There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the arrival of the Ricky Carmichael University (RCU) in Australia during December, marking the first time ever that the ‘GOAT’ of motocross visits our country. MotoOnline.com.au had the opportunity to speak with RC about his high profile international program, prior to the events at Appin, NSW, (2-3 December) and Coolum, QLD, (5 December). For further details and to book your position, be sure to visit www.rickycarmichaeluniversity.com.

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First of all, thank you on behalf of the Australian fans and industry for bringing RCU down to Australia next month. It should be an amazing experience for those involved.

Yeah, I’m really excited to come down to Australia – I have never been there before. I have always felt that I have had a great fan base in Australia. The Australian fans have always been really welcoming to me, which I’m very thankful for. I don’t think words can really describe how excited I am to come to the country, I’ve always heard great things about it. I have a great amount of respect for the country. I’m happy to come first and foremost and be able to bring the RCU to the riders and have some fun and help them get better and also put on a really good experience for them. Not everybody is able to come to America and get to these places and experience something like this, so for us to be able to get the support from all of our great sponsors to step up and really make it happen for us to put something on over there, it’s definitely special for me. I just really hope that everyone who is coming will have a great time. That’s what we are working on, to make it a fun experience.

For those who may not be aware, tell us about RCU, its history and the concept behind it.

So about five years ago we set out and we wanted to have something like fantasy camp, if you will. A lot of the athletes here in America – stick and ball sports – have these fantasy camps, so we wanted to try something like that and bring that program to moto. Myself, JH and Tim Carter from MX Sports was a huge help in the early years and putting the program together, we came up with the Ricky Carmichael University and the concept of it. What we wanted to do was bring a group of coaches together, some of the guys who I really look up to and admire and have a lot of respect for – the two Jeffs, Jeff Emig and Jeff Stanton, are on our staff fulltime for all the RCUs where ever we go. We put that together and that was kind of our base if you will and go to these places and these markets, whether it’s in Europe or where ever it may be, and bring to these riders and fans an experience that they wouldn’t get. So that is how the concept really came up. We wanted to give back and bring a cool experience to these folks and help them be better riders and achieve their goals as riders and racers and also have a good time. With that experience, you know, we wanted to give back; we give them prizes, gift bags and things like that. It’s not just I’ll come and I’ll work with you and then send you on your way, it’s the full deal. We feed them, we give them swag bags, certification, pictures, autographs. We really mingle with everybody. It’s a fun day of riding and coaching. That is what the concept was all about, really. Yes it is a day of learning, but it is also meant to be about an experience as well.

Between yourself, Emig and Stanton being involved in the program, that’s a lot of experience there. Not just on the bike in terms of winning championships in your career, but in general, three different eras in a sense. So it’s pretty unique to have you three guys combine for everybody as well…

Yeah, you’re exactly right. For someone like you, you understand it, and for the older crowd, because you know we get a lot of vet riders, they know they are not going to be professionals, but they just want to learn a little bit and quite honestly they just want to hang out with, whether it’s Stanton, Emig or myself. We’ve got basically 10 years between all three of us. Each era was different, a different style of racing. Jeff had his approach to racing, I had my approach to racing and Stanton had his approach, so I think if the people can come away with a little bit from each guy then that is what it’s all about. It’s cool to listen to each one’s philosophy and if you can take a little bit from me on how I approached racing, a little bit from ‘Fro’ and a little bit from Stanton, I think you would have yourself a good recipe. We have a lot of championships between the three of us, so we bring a lot of heat and that was part of the plan when we set it up together.

In terms of the education side of things, as you said, it caters for the upcoming racers and the more casual, older generation guys as well. But how in depth does it go for the fundamentals and onto the kids who really do want to become pros?

