[Yakaru]

Yamaha Champions

I’ll open by saying this review is going to be much more prone to error/misunderstanding, as I’ve only attended Yamaha’s school one time. I will post any response I receive from them as an addendum if they wish and happily correct any errors.

The Yamaha program is not leveled at all; everyone attends the same lecture. They have a rule of, “students get what they need,” and questions are asked by students constantly through the lessons. Yamaha in particular has a heavy focus on using the brakes, which is a theme throughout the whole day.

There are a number of demonstrations through the lectures. Usually one instructor will discuss something and then have another coach riding a bike demonstrate. In a sort of “half-amusing half-annoying” (to me) way, through all these demonstrations and discussions they often show the extreme (without crashing) of what not to do in what comes off as a hokey but practiced skit. Perhaps because I’ve done so many schools prior with CSS, I found frequently these lectures belabored the point but I also realize that not everyone has that kind of a background and others may need the extra demonstration time.

Another thing I found a bit interesting/odd was that the focus seemed to switch frequently between what I would call ‘street techniques’ and ‘track techniques’. This may be related to the fact that, “The Yamaha Champions school is an MSF-recognized Tier Three school, the only one in the country.” There are also a few things that were belabored constantly that I found a bit obvious (the biggest one being having a foot to put down in a U-turn… maybe just the fact that I'm a short rider made this a necessity very early in my riding experience).

Yamaha has a formal “evaluation” grid in the notebook they give you, listing a number of factors they consider most important while riding. I really liked this. After every ride you rate them from 1-10 and you put special focus on any of them that are relatively lower. While I might change what specific things I evaluate, I think this is a valuable complement to my personal track day plans to combine with my CSS inspired analysis.

Another theme I really liked throughout the day was the focus on being smooth. While this was another item that I already understood really well, it is one that, similar to CSS, is always worth spending some time on.

For the first ride the school asks riders to ‘sort’ themselves by speed/level into groups of 4. I found this to be a bit disconcerting – I’ve potentially never ridden with any of the other students and even if I have I often haven’t specifically noted their skill level. This feels like a place that could also be very easy for ‘masculine ego’ to play a larger role than it should.

I personally felt that I had probably sorted myself ‘too high’ but it did end up being just fine when we went out on track. After sorting yourselves, the coach takes a group of four out and leads them in what I can only call ‘duckling tows’ where the riders all fall in line. From time to time they will give a hand signal and the front rider will fall to the rear and everyone else moves up. If a rider is unable to keep up, they are told not to push themselves past comfort and another coach will come by to pick them up.

Another drill in the program was a brake drill, focusing on smooth use of the brakes. After some demonstration, they had us go out to the track and ride, with coaches standing on the side of the track at various points. As you rode they would point at riders and when they did that rider was supposed to smoothly engage their brakes and stop at the line on the track with that coach, who would then discuss it. While I think the drill in the context of being smooth on the brakes is extremely valuable, I found the ‘to a stop’ part to be less than ideal. I ‘brake to a stop’ in a different way than I ‘brake for a corner’ and I have a hard time trying to force my corner technique to work for a stop. This is not only because of psychological reasons but because of things like mechanics – a stop requires a full clutch engagement (and/or shifting to neutral), which causes a very different set of priorities for me. One of the common refrains I had in this exercise was that my technique was super smooth and solid but I could brake more aggressively… I definitely would’ve/could’ve if it were a setup brake rather than one to a stop.

My favorite drill is probably the cones drill. In this session the coaches take small traffic cones and lay them on their side at various points on the track. The instruction is to take a line which puts you on the side of the cone it points to (like an arrow). This was a great way to explore alternate lines and see how changes in corner shape change the needed technique. My favorite was when I noticed they set the cones up to force a fairly accurate “race line”, which is definitely a good way to help riders (combining this with CSS’s visual drills would be a real winner for either program).

The day ends with a rider taking some laps and being followed by a coach who films them. After everyone has done this the whole class grabs some food and watches all the videos together. While this can be a bit intimidating, it can have advantages in that you can observe other rider’s errors and issues and potentially apply them to yourself.

All in all, I enjoyed the Yamaha program but I am curious if returning a second time would be valuable in the same way. Because the format is the same in particular I’m less confident in the value I would receive outside the more specific advice you receive, which is far less frequent than in CSS. They do have a “ChampGrad” program which requires you to attend the regular program twice, and I would love to give it a shot and see how it compares, especially vs Level 4 CSS.

Another thing YCRS does that I am a big fan of is their “Champions Certified Coach” which is a program they run to help local track orgs train up their staff in order to up the level of instruction skills. This is a great program (at least in theory) and I support that a lot. I love teaching and coaching, and would definitely be interested in pursuing this myself.