About Ken Hill
Ken Hill is considered the top motorcycle riding coach in the United States. He bought his first motorcycle at age 30 and started road racing the very same year. Despite starting late in life, he went on to set track records and win class championships in California before making his professional debut, finishing top ten nationally in AMA Superbike at age 41. Ken’s passion for learning and, ultimately, bettering the sport, led him to retire from racing in 2007 and devote himself full-time to coaching.
As a coach, Ken has produced and worked with national championship winning riders. He first started coaching at the Freddie Spencer High Performance Riding School from 2003-2008, first as a guest and then as lead instructor. He then served as lead instructor for its successor, the Yamaha Champions Riding School, until 2015. He also led and developed the curriculum for the Rick Development Camp for aspiring championship racers, acted as head coach, riding program director, and crew chief for the Rickdiculous racing team, ran an off-road school, and directed riding programs and held schools and training seminars for track day organizers and riders throughout California and the Pacific Northwest. Showing the application of his methodology to all riders, Ken has even instructed at the Harley Davidson University and provided online coaching via the previously car-only Blayze Coaching platform. He now works independently, through his private coaching company, Ken Hill Coaching, training both riders and drivers in all aspects of motorsports.
Outside of coaching, Ken has also been a contributing writer for RoadRacing World and Cycle World magazines, led press introductions for Buell, Harley Davidson, Triumph, and Pirelli Tires, served as a test rider, and been invited to guest speak at Yale University, Nike, and Google. Ken also maintains a successful podcast series on SoundCloud and Apple podcasts.
KEN’S METHODOLOGY: THE ORDER OF THE SPORT
Alarmed and frustrated by the extent of misinformation and inexpert advice in the racing and recreational riding communities, Ken has dedicated himself to establishing a culture of professional coaching on par with what’s long been standard in any other high-performance sport. While other sports — from football, baseball, to martial arts and beyond — follow highly standardized training fundamentals, motorcycle riding has traditionally been regarded as an “art”, where riders’ subjective technical preferences have superseded their pursuit of objective technique or expertise. As a result, many riders assume there is no clear-cut pathway to technical improvement. Instead, they believe that natural talent is the secret to (and, thus, limiter of) skilled riding; a myth that discourages training and, too often, leads riders to abandon the sport.
The motorsport industry’s lack of consensus around training fundamentals has stalled progress in the sport, for instructors as well as riders. Drawing on his many years of riding and coaching experience, Ken’s unique approach has been to analyze what the best riders in the world do, decode it, and then develop a methodology to teach these habits and techniques that are accessible to riders of all levels. Ken’s Order of the Sport not only identifies the fundamentals of motorcycle riding but comprises an unambiguous (and unprecedented) pathway for learning those fundamentals and improving technique. Ken’s intent is to standardize both the language used to describe motorcycle riding techniques — as well as the method for teaching — to both riders and instructors, whether street or track. He also embraces training both on and off the bike; developing a theoretical understanding is necessary to and facilitates the development of physical skills.
The success of Ken’s methodology is clear when you look at the success of the MotoAmerica riders he has coached, including two-time MotoAmerica champion JD Beach and the Rickdiculous Racing team to amass over a total of over 140 MotoAmerica podiums. Ken has also helped countless non-racers, club racers, and other non-professional riders over the years. As Ken puts it: “I don’t train ‘racers’ or ‘street riders’ — I simply teach people how to be better motorcycle riders.”
