Supercross, Motocross & SMX Racer: Jeremy Hand Photo: Zachary C. Bako Joel YounkinsHigh Performance Coach There comes a time for every young competitive racer, that they often wonder if they can live the dream one day of racing professionally at the highest level. They watch their favorite racers race on the weekend and wonder if someday that can be them. For most, the dream will come and go and they will move on with life. Some get really close to achieving it, and maybe with some unfortunate luck, a couple missing tools, or a lack of discipline, they can't quite close that last little gap; meaning, that last 1-5% needed to get invited to the big party and race at the pinnacle of the sport.
Meet Jeremy Hand. If you live in Ohio, you need no introduction to Jeremy and the Hand Family. His dad Carl and Uncle Dave, were both pro racers back in their day. In fact, I have a very cool early 90's Spanish Supercross poster of Dave Hand on a CR250 hanging in my facility as a gift for when I used to work with both of his sons Michael and David, who also happen to be very talented riders themselves who both raced Loretta's and I was fortunate enough to help develop Michael into a pro national racer as well in the 250 class. Back in Septmeber of 2012, I met Carl Hand at a local motocross race at Big Game Raceway, just minutes from home. I was there to watch one of my current pro racers race at the time, Mike McDade. During the day, I had noticed this very short, young racer on a CR125 who could barely touch the ground on his bike. He was in the process of ending his 85/Supermini days and transitioning to big bikes. I had no clue who this kid was as I wasn't really in the amateur scene yet at that time, but he ended up racing against McDade in one class. I know where McDade stacked up at the time as a top 20 racer as a privateer that year. He would be battling factory guys like Jason Anderson for 15th place in the 250 outdoors that summer. And even though Jeremy didn't exactly have him on his heels that day, it was clear in my eyes where the young Jeremy's future would be headed. Later that afternoon, I was walking through the pits and I noticed Jeremy's father Carl was standing outside of their van with the bikes all alone. I couldn't help but to stop and say hi and introduce myself. I explained how I was impressed with Jeremy and his dad was extremely friendly and very down to earth, I could immediately tell this family loved and lived for the sport without any other information. I told him a little bit about myself and left him with a business card saying let me know if there's ever anything I can do for you guys, good luck, and went on about my day. A couple months later in December of 2012, I'm super deep into launching my training facility as I'm planning to open early January in 2013. I had heard through the grapevine that Jeremy had broken his hip down at Mini O's just a couple weeks prior. One random day in December, I get a phone call from an unknown number and it's Carl Hand who must've kept my business card that day. He had told me what happened and that of course the doctors told Jeremy he should never race again as this was the second time he had broken his hip racing dirt bikes. Being racers, those are words you don't take lightly and you will exhaust all options before you just say, "Yep doctor, you're right! Jeremy let's sell the bikes and focus on golf." So Carl explained that up near where they live in Mantua (35 minutes from my facility), they didn't really have anyone who could work with Jeremy who understood what he did and needed. And for himself and Jeremy's mom Kim, if they would continue to let their son race, he would need to start doing something for his body and physical performance, so that he can give himself a chance. And so that's where I come into the picture... I'm a very big believer in divine timing, as after Carl explains the situation to me, I tell him, "well I am opening a facility next month." To make a long long story short, he showed up with Jeremy, his sister Jessica, and wife Kim at my open house like he said they would and they were ready to get Jeremy started working with me. And like they say, "the rest is history." Early Years In 2013, Jeremy was literally in a complete rebuilding phase of his career at a very young age of 15 years old. Biologically speaking, Jeremy would be what we call a late bloomer, which is actually a good thing in long term development because you know that their best days are yet to come. And Jeremy wasn't the athlete that came in and sold you on that he took his off of the bike training seriously when he first started. At first, I believe Jeremy simply came to work with me because he was ultimately forced to. I'm sure at the time he saw it only as a chore and that he rather had just been riding his dirt bike instead of being in a training facility with some guy telling him what to do in the very beginning. His mom Kim, drove him down twice a week consistently, never missing a session. Like I said, I knew Jeremy could ride a bike, but early on, he didn't show me that he was highly focused and committed yet to do what it actually takes to reach the top of the sport. But he kept showing up like what the pros do, and