Those Daredevils

I was watching some motocross trick jumping thing the other day, and it got me thinking: How the heck do you practice those tricks? I compare it to my own experiences learning how to flip and do other stuff off a diving board. Whenever I tried to learn a new dive, I would "bust" at least 5 or 6 times before I could get it right. That is fine when you are jumping a couple of feet into water, but it seems to me that it would not be very safe when jumping 40 feet in the air on a motorcycle. What happens when you chicken out right after you jump like I did on so many gainers? The worst thing that would happen to me was falling on the side of my face and getting an ear ache. I guess a lot of motocross people just die. That's why there's that saying within the motocross community, "A motocross rider who doesn't have big balls and isn't really gutsy dies because he will chicken out while doing a trick, and those with guts will die because they will over-rotate their first time trying a new trick, so basically all motocross riders die trying a new trick." That saying has been criticized as being too long and wordy, but people said the same thing about Moby Dick. This fits, because a good metaphor for people trying new tricks on motorcycles is Captain Ahab trying to kill a whale with a sharp metal stick while only having the use of one leg.