 Rider: Carter Gray Photo: Zachary C. Bako Joel YounkinsHigh Performance Coach The quote above hits hard—and it couldn’t be more relevant to racing motocross.
Too often in this sport, we throw the word tough around like it’s some magical trait you’re either born with or you’re not. We praise riders who crash and keep going, grind through pain, or push hard in the last 10 minutes of a moto. And we should. But if all we ever focus on is being tough, we miss the bigger picture; success leaves clues... There is no such thing as tough—there’s trained, and there’s untrained. Let me explain. Toughness Isn’t a Feeling It’s not about gritting your teeth, yelling “let’s go,” or tapping into some secret adrenaline stash when things get hard. Toughness is being prepared. Toughness is being ready. Toughness is built. Not given. Riders who look tough in the late stages of a moto or who stay composed when conditions get wild? They aren’t surviving on willpower. They’re falling back on preparation. They’re doing what they’ve trained to do. That’s not magic—it’s work. Trained vs Untrained Let’s be honest—when someone breaks mentally, fades physically, or cracks under pressure, we don’t always want to admit the truth. It’s easier to say, “he just needs to toughen up.” But majority of the time, when people try to build toughness, they miss the mark by mile.
These are all things that we could consider "tough" to do or even complete by the average person, but they are not specific in anyway to the demands of your racing discipline. You're not the average person looking to challenge themselves, you're a high level racer looking to improve specifically in your racing career. Instead focus on these holistic things.
The body can’t go where it hasn’t been trained to go. If you're not training and preparing yourself for what's to come on the track, and you're doing random "hard/tough" things to do so, you're just off in no man's land. Training Is Toughness The gym doesn’t make you tough just because you’re sweating and breathing heavy. What makes you tough is showing up consistently, training the right things, and being honest about what needs to improve.
You don’t have to act tough. You just have to be prepared. That’s real toughness. The Moto Lens In moto, there’s always going to be pain. There’s always going to be adversity—bad starts, crashes, ruts, roost, and tracks that look like war zones. But the best riders don’t rely on fake toughness to get through it. They rely on their foundation.
That’s the difference between surviving a moto and dominating one. Final Thoughts Stop trying to be tough or find it where it doesn't exist. Start trying to be prepared. Because when it really counts, the guy who trained for it will always outlast the guy who just tried to "tough it out." There’s trained. There’s untrained. There’s nothing in between and toughness is just a word and an illusion of great talent and preparation.
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