Roaring around on a motorbike since the age of four, Mexican Enduro rider Homero Diaz has built a whole life around the world of off-road, two-wheel racing ever since. He'd already won his first race by the time he was eight and is not only a three-time National Mexican Enduro Champion, but also a three-time Latin-American title holder. We had the chance to interview him to know more about how he gets into flow:
Cameron: I guess we start off with what might you know about flow, and what your experience is to date, and then maybe go into questions you might have around the state, and then go into a little bit about what we can do in the future, and the rest of it. Sound good?
Homero: Yep.
Cameron: What's your current understanding of flow? Can you explain a flow experience that you've had?
Homero: Well, I ve been thinking a lot about this since the first message that I got from you, and I think it relates to that moment. Well, I guess the connection we have, you and I, is because of the sport I practice, right? So, I think the main thing about flow is that moment when you stop, when you stop seeing stuff and you start feeling stuff. Like, in my sport it's during a special test or a track or whatever, and you feel more alive. Like, the way you enter into a turn, or the way the bumps feel, or the jumps feel, or the ~rides~ or whatever; it's more about feeling than seeing I guess, and it also translates into everything being in slow motion I guess, but it doesn't mean you're going slow; it just means that your brain is really, really clear, that it makes you comprehend the experience really well. That's the reason why you feel everything in slow motion, because you comprehend it really, really well and so clear.
Cameron: Yeah. And can you explain a moment or a previous experience that you might have had, either at a tournament, or just you your biggest or best ever flow experience?
Homero: Probably when It comes up a bit more as a surprise when you are starting to become a better rider, and all of a sudden you start figuring it out. Now with more experience it easier to get into that flow, but when I was starting to become a better rider, close to 2003 and 2004 when everything started, when I was racing ~the Worlds~... It would have been like on a very, very long special test during an enduro race, where it was [03:00] probably a 12- or 15-minute special test, which in our sport is a really long special test; a 15-minute special test is a really long one.
When you get out of the special test, and you say "Oh man it went through really fast!" or "It went through really easy!" that when you understand that something happened. At that time I didn t know what had happened, but now with more experience I know that I had gone into a really good flow or a really good sense of concentration, and now I can get it really easy. But it takes time, it not easy, it not an easy process to get into that state of mind. So, probably during those stages. Usually I remember that the Scandinavian races were the ones that had the longest special tests all the time.
Like, a really short one was eight minutes and the really long one was a 15-minute special test. That took us about, I don't know, about 12-15 minutes to ride on the motorcycle. So, being on the same level of flow from the beginning to the end of the special test is really hard, and usually I used to get it from the mid-point on, but when you start getting it from the start to the end, that when you know that things are happening the right way, you know.
Cameron: Yeah, for sure. And what helps you get into that space? Is there anything specific that you focus on beforehand, during, after, or you kind of manage in your mind the motions, or externally?
Homero: Well, I guess being relaxed, and trying to focus on that exact moment, although what I like to do is just think on that precise special test. I don't try to think about the whole picture, I want to focus on that moment only.
Well, in our sport we walk the special tests before, and we're not allowed to use any vehicle. Like a bicycle, we cannot use a bicycle to walk the special test it has to be by foot. So, when I get to the special test now on the motorcycle, I like to focus on what I walked, what I saw, and then try to use little pieces of that special test, and then connect. Like, if it was a 10-minute special test I would probably remember the first three minutes, and then from then on I would remember the second three minutes, and so on.
Because sometimes it just too much information to learn right away, so when you know how to divide a whole in fractions, it really easy to become one with the track and one with the motorcycle, and that way at the end you start flowing more and more. You know, as I told you before, it's hard at the beginning, at the beginning of a sports career, but then with more experience you learn how to connect each and every dot with more accuracy and more speed.
Cameron: So you break the course down into small little steps, remembering each one. Do you visualise what your perfect route between it, and then the next bit and then the next bit, and then add them up as you go along? Is that what you re saying?
Homero: Yeah, exactly. And the way I do it is I try to relate little things which can make me remember the whole course. I don t know, let's say if I was walking the test with one of my buddies and he started all of a sudden talking about the party he had a few years before or one week before, I say "Okay, this is this straightaway where we talked about the bar or the party, you know, and then I relate that session to memorise the next thing. And then we say "Oh, look at that tree it looks like a bird!" or whatever, and then I say "Okay, okay this is a turn right before the tree." Then we see whatever, or we hear a sound, "This is the downhill right before we heard the sound."
