Marcin Glowacki Profile

Marcin Glowacki is a three-time stunt riding world champion and a multiple winner of prestigious European competitions and the American XDL series. After Stunters Battle we stayed with him and visited a training session. It was interesting to see how a top rider trains and prepares for competitions. Marcin lives near a free lot in a small town. He trains every day unless it rains, usually in the afternoon, since he is busy at work in the first half of the day. Formally Marcin is not a full-time pro rider, as he has a job unrelated to stunt riding. He comes to training with his brother Sebastian, who trains with him. The length and intensity of training always vary and depend on his mood and how he feels. Marcin has no fixed system.

During the competition season he hardly spends any time learning new tricks, although he can learn any trick in one or two sessions. Being able to do a trick in training is not enough to include it in a competition routine. For that you need to be able to do the trick on any asphalt, without a warm-up, in any conditions, at freestyle pace: that is a completely different approach and training time, which is only available at the start of the season. For us he did a whip 360 in a few attempts; he learned it long ago but didn't practice it or perform it in competitions. Marcin said: «When I learned it, nobody was putting 360s into their routines yet, so I didn't polish this whip. Next season, of course, I will train it properly. Without a 360 it is already hard to fight for first place.» When we asked him to do a kangaroo 360, Marcin first looked at the rear tire; it was covered in cracks. «No problem, it's good for a few dozen more jumps.»

First run: a dozen attempts, a couple of them successful but with a foot touching the asphalt on the exit. A break, second run: a dozen attempts, two clean. Before this Marcin hadn't even tried this trick. Marcin deliberately did the kangaroo 360 seated. That way he can replace the regular kangaroo in his routine, and it's different from everyone else. Overall, what stood out was that Marcin doesn't practice tricks separately at all. Everything he did separately was specially for us. Each session always starts with a warm-up (a few stoppies, coasters, a bit of acrobatics). After that, only various combos. Most are from his routine, some are improvisation, some are possible replacements for existing ones, but only combos, no separate tricks.

For a top rider the goal is not to land a trick at all: he can learn any trick in a couple of sessions. The goal is to do the trick at pace, linked with others, to switch quickly after a mistake or change the combo on the fly if something goes wrong. Marcin always trains in full riding gear!

Of course, it would have been great to do an interview, but Marcin doesn't speak English well yet. We hope it works out next year!