That’s a great question, and to be honest with you, we have tailored our program to where we can handle each situation per their talent level. We have an intermediate class, then we have the 80s group and a 60 group, then we have an expert group and a novice group. So everything is tailored. When a novice group comes through my section, you have to work a little bit more on fundamentals, you know? That’s just how we tackle the novice riders – we group all the novices together, that way it doesn’t get confusing. You don’t have a pro guy with a novice. That way a lot of the fundamentals, I’ll work with the novice, and the intermediate rider we will teach them more advanced stuff. Then the expert riders, they are at a level – and you would know this – where it’s more of an approach game to me and how you approach each obstacle or corners. It’s all about the approach because most of them have the fundamentals and the skills. It’s all about the positioning and being in the right spot, so you have the best outcome. So really that is how we do it and it’s easy. Hopefully that answered your question. Then we have like a Q&A session, which I think a lot of people can get, if you want to be pro, and these guys want to take it to the next level. We really get in depth there – that’s our approach and philosophy to winning. It’s how I think you should do it, how Stanton or how Emig thinks how you should do it. That’s where everyone just kinda listens. Because they do have a lot of questions such as ‘how did you get so good?’ or ‘what did you do to get so good?’ and fun stuff like that. That caters for everybody. We really have a good routine. It becomes super-easy to teach and get the message across.

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It’s a fine art to simplify it in terms of how long you have to work with them and catering to each student’s skills and experience…

Yeah, it works well. We have a really good process. We will have four instructors – myself, Emig, Stanton and one other instructor as a guest. Depending on what country it is, we will have one guest instructor. We will bust the track out in four sections. I’ll take some corners, like an S corner section. Emig always does the starts, so he always does the starts, then the other two instructors will take like the rhythm section or a sand roller section, just depending on the conditions. We try and break it up, so each discipline of the track, we get to teach. Each group will alternate like 45 minutes to an hour with each instructor, so we really get a lot of good, quality time with them and in that one particular section. So if I have a section that is like only two corners, it take only six seconds to go through, so that’s a long time in an hour. We have a really good routine and that is how we penetrate each group and really get the message across and are able to spend time with each individual rider and work hard on that, so everyone feels like that they got their own personal time.

One aspect of the ‘experience’ and that side of it is – for a guy like yourself who is heavily associated with Suzuki, Fox and your other supporters that have been behind you and a lot of things that you do – it’s a good commercial opportunity to come out to Australia and be involved with the local sector of those brands as well. It all works in hand in hand from what I can see.

100 percent. We’ve got some great supporters behind us and when I think of our great support from Monster and Fox, who are the two big staples, and Suzuki has been a big part of my program as well, but Monster and Fox have really stepped up to the plate and have played a huge part in the success of the RCU. It’s good. It’s good branding for them and great branding for me and this RCU has really grown itself as a brand. When you think of RCU, it’s always the Monster and Fox and Rocky Mountain has really stepped up in the last year and a half, which we are really thankful for. For me personally and the Ricky Carmichael brand, it really works well going to Australia or going to Europe and being a brand ambassador on top of going out and hosting an RCU.

One of your great rivals in your career and also now a friend of yours, Chad Reed, comes from Australia and I guess it’s pretty unique to now get to see the see the base where he comes from. It’s rare that an Australian really makes it in America and then to be one of the best ever is a major accomplishment.

I think it’s awesome! I am really excited to go there. We flew home together on the same flight from Las Vegas and I told him that I am so excited to go and check Australia out. I have a lot of respect for Chad, I mean, I know we were fierce competitors and we definitely had our moments, but at the end of the day I think we both respected eachother tremendously. We raced 98 percent of the time very respectfully and I knew he was legit and believe he felt the same of me. Looking back on it, I enjoyed the rivalry. I really did. I’m happy to go and check out his homeland. I also have to thank my Australian fans, because even when we were battling it out in rivalries, the Australian fans were very supportive of me, so I have to give it up to them. I wish Chad could have been a part of [RCU], but he’s still in racing, so maybe when he retires we can come back down to Oz and get him to come and be an instructor with us.

Just to wrap it up, obviously you are heavily involved with RCU, plus you co-own the RCH Racing Team, host the Daytona Amateur Supercross and have your commentary commitments as well. Life is obviously pretty good after racing. Are you enjoying all of that side of it?

Yeah, I’m not going to lie, sometimes I am busier than I want to be, but in the grand scheme of life I’m still pretty young. I still try and be as active as I can and give back to the sport that gave me every opportunity that has provided me a great life for me. So the least I can do is be around the people who are like family to me that I have been around since I was like five/six years old and keep giving back. I enjoy what I do and I’m to the point in my life where the older I get the more I appreciate everything, so it’s fun. I’m in the position now where I am able to do what I want to do, so that’s great and I’m very thankful for that. None of it would have been possible without motocross, so I love giving back and being a part of it.