It's a bit hard to explain, but once you start connecting all those little things that happen, all of a sudden you're going to remember a 12-minute special test; exactly where you need to break, where you need to ~stand~, where you need to accelerate, what kind of obstacles you need to avoid or what obstacle you can use to increase the speed on a little section, you know. I've done many, many races all over the world, and I know how to relate to make it easy to remember.
Cameron: What do you do just before the race starts? Are you focusing on those small little chunks and visualising your way around the course, or what are you doing? Because obviously the heart beating, you're getting aroused. What allows you to plug in?
Homero: Well usually we talk about before a race as like 30 minutes before or so, but I like to talk about before a race the night before a race, which is one of the most important moments, because the way you sleep is going to be the way you race most of the time. So, when I go to bed before a race I try to remember all the little things that I saw during my ~walk out~, you know, and that the way I fall asleep. I close my eyes and I start remembering the whole track or the whole course, and if I fall asleep before I finish the track that's good, that's no problem.
But you have to start getting into your racing mode before the race, and that way the next day you wake up and you're starting to get more ready and more ready and more ready. It's like going into a room, and getting ready. When you start getting closer you start feeling it; every step you feel it more and more, and you need to be more concentrated. I mean, most of the riders that I know, the professional riders, we get into a sense that, I don t know, either you get more serious, or you get louder, or you smile more... It all depends on how you approach your race.
For example, I just get I mean. Outside the races I like to be very smiley and a very funny guy and everything, but when the race goes, when I'm starting to get close to the race in racing mode, I get really serious. That's when I guess that sometimes when the people know you, they know you when you're racing, and they say "Oh, this guy is really cocky, and this guy is really serious." Because that's ~our office~, you know, that what we do for work. I'm going to work to the races, and I'm just being serious, because I take it really, really seriously. And that's a state of mind also, because we're used to getting serious when it's time to work, you know.
Cameron: That kind of leading up to so maybe from 30 minutes until before you start, do you have any kind of preparation? Do you try and listen to music, do you try and zone out, do you try and have a laugh, do you just try and relax, or you focus on doing your equipment?
Homero: No, I most of the time I have rubber bands hanging on the canopies or the tents on our team, and I start warming up, doing a lot of moving. I usually start from the bottom up ankles then calves then knees and so on until the neck and I'm I don't know, I have this idea that I need to start sweating before the race starts, and that's how I want it to be. It helps me get in the mood a little bit easier. I'm already having my muscles a little bit ready, my heart rate is a little bit up, and then everything starts to click in, and then when we put our bikes in the impound, we impound our bikes 30 minutes before, so we have those 30 minutes of free time to warm up or do whatever we want.
So, from the moment we impound I start doing all my warm-up, and I prep my goggles and everything I prep all that just to have something to do during my free time. And then once the race starts it just I mean, again, go with the flow, you know, whatever happens, happens. But I try to concentrate on every special test, you know, I take it easy. Like, when I go to the special test one, I remember special test one that's it; I don't have to start remembering about special test two. Then when I get to special test two I remember only special test two. I like to divide everything by fractions. Then if we're going to be doing 16 special tests at the end of the day, you know, it's just that; just remember pieces, little pieces of the whole thing.
Cameron: And what do you do in the last 30 seconds before the lights go on, or you're ready to go? What are you focusing on, what are you preparing?
Homero: Well every single time right before starting a special test I put the bike in neutral. Let me show you what I do. [laughs] I'm like this, and I do my hands like this and I rub them, I rub my hands to create a little bit of energy that way, and that way if you start thinking more about energy and becoming one with your own self and all that, and especially when I was taught by my dad that when you do this you cannot be sad, you know. Like, if you go like this you always smile, and you create energy, so that's one of the things I do. I clap my hands, I clap my hands really hard, then I rub them, and then I start. You'll see me do that in every single special test from 2004 to today.
Cameron: Yeah, nice! Perfect that's a really good cue!
Homero: Yeah. [laughs]
Cameron: Yeah.
Homero: That's my secret! [laughs]
Cameron: Yeah awesome! Have you ever tried to feel that energy? So, when you rub your hands, and then you keep rubbing them, can you feel like almost as if you ve got two different magnets pushing against each other?
Homero: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cameron: Can you feel that?
Homero: Yeah.
Cameron: So then do that, and then try and widen it and get it kind of bigger, and you might need to push in to feel that resistance, so almost you can feel that energy. Can you feel that?
Homero: Yeah, yeah.
Cameron: Yeah? And then try and get it big so it like a football.
Thanks Homer for this interview