It’s so easy for fans to dismiss a rider who’s not getting results as crap, a crasher, an idiot, or any of the million-and-one epithets that are tossed around in pub discussions and internet chat rooms. But when you’ve read this book, and appreciated how hard it is for a rider to get himself into the right mental condition for winning - and how easy it is to lose that fragile balance - you might be a little slower to criticise.
Chicho Lorenzo identified his son’s ability on two wheels when the boy was only tiny. He used tactics such as removing the front brake from the bike so that the little Jorge could only slow down by sliding the machine sideways on asphalt.
Like
Dani Pedrosa, Spain’s other
MotoGP prodigy, Jorge’s family were working people who needed financial help to get their son to the top. That’s when the link with the experienced Amatriaín was forged.
The father-son clash
What happened in the 2006 season will provide fascinating reading for any father who believes that his son can be a future MotoGP champion.
Chicho had appointed a sports psychologist to coach his boy: Amatriaín believed that the psychologist’s advice wasn’t working. Jorge was surrounded by his father, his girl-friend, Amatriaín, his physical trainer Marcos Hirsch, and others, all trying to do their best for him, but offering opposing opinions.
Result? Crashes, loss of confidence and results. There were fears above all for the lad’s safety on his 170mph Aprilia.
Hypnosis – and no mobile
But once Jorge had chosen his side, the results flowed again. Hirsch used hypnosis techniques developed by the American psychiatrist Milton H Erickson to permit Lorenzo to visualize success, and with Jorge’s agreement, they took his mobile phone away from him during race weekends so that his concentration wouldn’t be shattered.
The outcome was the two world championships in 2006-07, the winning of a place in the Fiat Yamaha team, and a MotoGP victory within three races this season.
