Ask anyone what makes a race champion and the answers are always the same. Speed, style and commitment. A lack of career opportunities (read: distractions) focuses the hunger further. A few years ago I was lucky enough to ride Mick Doohan’s NSR500 at Catalunya and after being blown away by the vicious tear-your-arms-out power delivery I grabbed a coffee with his mum.
Being reasonably new to this children lark I asked her what Mick was like as a child and was pretty stunned by the reply. “Ah, Mick was as thick as pig shit at schooling,” she said without a flicker of sarcasm. It came as a bit of surprise but it got me thinking. According to his mum, all young Michael was interested in was bunking off school to ride bikes. He wasn’t stupid – that’s not what she meant – he just had no interest in anything but riding bikes.
Clearly he wasn’t daft, for here was a multiple World Champion who made deep warmongering psychology something of his own during his unassailable reign. His guile and cunning and subsequent successful business transactions were obviously not the calculated actions of someone ‘as thick as pig shit.’ But how did the prepubescent Doohan go from a normal kid messing around on a field bike into the most fearsome racer Grands Prix have ever seen? Is there a specific formula to follow, and if so how do you set your child on this path so that by the time they’re 20 they’re keeping you in the lifestyle to which you always aspired?
But first, don’t despair if your kid isn’t hitting the highest SATS results. Perhaps there’s another talent worth fostering. And if it’s cultivated in the right way their earning potential could be as gargantuan as Casey’s. Here’s how to tap it...
Click next to continue
