Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/531603
JUNE 24-30, 2015 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 4624 BRAGG BLVD. July 11, 2015 JUNE 26-27• 5TH ANNUAL BFBF MUSIC FESTIVAL-RALLY at Vander Civic Association Park. Gates open Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 10 a.m. Admission is $15/day $20 wknd pass. Benefits Bikers For Bikers Foundation. Find out more at Bikersforbikersfoundation.com. JUNE 27 • SWANKTITUDE FASHION SHOW at Fort Bragg Harley Davidson 7 p.m. $15/general admin, $25/ VIP. Find out more at www. fortbraggharley.com. JUNE 27 • FAYETTEVILLE AREA SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SCHOLARSHIP FUND RIDE at Arnette Park. Registration at 9 - 9:45 a.m., ride at 10 a.m., $10/rider, $15 with passenger. Meal provided. Benefits Fayetteville Area Society For Human Resource Management Scholarship Fund. Call 910- 366-3983 for information. PATRIOT GUARD RIDERS The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse group of patriots from every state that come together to honor fallen soldiers at funeral services across the country. Visit www.patriotguard.org for more information about the group. Lately I have talked more about the rider and not the ride. It is important to me because Fayetteville has had a lot of motorcycle wrecks this season. Just for a recap, we discussed the need for a basic riding foundation, the benefit of having a good mentor and my last article was about luck. Today I want to talk about experience. We all know that we have to crawl before walk and walk before we run. When you watch a baby take their first steps, mom and dad are hovering over them because they may not know which way they will fall. We all know they will. We just do not know when. The same goes for the motorcy- clist. When we first start riding, we are scared. I do not know of one rider that hasn't fallen over one time or the other when they start. When we start anything new we are beginners, but what makes us a beginner? Let's look at the "Conscious Competence Matrix." According to the matrix, we climb up four different levels of competencies before we get to anything competently. As we try to learn anything new, we all start off at an "unconscious incompetent" level. Here, we don't know what we don't know. As we learn, we not only experience the psychological process of learning, but we also experience a physiological reaction. This is broken down into two different parts. First, we experience an emotional reaction. If we are not happy with our progress, we can feel disappointed, frustrated or upset. If we do well, we are happy, excited or proud. Second, we experience a physi- ological reaction. As a new motorcyclist, our heart rate is pounding and breathing rate increases. These reactions can cause us to feel anxious and scared at first. As we begin to understand the basics of what we are doing, we move up in the matrix to a level of "consciously incompetent." Here, we know what we don't know but still can't put our finger on it. We take a step back and realize we are not as good as we think we are. We make mistakes, often serious mistakes. We take that curve a little too wide. We misjudge an intersection. We focus on the wrong things. Our heart still beats faster and our mind still races, but we know we need to improve so we stick with it. It is not natural to be doing 55 mph on two wheels with the road right under our feet. We feel that adrenaline rush as our mind and body try to compensate for these changes. As we improve our knowledge and develop our mental and motor skills, we become "consciously competent." We make mental note of what we need to do. We tell ourselves things like "start wide and move to the inside of a lane" as we go around a curve. We tell ourselves to lean harder or that we have to use the two-second rule when behind a vehicle. We educate our- selves with anything we can find about motorcycling, safety and gear. As time, practice and education continue, we slowly "get it." We do not even know how we "get it" but we just know we do. At this point, we become "unconsciously competent." We shift without thought; we can corner with control and so on. At this point, we still have those psychological and physi- ological effects on our bodies but now our breathing is regular, we are no longer anxious or stressed. Here the ride becomes enjoyable. One thing to note, we can often transverse from level to level when a new variable is introduced. You may be a good fair-weather rider, but if a thun- derstorm starts dumping rain on you, you may quickly become an uncon- sciously incompetent rider again. You may have an accident and become slackened and have to start all over again. Our ability to learn good riding skills comes from a lifetime of learning. Be patient, be educated and RIDE SAFE! The Competent Rider by JIM JONES There are four levels of competence in the Conscious Competence Matrix JIM JONES, Motorcycle enthusiast, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com.