later on a trend that paid dividends for him. So eventually, by his actions, his and his family's commitment to make the 35 minute commute down I80, I knew he was serious as he continued to show up and work, even if he really wasn't excited and didn't want to be there at first. Getting to where your dreams are, you're going to have to go to places you've never been and do things you haven't done yet, whether you like it or not. That's what separates the amateurs from the pros. That first year was intended on simply adding strength and function. We needed to build a foundation to his frame and get him moving like an athlete. We focused a lot on general strength, but also paid very close attention to movement quality and function. Between having two broken hips and being underdeveloped as a young teenager, he had a lot of dysfunction for his age and what he expected to do on the track. So majority of his training was concentrated around building his body to be able to tolerate what he could do on a dirt bike. His skills on a bike far outweighed his physical preparedness. So that was focus number one, was to simply start piecing him back together and getting his body moving better. It wasn't very pretty in the beginning, but most finished pieces never start off that way. They start off messy, and when you keep showing up and chipping away at it, it eventually comes around to being a masterpiece. He later got back on the bike that year, but he would not have time to do Loretta Lynn Qualifiers and if my memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure that he didn't even race any amateur nationals that year either. For the Hand family, it was more of a "let's rebuild his body and let him grow into the big bikes and take our time" year for them in 2013. Which what I thought was best too, as I advised them my professional opinion to support their plan of long term action for Jeremy. Development Years Because that first year we were able to take our time and lay down a foundation for Jeremy, in 2014 and moving forward, we were able to begin moving on with more aggressive training for him. After a year of piecing him back together and getting that learning to train year under his belt, we could start to open the playbook up for him a lot more. We focused on exercises like Trap Bar Deadlifts to build back, glutes, and hamstring strength. We mainly performed SSB Squats for years (up until more recently we went back to straight bar on squats) due to it helped him squat to decent depth to train full range of motion as it improved his squat mechanics from his past hip injuries. The added benefit of abdominal strength and mid to upper back strength with the SSB Bar only further helped develop some other weak areas. For the upper body, we did Bench Press but more importantly, we did a lot of rowing exercises to build up his back strength and shoulder complex. To learn more about strength training, you can read the blog, 5 Rules for Motocross Strength Training. We did perform a wide variety of single leg squat variations, posterior chain exercises, hip exercises, shoulder exercise, neck exercises and lots of abdominal/core work. Some of it was meant to train balance in the body (improve funtction), some was to bring up weak areas, some was for injury prevention work, and some was geared on just trying to add some muscle mass to his lean frame. We incorporated a lot Shock Training in all main gym workouts. Lots of Altitude Landings, Plyo Jumps, Medicine Ball Work to train his body to better absorb forces out on the track. Once he became strong enough, we really poured into these exercises as these helped him on rough motocross tracks and helped prepare him for technical supercross sections. To learn more about this concept, you can read Plyometrics for Motocross. For conditioning, we focused on various aerobic conditioning methods like we covered in the 5 Rules for Motocross Conditioning blog. Most of this work was done inside of the facility for majority of his development years. We did Tempo Intervals on the Concept 2 Rower, Lactate Threshold Intervals on Jacobs Ladder, and Aerobic Power Intervals on the Prowler (a sled that you push). And that was the main bulk of his aerobic development. On his off days, he would sometimes ride his BMX bike, mountain bikes for cross training, and sometimes he would road bike on his off days with a few riding buddies for additional work. After years of this, his aerobic conditioning is exceptional and you'll find his resting heart in the mid 40's from all of this work over the years. For nutrition, this was something that we needed that took time for developing for him, but as Jeremy continued to train hard and as his racing got more competitive moving up the pro ranks, he began to get better and better with his nutrition. He started to understand that you need to eat enough, to maintain his workloads and performances, even if it meant going to Chipotle frequently to get his calories in which he has no problem with. He enjoys a post race Coke which is totally fine because it's a great way to re-hydrate with the fast absorbing sugars that he was losing, getting easily replaced and it helps kick start the hydration and recovery process right