Review: American Supercamp - Very Disappointing

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trackaddict
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Review: American Supercamp - Very Disappointing

Postby trackaddict » Thu Mar 03, 2016 2:40 am

I rode with “Danny Walker’s” American Supercamp recently. It runs $650 for two days and includes any gear you need, lunch, and the bikes. It’s a dirtbike TT-style track training course, which supposedly can help with street/track motorcycle riding (although I’m still suspicious about how much). In case you don’t read further – do not pay your good money to do this.

That said, I came into this hoping to RIDE. A lot. We did not. There were winning and amazing road racers there to train us. They were amazingly sweet, but hadn’t been taught how to train others how to ride. So while they were out there and I could follow them and learn, I had to ask multiple people how to get around a turn that I was having trouble with. Finally, one of the racer coaches sat with me at lunch, so I hit him up and he was super helpful and it fixed my problem. Until Danny stood at that same corner and started yelling at me to basically ruin what his coach had taught me to do to fix my turn-in. So, I ignored Danny and just did what worked. And yes, it was super annoying to have him yelling at me. He also carries a long stick and occasionally would poke people with it. Yes, I’m really serious.

So their methodology is drills, drills, drills, interspersed with 40+ minutes in between sessions basically picking your nose (I read a book) and a retarded amount of time listening to Danny tell stupid stories and yapping away what I would view as my riding time. For TWO days.

Day 1: Around 9:30/10a, after everyone gets suited up and registered, Danny starts on a 60 minute diatribe about how he was a racer and introduces staff/current racers. An HOUR. Kill me already. There were about 35 people there, which was ridiculous, so they divided it into 3 groups. Quite suspiciously, they put all the women in Group 3. Lame. Already I know what they think. For an entire day, we rode in a small oval. With 10-12 other people. A small, small oval. Few laps to the left, few to the right, working on some drill, then sit reading a book for 40 minutes.

I can say I learned something. I did learn to start leaning the bike down and looking into the corner before braking and actually truly turning the bike. That resulted in the back end sliding out and it was a blast. The problem was that it wouldn’t work unless you could get enough speed and when you are going in a stupid tiny oval with 10 people all day, that isn’t so easy. And, it’s really frustrating because it’s FUN and you just want to keep trying it, but can’t because you are either jammed up with a billion slower people or sitting on a bench bored.

Day 2: Started with Danny showing us ancient video in slow-mo of GP racers using their rear brake to “back it in” to turns, and proceeded to say that the “newfangled” body positioning on racetracks is basically wrong (where you get your upper body off rather than just your butt) because if Mick Doohan won doing it, well, then it must be right. This clearly told me he hasn’t been on a sportbike in 20 years, because the new technology, the lightness, and the sheer horsepower of new sportbikes do not agree with a butt-only leaning style – it upsets the bike too much. Anyway, I started out the day quite cynical, and it didn’t get any better. They opened up a new track design, like two horseshoes. We got one session out on it to just ride, which started to be fun, and then it switched to drills, more drills, more drills, taking out the fun. And he continued to scream at us.

Then they started this braking drill. One of the other participants had been at their Colorado camp the time prior, and said two guys broke their collarbones doing this braking drill because it raises your risk of high siding considerably. And then my friend highsided twice and had to go to the hospital. So, pretty much, I refused to do the drill just rode around as I wished. They opened up to a large, full (but never having re-graded the dirt, ever) track while Danny was talking yet again, and let us ride free at 4:35pm (mind you, they close at 5pm). So that was all we got… with three groups, that was about 5-7 minutes of free riding time as it was getting dark with the setting sun glaring directly to the back of your brain in the fastest area of the track. And they said that if you crashed, your day was over at that point, which was really unfair. You’ve got slippery mud/horse dung, wheel tracks everywhere… it was a hot mess.

I ended up leaving really, really frustrated, not at ALL tired, and bit offended.
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OldMare
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Re: Review: American Supercamp - Very Disappointing

Postby OldMare » Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:34 pm

I can see how frustrated you would be after that!! Sorry it went that way. Kind of even makes me a bit angry at them just reading how they worked it and their attitudes!
Mamaw Suze
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Re: Review: American Supercamp - Very Disappointing

Postby Mamaw Suze » Tue Apr 05, 2016 9:20 pm

How do they stay in business? How did the other participants deal with this. I've never heard of this school but that's not saying anything - I don't follow the training schools. Did they have a "how did we do survey"? I hope you let them have it with both barrels. When ego gets in the way of safety they need to take down their teaching shingle. I'm sorry you had a bad experience and spent all that money to have it. I'm also really glad you followed your instincts and stuck to your guns! THAT'S part of what it takes to be a good rider. Go get em track addict!!!
The journey is the destination
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trackaddict
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Location: Los Angeles

Re: Review: American Supercamp - Very Disappointing

Postby trackaddict » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:11 pm

Haha, I don't really know how they stay in business. I think people around here go because it's close. The FUN one (Rich Oliver's Fun Camp) is 4.5 hours north in Fresno, so it's a whole "thing" to get a hotel, go there, blah blah. But for the same price, Rich gives you so much ride time you are begging for mercy and then he just laughs and shows you what a great time you're having. This Supercamp thing was bogus.

Now having a month under my belt and three more track days, I can say that I actually learned something that applied to road riding. (Shocker!) They taught us to lean into a turn before really turning to create a wider arc around the apex. At the racetrack I went to, the corners are really long, so they are better with a slow-roll turn in and rounding them out. It really worked well to think of it like that. But I sure didn't need to be at Supercamp for 2 days getting yelled at and poked with a stick to learn one little thing.

Oh, and yes, they did have a survey at the end. I basically said exactly what I said in my write up. And I told the owner to his face that I was disappointed. I don't think he cares.
Mamaw Suze
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Location: Indiana

Re: Review: American Supercamp - Very Disappointing

Postby Mamaw Suze » Wed Apr 06, 2016 10:27 pm

Obviously he doesn't care or it wouldn't be like that. If people keep coming why change. If someone poked me with a stick I'm afraid he look like an all day sucker when I got off my bike. I've been told I don't play well with others but I disagree I just expect everyone to play by the same rules
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