Nathan Watson: Grown strong
By TMX Archives on 6th Aug 14
Nathan Watson has been making fast progress through the ranks with the 20-year-old just beginning to make his presence felt at world championship level.Kicking-off his race career at the age of nine, Nathan honed his skills at club level events before moving up to youth nationals in 2006 and three years later won the Red Bull Elite Youth Cup BW85cc title.He then stepped up to a 250F and in 2011 won BYMX and RBEYC Rookie championships.The success has kept on coming for the Nottingham-based rider son of Weston Beach Race legend Rob Meek and brother of teenage ace Ben and in 2014 his talenthas been rewarded with a fill-in ride for the Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing team.In Finland he rewarded his GP teams faith in him with an 11-12 card in the MXGP class which was good enough for 13th overall.TMX grabbed the chance to speak to Nathan for this quick Q&A...
TMX: What was your first experience on a motorbike?
NW: According to my parents I first rode a bike when I was just three years old in our field. It was a QR50.
TMX: What club did you start racing with and now that you're a big hit on the motocross scene do you still have contact with them?
NW: The first club I raced with was the Northampton club but we never stuck to one club, we just used to race whatever was on really. I don't have any contact with them now as I was never really a ‘member' as such.
TMX: You started racing at nine years old – did you have any other sporting interests when you were younger or was it just motocross?
NW: Motocross was just a hobby back then, we just used to go and ride on a Sunday for some fun. I was just a normal kid. I was in a football team, I played golf, tennis, badminton and I used to love going fishing.
TMX: Can you remember what it was like at your first race meeting?
NW: I can remember my first race like it was just yesterday. I remember being in the camper on the Saturday night before the race trying to sleep and I couldn't, I was so nervous! The race was a wash-out and it was such hard work – I ended up finishing third.
TMX: Were you successful in your first few years of racing?
NW: I was never successful when I first started racing – at club meetings I never used to win, I just made up
the numbers.I then started racing the nationals when I was on a SW85 but I only did them because my little brother was winning all the club races so we started going to nationals instead. I used to get lapped in my first year, that year was not fun.
The first time I won a national was the first round of the BYMX in 2009, I was in the BW85 class on a 150.
I had a good bike from PAR Honda which was very unusual for me – normally I would have one bike for the season which was totally stock and just generally a nail.
Winning that first race was such a big deal to me as I'd come from winning nothing and I remember having tears in my eyes when I crossed the line. From there I just wanted to keep on winning as I knew how good it felt.
TMX: For serious riders fitness training is an essential part of being race ready. At what age did you start to supplement your riding with other forms of training?
NW: I never ever trained for racing until the winter of 2012/2013.
The 2012 season was my first year racing in the Maxxis and the step from youth racing to pro racing was big and the intensity was so much higher that I realised in order to do well I'd need to start training so I could push hard in these races.
So after that season I started to train.
TMX: How does this differ to the amount of training you have to do now?
NW: When I first started training I didn't have any guidance, I just tried to do basic exercise on a regular basis.
Nothing fancy, just common things like cycling and running. It improved me a lot.
Since then I've learned more just from speaking to people and from experience but I've still never had a personal trainer or a training programme.
I just do my own thing but each year I try to step up the amount of training that I do.
TMX: Nutrition is key to all sports and all kids like a McDonald's now and then. Were you strict with your diet or did you just eat what you fancied?
NW: When I was younger I never worried about what I ate as motocross wasn't serious – I just ate what I wanted, when I wanted like any other kid.
However, when I started fitness training for motocross I thought to myself it would be a waste of time training if I didn't eat correctly.
So I started to eat healthily. Fortunately, I really enjoy healthy food and I'd choose it over unhealthy food even if I wasn't racing or training.
TMX: Trying to make it as a motocross rider while having to be in full-time education is something a lot of young riders struggle with so how did you manage to get a good balance between riding and studying? Did school give you any allowance?
NW: My mum was always really strict with us about going to school every day so I never missed school to go riding. There were exceptions sometimes – like if we were racing abroad I could take the Friday off – but it was a rare occasion. Other than that my school attendance was 100 per cent.
We never asked the school to give me an allowance of days when I could go riding as mum wouldn't let me go anyway. I don't believe youth racers should leave school for racing as school is a massive life experience that can't be replayed in the future.
TMX: One of the hardest parts of being at the top of your sport is dealing with injuries. Have you had many bad crashes?
NW: Every motocross racer will get injured at some point and have big crashes, it's just a part of racing that we have to get use to.
TMX: Your younger brother Ben is a pretty awesome rider too. Do you think it has helped to have him snapping at your heels?
NW: I think if it wasn't for Ben I wouldn't be where I am today. He always won when he was racing in the youth ranks and I was always looking in from the sidelines.
So although I didn't know it, I probably learned what it was like to win and about the pressure even though I wasn't on the receiving end.
We go practising together and he is always fast so I always have somebody pushing me. I also learn from watching him as he is a pretty naturally-talented rider.
Ben also took a lot of pressure off me when we were younger because the spotlight was always on him so I could just enjoy racing at my own pace whereas Ben always had my dad pushing him.
