Adam Cianciarulo offered some very interesting insight from an elite rider’s perspective on what is like the deal with not meeting your expectations and dealing with that mentally in the right way.
The context was based around Jorge Prado, who still, rightly, has the self-belief that he will be a front runner next year in the Nationals despite a season on Kawasaki where he never looked comfortable and never looked like the rider who won four world titles in the FIM world championship.
Adam said: “With Jorge, here’s the problem with thinking that way, thinking that you’re a guy that can go and beat Jett, win titles over here. The problem is when you go out there and that’s not happening and sometimes not even close to happening, the gap, it feels so far away. It feels impossible. The gap can be so demoralizing that you do things like not try to qualify for it.
“Like me, for example, I remember feeling this way, Millville 2023. I remember feeling this and it affected my riding. It probably looked like I quit on the track, but you get so discouraged because you’re so far from where you want to be that your self-talk, your inner self-talk is like, ‘I can’t even be serious.I can’t take myself serious right now.’, you know? So it’s one thing if you can see yourself as like, okay, yeah, I can be a champion. I can win races and when that’s not happening, when you’re very far away from that happening, can you look at it as just as nothing is set in stone?
“You’re not just bad. You’re not trying to look for blame. Can you just be like, I’m not there yet and keep working because it’s a superpower to be able to see and I believe Jorge has that. I believe that he can genuinely see himself winning races and being one of the guys here in the States and that’s a great thing to have. But you have to be disciplined when it’s not going your way and the ego is a crazy thing, dude. When you’re super far away from something to protect yourself from that blow, you’re going to be trying to naturally you’re looking for anything to offset just absolute true accountability that you aren’t there yet.”
And Justin Brayton feel Jorge already looks much more comfortable on the KTM even in supercross than he ever did on the Kawasaki: “There was never a time where I watched him on the Kawasaki. And I’m like, man, he looks good. Not one time. Not one video. And already just the videos I’ve seen him like, man, the gear, the bike and the way he looks on it, just doing that quad.To jump a quad like that at a Supercross track, you have to be feeling pretty good that day.”
Watch the full video below:
