Chatter Box: Andrew Short

Q:    Through your career you’ve been on big teams, small teams… You’ve been on kind of everything. Now it’s you are the team. How is that different from some of the other ones?

A:    Yeah, I’ve ridden for a lot of teams. For MotoWorld… I even rode for Pro Circuit for the first three races in my pro career as a Team Green deal. Then Factory Honda, KTM, and now a satellite team with Honda with Supercross.com. It’s been cool to see all the pluses and minuses, the negatives and the cool things of all the teams. I’m really enjoying this year. I’m the only guy which is cool in a lot of ways because Larry, he can help me out with riding. All the focus is kind of on me and the bike and everything. So, that’s a big advantage for me. The disadvantage is I have to hold up the team; everyone is kind of relying on me. But, I’ll take it. I love it. It’s been fun so far. Obviously with Jeremy, his presence is really cool. It’s fun to be around him at the races and still being involved with all the Honda guys. I’m buddies with all those guys, so it’s a cool scenario for me. I’ve been enjoying it. Now that I’m getting healthy hopefully I can start taking advantage of it.


Q:    I watched your bike last week after the race. It didn’t roll into the Supercross.com semi; it rolled into the Honda Factory semi to go back home. Is it good getting that back to that kind of support again?

A:    Yeah, it’s cool. I knew going into it that I’d be working with the Honda guys. That was a huge relief for me. I really wanted to be on good equipment this year and I knew what Honda had to offer in the past. They’re the best with equipment and the technical side of it, with the crew that they’ve assembled. And then adding in Larry and his guys and all, it’s just like I have double the opinions and crew that kind of make me the best I can with the bike. So, I’m really lucky with that to have their support and to have everything done at Honda at the workshop is a big benefit.


Q:    You talked about Larry and working with him. How is he as a coach? Is he a super-intense guy, super-focused? How is he compared to some of the other guys you’ve worked with?

A:    Yeah, Larry is awesome because he takes the time to go to the track and he’ll do whatever. He’s crazy. I knew he was crazy, but I thought he’d get more mean and like aggro. He’s been really cool so far. I haven’t had any shovels thrown at me or anything. That’s an inside joke; as soon as I get the shovel thrown at me I’m in big trouble. But, he has a lot of info and knowledge to pass on. He has a lot of experience. He’s been so successful in the past, I think there’s a lot for me to benefit from. Obviously speed is one of the elements I’m missing and he’s been really instrumental in trying to get me to that next level. We knew coming into the season that I was a little off the pace because my elbows were injured, so we didn’t have the off-season to prepare like I wanted to, and that he wanted to. But I felt like we were getting better. I started off with a 7th, then a 6th. I crashed at L.A. Then 5th in Oakland, and I crashed again last week on the first lap. I’m definitely doing better and my speed has been better. It’s not going to come overnight but the key is taking those little stepping stones and getting there once by the middle to the end of the season and we’ll be happy.


Q:    How has the progression been on wrists and elbows and all that?

A:    My wrist is no big deal. My elbows, man, they were tough. It was hard to get over. I thought it was going to be easier than what it was. I started riding and I thought the progression was going to be a lot faster. It took a while. Sometimes I would over jump a jump and I felt horrible pain and stuff like that. But, I’m all good now. Especially once I made it through the first race, the first couple. I never had problems in there. I think they’re pretty much as healed as they’re going to get. I don’t have good extension with my left one, but I’m happy to start chipping away and getting better week in and week out.

Q:    We’re maybe a third of the way through the season so far. What’s your take on how you’ve done and everything else?

A:    So far this season has kind of gone how I envisioned. I hoped to be a little faster initially. But I’ve gotten better as the season goes, and I knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight. As long as I can keep taking these steps and not go flat and stale and stay the same I’ll be happy. I think that’s the biggest thing, is just to keep pushing. I know Larry’s not going to settle, and I think that’s really good for me to kind of have that mentality.


Q:    For Supercross, to stay peaked through that whole thing… How do you do that?

A:    You don’t stay peaked through the season. I think it’s just managing it and being smart and knowing when to push and when to pull back. It’s a fine balance. What works for one person isn’t going to work for another. Everybody recovers at a different rate. Some people can ride more than others. I think that’s where experience kind of pays off. You’ve got to know your body. You’ve got to know how you’ve responded in past seasons. Whoever manages that the best is who’s going to come through strong at the end of the season. For me, I want to keep pushing and get my speed better. I think my endurance is fine and all that. You don’t really have to start worrying about that more until Outdoors gets closer. But, I think for me it’s just like speed, speed, speed. It is a long season but it’s going to be a lot more fun if you have the speed to run with those top five guys.



Q:    Finding the speed though, you’d have to push to one hundred percent… You can go sixty, seventy, eighty percent pretty easily all day long. But to push that extra bit…

A:    Yeah. That’s why I keep saying I want to keep taking little steps because if you take that a big step that’s going to end up on your head and you can’t sustain it for very long. If you do you’re going to have a big one and crash and be out for a while. That’s why I want to take little steps. I think with Larry can achieve that and be realistic with where we’re at and where we need to be and where we want to be. I think that’s how we’re approaching it.