arw_86 Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 (edited) basically, past few weeks on occasion i have seen people in real life and videos having certain skill sets such as playing guitar, drums, skateboarding, football, base jumping, snow boarding, surfing etc.... And it made me wonder, ive spent basically over half my life, about 12-13 years on and off my trials bike. Whilst im not amazing (dont ride enough to ever be) im not shite either. If back on the first day i picked up trials what if......what if i had picked up a guitar or got a drum kit instead? would i be in a band now? where would my life have been? If I bought a snow board would I be living in the alps instructing? If i focused on football would i be semi pro? if i started base jumping.....would i be dead? To sum it up I guess, do you ever think "I wish I took the time, money spent and skill i have gained in trials and moved it across to the equivalent level in a different hobby?" If so, what do you wish you did? at what level? and where would you be in your life? Trials has been a huuuuuge part of my life and my friend has just got back into it from school days and we went round our local town and the amount of laughs and memories it created was ace! I love trials but sometimes, I wish I learnt something else. But then i wouldnt of learnt trials. I guess it just the feeling that im getting older, and I dont have enough time to learn something new. ps- i went back trying to change all my 'i's to 'I's to stop any chance of a bitchfest with grammar etc, but I instantly got bored, so if you feel the need to say something unrelated to the topic, please f**k off, have a wank, and come back relaxed. Edited October 14, 2011 by arw_86 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 Personally I wish I'd done anything else. Met some amazing people but I poured ridiculous amounts of time and money into it. I should have stuck at something I had a mild amount of skill in before packing it in, like swimming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pashley26 Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 (edited) double post winrar. Edited October 14, 2011 by Pashley26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pashley26 Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 I gave up after a week, if I could transfer my wanking skills to business management I would be bigger than Apple though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 (edited) Personally I wish I could transfer some of my other skills to trials... I think now that I'm kind of done with music, I wish I could transfer my semi decent level of guitar/songwriting to the bike because I don't get enough time to get as good as the guys I enjoy riding with. EDIT: Reading that back, it makes it sound like I reckon the only reason those guys are better is because of time - that's not what I meant! It's definitely a reason I'm worse than I could be though Edited October 14, 2011 by JD™ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greetings Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 I should have stuck at something I had a mild amount of skill in before packing it in, like swimming. Do you mean you posess the skill of floating on water? I'd probably transfer my skills to driving of some sort, time attack probably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew62 Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 Personally I wish I could transfer some of my other skills to trials... I think now that I'm kind of done with music, I wish I could transfer my semi decent level of guitar/songwriting to the bike because I don't get enough time to get as good as the guys I enjoy riding with. EDIT: Reading that back, it makes it sound like I reckon the only reason those guys are better is because of time - that's not what I meant! It's definitely a reason I'm worse than I could be though Exactly the same as this. I'm pretty proficient on a guitar and happy with my style. I can leave it for weeks and pick it up and in a couple of minutes be very at home. This is not so for biking. Playing guitar and forming the sounds i want comes quite easily, but it is much more of a concerted effort on a bike. I can achieve the sounds i want on a guitar relatively quickly/simply and play in the style that i want without too much effort. Again this is not the case with biking - the style i wish to be most proficient at requires a lot of effort in comparison and improvement seems to be hard to come by. I'm never conscious of jamming with others and am comfortable to the lead and put my style across, but this is not so AGAIN with biking where on occasion i can be conscious of my ability. Strange huh! Just goes to show it's not a personality thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davetrials Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 Parkour Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 Do you mean you posess the skill of floating on water? Competitive swimming you cock. 50m sprint was my calling. Packed it in though because the training needed to get good is insane. Every day before and after school, no ta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 It's sort of different with guitar and music though, in that you've got the basic sort of structure already predetermined just because of how music works. Because of that, you're fitting yourself into a sort of 'frame' that's already there for you, so it's not quite as open as something like riding is where you can pretty much do anything. As well as that, for me I found that I knew in my head the sort of music I wanted to play, so it was just a case of having the connection there between the "Let's do this" part of my brain and the "Let's make this happen" part of my brain/body. When I was "taking music seriously" and thinking about doing my degree in it, playing a lot, playing in bands a lot and so on I found that I was pretty on it just because of how much I was playing. At the same time my riding was pretty much at my peak as far as TGSy shit went and was pretty reasonable. Physically and practically I found that if I took a break from both it took the same amount of time to get back up to speed with things, but I found mentally for playing music it was much quicker to get my creative side back, whereas with trials it used to take me longer to start being able to come up with lines and to just be able to commit to stuff. I don't really know what else I would've chosen to put my energies into, really. Music's the obvious one, but the academic music route didn't really appeal to be me whatsoever after I went to a few open days and checked out a few universities. I definitely couldn't have broadened my horizons much without moving out, and the only practical way for me to do that was go to uni. Riding sort of expanded and covered pretty much everything I did/do, and led to me doing photography, led to my degree, has taken me on trips around Europe, etc. Can't really think of that many other things that would open up those sorts of possibilities really... EDIT: I actually find the music/riding thing the same with shooting photos. If I'm doing it a lot setting up and taking photos is quick and easy, and I find it easier to vary the angles I go for and come up with some more creative stuff. If I haven't done it for ages I find I "pull" more when I physically press the shutter, find it takes longer to set up and then also takes ages for me to get back to doing creative stuff again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 (edited) I kinda took it as a hypothetical transfer of skills, rather than whether they were the same in a mental/physical/creative sense... Put it this way, if I could trade in the amount of time I've spent learning, practising, writing, rehearsing, gigging, recording with guitar, drums and, to a lesser extent, vocals for the same amount of time riding there's no way I wouldn't be 'better' at riding than I am (subjectively) at music. EDIT: I get that your reply was probably mainly aimed at Matt, but thought I'd put that out there anyway... Edited October 14, 2011 by JD™ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew62 Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 It's sort of different with guitar and music though, in that you've got the basic sort of structure already predetermined just because of how music works. Because of that, you're fitting yourself into a sort of 'frame' that's already there for you, so it's not quite as open as something like riding is where you can pretty much do anything. As well as that, for me I found that I knew in my head the sort of music I wanted to play, so it was just a case of having the connection there between the "Let's do this" part of my brain and the "Let's make this happen" part of my brain/body. When I was "taking music seriously" and thinking about doing my degree in it, playing a lot, playing in bands a lot and so on I found that I was pretty on it just because of how much I was playing. At the same time my riding was pretty much at my peak as far as TGSy shit went and was pretty reasonable. Physically and practically I found that if I took a break from both it took the same amount of time to get back up to speed with things, but I found mentally for playing music it was much quicker to get my creative side back, whereas with trials it used to take me longer to start being able to come up with lines and to just be able to commit to stuff. I don't really know what else I would've chosen to put my energies into, really. Music's the obvious one, but the academic music route didn't really appeal to be me whatsoever after I went to a few open days and checked out a few universities. I definitely couldn't have broadened my horizons much without moving out, and the only practical way for me to do that was go to uni. Riding sort of expanded and covered pretty much everything I did/do, and led to me doing photography, led to my degree, has taken me on trips around Europe, etc. Can't really think of that many other things that would open up those sorts of possibilities really... EDIT: I actually find the music/riding thing the same with shooting photos. If I'm doing it a lot setting up and taking photos is quick and easy, and I find it easier to vary the angles I go for and come up with some more creative stuff. If I haven't done it for ages I find I "pull" more when I physically press the shutter, find it takes longer to set up and then also takes ages for me to get back to doing creative stuff again. Yeah, you've got the theory side behind music, and in effect only 8 notes to play with, but you could compare music theory and it's structure to the laws of nature which effect biking. Sure there a million and one different bikes out there which you can set up any which way, but you'll always be gouverned by gravity and the laws of physics, so as far as I see it, there's still a very solid framework which exists. I shouldn't have really put guitar when I talked about making music as it's a bit linear. When i make music I’ll use a vast array of instruments - one of my favourites being a synth. Whilst in essence those same 8 notes apply the way you play the instrument and shape the sounds is a lot more organic and natural so in that case then the music theory element fades away....this could then draw a more similar comparison with biking. Surely the 