As I've said before, I didn't grow up riding dirt. I have nothing but respect for all of you who did, but that wasn't how my childhood went. And so, I missed out on what seem to be some pretty key skills for motorcycle riding. Yes, street and dirt and track riding (and ice riding, for that matter) are all different disciplines. But there's a reason that every off-road instructor I've ever talked to has said it's a lot easier to teach dirt riders how to function on the street than it is the other way around.
Going to BMW's US Riders Academy to try to develop any level of adventure riding skills (my skills were practically nonexistent, I'll remind you) was a truly encouraging, much chiller experience than you maybe might expect. I was nervous when I started, sure; but chatting with my classmates before we got out on the range, as well as in between exercises, really seemed like it helped us all to put our minds at ease.
And once our instructors got us acquainted with our bikes, and had us do balance exercises to familiarize ourselves more viscerally with these machines we'd be partnering with, it went surprisingly smoothly. Well, except for all the falling (especially on my part). But we quickly learned that falling is just a normal part of off-road riding, and pretty much everyone who wasn't an instructor did it at least a couple of times.
