roles to favor delegating as competence and confidence increase. Coaching promotes individual and team excellence. Excellence is a product of habitual good practice. The regularity of meetings and constructive feedback is important in establishing habits. Members catch the habit of constantly assessing themselves for their strengths and areas for improvement that they themselves perceive what knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to acquire to attain team goals. In the process, they attain individually excellence as well. An example is in the case of a musical orchestra: each member plays a different instrument. In order to achieve harmony of music from the different instrument, members will polish their part in the piece, aside from practicing as an ensemble. Consequently, they improve individually as an instrument player. Coaching develops high commitment to common goals. A coaching leader balances the attainment of immediate targets with long-term goals towards the vision of an organization. As mentioned earlier, with the alignment of personal goals with organizational or team goals, personal interests are kept in check. By constantly communicating the vision through formal and informal conversations, the members are inspired and motivated. Setting short-term team goals aligned with organizational goals; and making an action plan to attain these goals can help sustain the increased motivation and commitment to common goals of the members. Coaching produces valuable leaders. Leadership by example is important in coaching. A coaching leader loses credibility when he/she cannot practice what he/she preaches. This means that a coaching leader should be well organized, highly competent is his/her field, communicates openly and encourages feedback, and has a clear idea of the organization’s vision-mission-goals. By vicarious and purposive learning, members catch the same good practices and attitudes from the coaching leader, turning them into coaching leaders themselves. If a member experiences good coaching, he/she is most likely to do the same things when entrusted with formal leadership roles. Some words of caution though: coaching is just one of the styles of leadership. It can be done in combination with the other five emotional leadership styles depending on the profile of the emerging team. Moreover, coaching as a leadership style requires that you are physically, emotionally, and mentally fit most of the time since it involves two levels of coaching: individual and team. Your members expect you to be the last one to give up or bail out in any situation especially during times of crises. A coaching leader must be conscious that coaching entails investing time on each individual, and on the whole team. Moreover, that the responsibilities are greater since while you are coaching members, you are also developing future coaches as well.