Competence
is 'Good Enough'
By: James R. Davis
'Competent' means having the knowledge, skills, and ability to deal with virtually any issue that you will be confronted with. But it is not a universal characterization. Being competent at doing slow-speed tight turns does not in any way suggest that you are also competent when it comes to braking, for example.
Furthermore, being competent must be taken in a meaningful context. If you are a newbie attending your first rider training course, when you perform a quick-stop it is an indication of braking competence to be able to stop your motorcycle at an average deceleration rate of 0.6g's while maintaining control, starting at a speed of 20 MPH.
That ability, however, is FAR from being an indication of braking competence when describing a rider's braking capabilities riding on public roads.
And then there is the concept of being 'good enough'. What does that mean?
I suggest that a healthy definition of being 'good enough' is having the knowledge, skills, and ability to deal with virtually any issue that you will be confronted with. That's exactly the same definition as I presented above for 'competent'. And I mean it to be.
In a recent debate I had with a group of instructors, those who should know better, they invariably elected to challenge that definition in favor of one which implied that being 'good enough' was an unacceptable compromise made by a rider who chooses not to be as good as he or she can be - at whatever skill they were talking about. Invariably they used the 'good enough' phrase as a pejorative.
How unfortunate. Instructors should have as their number one objective teaching their students to be competent - good enough.
(Coaches, on the other hand, are missioned to help competent students learn how to become as good as they can be - not just competent. And I DO NOT mean RiderCoaches here.)
This may sound like semantics, but it's not. There are lots of people who will never become 'competent' at a skill, even if they perform at the very best they can.
Where am I going with this tip? I want to make the case for all riders becoming and maintaining competence with their motorcycles and deciding for themselves that that level of skill is good enough. And that's where practice comes in.
If all you want to do is pass a training course, being able to achieve an average 0.6g's deceleration rate and remaining in control starting at 20 MPH is good enough for you - unless you then want to ride on public roads. Achieving an average 0.8g's deceleration rate is good enough (competent) if you want to ride public roads.
So let's deal with the concept of never being 'good enough' - that is, believing that your practice should always be designed to make you 'better' than you are. (Nonsense, to my mind.)
Though it sounds just fine, in fact attempting to always be better at a skill than you are is insane. It is a prescription for failure, injury and possibly death. It presumes that you are never good enough unless you are perfect - that is, never.
Imagine, for example, running toward the edge of a cliff and having a desire to see how close to that edge you can get when you stop. Sooner or later you will go over the cliff - and it only takes once to end your riding career.
Being the best you can be has great merit, so long as that is a target close to being 'competent'.
And never forget that while maintaining your competence you will sooner or later discover that you are growing older - and your reflexes and balance, or eye sight, or stamina, or heart, etc. is no longer what it used to be. In other words, being the best you can be may no longer be 'competent'. Are you going to let an instructor tell you that you should continue to strive for being better than you are? Do you think that there are many 60+ year-old world-class anythings out there?
Your personal objectives should be competence - good enough. If you want to become a competitor, world-class or otherwise, get a coach to help (or dissuade) you and let the instructors with 'happy talk' play with newbies.
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(James R. Davis is a recognized expert witness in the fields of Motorcycle Safety/Dynamics.)
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