Tip 1: Improve Track Speed
Challenge your rider in a moto or even a main event at a local race to coast out of the gate and let the other riders get a big lead. Rather than just telling them to go faster and them using their conscious brain. They now have a clear objective (catch the pack) and they can get into more of an unconscious part of their brain (flow state) and just do their thing. The best performances in sports history were done in that flow state.
Tip 2: Challenge Their Technical Abilities
Much like the first tip, pushing their abilities is the name of the game to improvement. This can be a jump that they have never jumped before, pedal over a jump they previously thought was impossible. Challenge your rider to jump something during a race, even if it’s at the expense of a race win. If all your rider learns is to manual a jump and they get to a track that requires them to jump then at the very least they won’t be as confident and quite possibly scared of the track.
Tip 3: Slow Them Down To Go Faster
Slowing down is also a great way to work on technique. Before going fast, they need to show you that they can maintain good technique going slow. There’s a reason we start kids in tee-ball first and eventually progress to fast pitch baseball. To build a new skill, first, perform it as slow as possible. When learning a new and better gate start (for example) you want to picture it and go through the motions at a speed that allows you to perform it 100% correctly. Any speed over that will just result in falling back into the rut of previous sub-optimal mechanics.