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Dirt Bike Riding and Racing Mental Game Tips With Steve Hatch

Off-road dirt bike coach’s insight into how a lot of it’s between the ears.

September 23, 2023

How we think can improve our performance on the trail and track. According to Steve Hatch Racing’s Power of the Mind program, your mind is either your greatest asset or your worst enemy. Having skills on a dirt bike is just part of the equation for winning, and the mental aspect plays a larger role than one might believe.

The mental part of racing is often overlooked. Steve Hatch and his wife, Denise Hatch, have developed a program called Power of the Mind to help racers tap into that 90 percent of the brain that’s not used during a race.Shan Moore

Steve Hatch and wife Denise Hatch run an off-road motorcycle training and coaching business called Steve Hatch Racing, where Steve teaches riding skills and Denise teaches a program called Power of the Mind, which covers the mental part of racing. We sat down with Steve at the 2023 Team USA International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) Camp, where he gave us a rundown of the Power of the Mind program as well as a few mental tips.

“Denise has been doing this for 30-plus years, so she’s got knowledge, skills, and teachings in hypnotherapy and different aspects of mind therapy, as well as a program she developed called Mind-Muscle Connection, which is about how the mind and muscles work together,” Steve said.

Steve works with the 2023 US ISDE team on line selection during a recent camp.Shan Moore

According to Steve, there are different times of suggestibility for the mind. “The conscious mind is really small,” he said. “Right now, as we are doing this interview, it’s the conscious mind at work, while when we are riding a motorcycle, it is the subconscious mind at work.”

Steve tells us it’s the subconscious that comes into play when we’re racing. “You can’t be thinking about, ‘Am I in second or third gear wheelying over the log?’ It needs to be habitual, so Denise has been programming these riders, from Taylor Robert to Ryan Sipes. For all these riders, it’s been the same mindset. So now we have our website, powerofthemind.coach, with all these videos on it. A few examples are Mindset for Beginners, Overcoming Adversity, and The Edge of the Elite. We rented a studio and shot it professionally, so it’s great quality.

“Obviously, we can get [riders] more fit, we can get them faster, but the mind is 90 percent of it at this level. Everybody works on the bike, the body, the conditioning, and the skills, but the mind is such an overlooked thing. And it’s become more important in the last five or six years. Denise is more the leader with all her knowledge and expertise on these things, and I’m more the real-world guy. I turn it into, ‘This is how I thought when I was racing.’ It’s a pretty good combo where we’re in our own lane of what we know.”

Steve says it’s the subconscious mind that comes into play when you are racing, so all of your actions need to be automatic.Shan Moore

One tip that Steve shared with us is that breathing is the gateway to the mind. “Denise has worked with athletes all over the world, from football players to tennis players, race car drivers—you name it,” he said. “Erratic breathing, like you have when you’re racing and are scared, leads to an erratic mind. But a longer breath leads to a calmer brain, so you are calmer in the race. Then you are able to slow things down and get into the zone, or flow state. Ninety percent of athletes don’t breathe properly, which is really interesting.”

Hatch, ISDE US team manager Antti Kallonen, and ISDE US Junior Team rider Mateo Oliveira share a light moment during a very intense training session.Shan Moore

If you want to improve your mental aspect of racing, check out Denise’s program at powerofthemind.coach.