away. But a lot of chicken, rice, and vegetables for Jeremy is eaten. We don't starve him down, or remove foods like carbs or take away meat or anything like that. I'm not worried about burning calories, he works hard so I'm more concerned with replacing them to keep him fed to perform at his highest level and to recover from all of that. Look for a Nutrition Blog coming soon... Moving up the Pro Ranks In 2015, Jeremy earned his Pro License by doing some Arenacross races through the Ricky Carmichael Program back then. That summer, the Hand Family skipped on continuing to do Loretta's and move onto the Pro Motocross Series by debuting his pro career at High Point in 2015 and doing four rounds of the series by qualifying and being a top 35 rider each of those rounds on a privateer KX250. By 2017 he moved into the 450 class for the outdoors and found his pace quickly in that class where he became a regular top 30, then top 25, and then top 20 rider. From here, Jeremy went on to race 250 East Coast Supercross where he got into his first main in 2019 at East Rutherford. And now races both 450 in Supercross, Motocross, and SMX too. Jeremy went from a young 17 year old scraping to earn a spot on the 40 man gate of the 250 nationals, to a regular top 20 racer in the 450 outdoor nationals as well as becoming a regular in 450 Supercross main events. He qualified for the SMX finals as an alternate to be able to qualify into the mains both the first year in 2023 and last year in 2024 with the plan to do the same again in 2025 if not better. The dream is alive and well for Jeremy Hand! Keeping the Show on the Road In a sport where being in your late twenties used to be considered "old" in the sport, there is a growing trend of racers racing later and later into their careers. At 27, Jeremy is still only improving year after year. Remember when I said he was a late bloomer? Well, in times like these, Jeremy is nowhere near slowing down and riding better and more confident than ever before on his bike. Training today looks similar to what it did back in his 250 days. However now, it's more of a focus of maintaining what we've built for him, pushing when he's fresh, and getting him healthy and race ready when he's banged up or run down. As his career has progressed, we continue to dial in all of the other areas to continue to look for little gaps to fill to really dive into the corners of his program and see what we can improve.
Today, are training now is so dialed, we both know what to expect from each other and we can almost read each others minds. Our relationship has grown so much since that time we first met back in 2013. He has grown and so have I because of having the opportunity to work with someone like Jeremy. I'm grateful to sit here today and say, that for the most part, Jeremy has had a very healthy career. He's only broke his hand once, his wrist in 2020, and he broke his toe right before one of the East Coast Supercross 250 Series by dropping a 45lb plate on it in my facility (LOL whoops). He's definitely had his aches and pains from various violent crashes. As an athlete you're never at a true 100% and there's always something lingering that needs attention. But in a sport where injuries are accepted as "normal" he's remained very healthy for the amount of high level racing he's done over the last decade. I credit that to his discipline to develop himself physically but also being a rider who was taught at a young age to ride and race within his technique which has helped keep him in the game to actually live out his dream. Jeremy is at the point of what we call Sport Mastery, even though he hasn't ever won a professional championship or a main event, he's still at the highest level of a sport where every rider still has only very small things left to improve on and refine. You get to this point by showing up, every week to by bringing your best, doing the things you don't always want to do, and not being scared to put your best against the very best. In a sport where being a true privateer is like bringing a knife to gunfight against factory teams, he knows he has no room for error and it's all on him. Jeremy's program has always been himself, his dad as his mechanic and his family traveling to the biggest races in the world. His team (family) have developed to a point where they have title sponsors and lucrative sponsors because they've kept showing up and swinging for the fences, even when 99% of people, would say it's not worth it. Jeremy didn't get to where he is because he's always had the best parts that only he could get. He got there because he showed up week in and week out. To train, to ride, to race. He has parents who back him 100% to fulfill his dream of racing professional. A dad who is maybe one of the most knowledgeable guys in the pits when it comes to racing dirt bikes. A mother who holds her breath as her son rips around the track yet still always shows up to be his number one fan. A sister who unconditionally supports her brother. Jeremy is what being a racer is all about, and he loves every square inch of it! The Blueprint is simple, show up or your dreams will never have an opportunity to come to life...
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