'let's do this' and the 'let's make this happy' mind-set can be applied equally to both activities? After all you don't have to adhere to the structure of traditional music. It's a bit like the difference between classical musicians and those such as Jimi. Both equally proficient and amazing, but have completely different approaches to achieving their end goal. I can see this in riding also. Whilst I’m not a great rider I find that I do ride in a natural way and don't necessarily conform to the (ideally suggested) mechanics behind any specific move. I've always liked to find my own way to ride and get up and over obstacles in a way that suits me. These on many occasions are not the ideal/most popular techniques but they suit me and feel very natural. What I’m saying is I don't feel I ride in a methodical way. I think there are riders who seem to be very conscious of what they're doing and ride in a very almost programmed fashion. For example whilst I think Euan Beaden is a fantastic rider with a huge amount of skill, his riding doesn't excite me as when I watch him it's like he's been given a list of commands and they are followed out methodically one by one. Strange comment I know, but it's what's always sprung to mind when watching. I could be massively wide of the mark, but something about it seems forced and almost robotic, or at least very pre-determined - it's like watching classical music equivalent of trials. My point is I don't really see there being a huge separation behind the mind-set of either activity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolfa Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 I would swap my trials ability for flatland BMXing or breakdancing, I'd keep my ability with all things cars exactly how it is, and I'd put all the bits and bobs of other things I'm capable of but not great at collectively into either guitar or drums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 Yeah, I thought you might take my reply that way I just meant that with music, if you're doing a bit of improv or writing a song in general you sort of know there are places you can go and places you can't (i.e. what's going to sound shit because it's going to be savagely out of tune, or massively out of time or whatever). I know that to an extent rules are there to be broken and that pushing them is what makes things more interesting, but you're still fundamentally more limited simply because of the instrument and the world you're operating in. I know that a bike is still effectively just an 'instrument' of riding and that it's physically limited in the same way that a musical instrument is, but for me a bike's less limited in it's output as you're not really as sort of restricted as you are with music. That's mainly in a guitar/bass/physical instrument sense rather than actually producing music from nothing where I'd say there's more scope for creation just because you have more control over the music itself in that context. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish-Finger-er Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 dancin... chicks love a guy that can dance. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isitafox Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 I have no rhythm whatsoever so whilst I would have loved to get into playing an instrument or breakdancing especially I guarantee I would have been even worse than I am on my bike. Would have loved the opportunity to get into go karting or some form of motorsport though at a youngish age! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete.M Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 I have no rhythm whatsoever so whilst I would have loved to get into playing an instrument or breakdancing especially I guarantee I would have been even worse than I am on my bike. Would have loved the opportunity to get into go karting or some form of motorsport though at a youngish age! If I actually had any trials skills then I'd also like to transfer them to driving in some way, really wish I could race more frequently, such a good adrenaline rush. I've never actually had any serious hobbies until trials came along, other than playing piano which I've lost enthusiasm for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Quinn Posted October 17, 2011 Report Share Posted October 17, 2011 Mario Kart on the N64. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anzo Posted October 17, 2011 Report Share Posted October 17, 2011 Probably golf or something like that.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikeperson45 Posted October 17, 2011 Report Share Posted October 17, 2011 Probably gymnastics, I've always wanted to be amazing at handstands. Actually, that could be achievable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simpson Posted October 18, 2011 Report Share Posted October 18, 2011 If you weren't that great at trials then you probably wouldn't be great at football. Its the same as everything you only get good by practice practice practice and determination if you don't bother then your never going to be great at anything. Obviously there is some genetics behind it but its more a case of how determined you are, ie. Messi should be shit at football he's a midget yet his focus and determination has got him to where he is now. I chose to be a jack of all trades master of none, I've played guitar, rugby, football, trials, BMX, badminton, swimming, cricket, gymnastics, golf...... probably loads more. I'm aright at everything I've done but never liked anything enough to commit to it fully and get properly good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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