Procoaches...can you fix the reasonable man?

Indy racer Alex LLoyd wrote about 3 driver types:
1-idiot = enters the corner thinking, "I am going to attack this corner at breakneck speed and the car will stick and I will control any handling deficiencies that present themselves." you know Mr. Flatout.
2-reasonable man = "if I get this wrong, I will crash and I will most likely die."
3-who we aspire to be = ready to take his car to the edge and, more importantly, knows he has the skills to handle it there.

My question to Procoaches and other wheel to wheel racers can you fix the reasonable man to become driver #3?

In martial arts before Bruce Lee, students sweep the dojo, listen but not understand musings of the sensei, and spent years sometimes a lifetime learning what we consider rudimentary in martial arts today. BruceLee was not responsible for a particular martial art but cracking the code on radically changing the teaching method that makes the great fighters we have today. Does something like this exist for racing? What componants take you from driver #2 to driver #3?

I'm not concerned about the idiot I beleive you can't fix stupid so that is not an issue.

Comments?

 

Yes, I was the reasonable man once. A long time ago.

 

Did you become driver #3 and what was your path and how long did it take?

 

I would think that most people start out as #2 and progress to #3.

#1s tend to have short and spectacular careers

 

Yes, I started as a 2 and I'd say it took the equivalent of three, dedicated full seasons to get to 3. My path is more convoluted than most. For me, driver development never ceases and is always an ongoing process. Now I'm at a different point in my development that few people understand.

 

can you elaborate?

we understand you, b-mak

 

When driving fast the more you think about it the slower you go. That is not to say that dumb people are the fastest but there needs to be an ability for you to shut off constant self-analysis when you are in the act if you are to be fast.

A perfect example is running down a flight of stairs. The more you think about it the slower you can descend. Try thinking left foot right foot and you will fall right on your face. This ability to shut off your appraisal of what you are doing and then to focus on excecuting is the one critical component that I believe will elevate a driver from #2 to #3.

There is plenty of time for analysis after the fact but being reasonoable in the act is a sure fire way of being slow.

Now how do you achieve this? The best book I ever read on the subject is Performance Thinking:

http://www.performanceprime.com/book-performancethinking.htm

The author is a personal friend and I consider the book to be first rate reading for anyone trying to increase their performance.

 

I don't know if you can "coach" an attitude adjustment, such as this. You can certainly help through the power of positive thinking, but people also come with their own baggage. And, much money and attention goes into the "mental" game at high sporting levels.

I do believe coaching can bring the game up considerably faster than going it alone. This is in part the process of having the student prove to themselves that they have the skills and can perform at a high level, but you can't do it for them, either. A coach may be able to help show what is possible (and how to do it), and through sheer determination and seat time we can improve ourselves, but ultimately it's either in the driver or not. You cannot "teach" someone to become a Senna. Call it an intangible, maybe, but it was certainly discovered, nurtured, encouraged and developed.

I certainly think shaving seconds off is possible with most "average" drivers pretty quickly. Taking off tenths requires a fair bit more seat time and getting comfortable with the tracks, the car, the tires, and the dynamics/physics of driving. Taking off the hundredths takes FAR longer. Diminishing returns, so to speak, so the question is really how much time, money and effort does someone want to put into it.

That said, I've known drivers who, no matter how much they drove or time they spent with a coach, couldn't get around the track to save their lives. Some you simply cannot teach.

CW

 

+1000000000000 Brilliantly said

 

I'm not willing to write about it on a public forum because it's not really relevant to the novice or the competent racer, but I should say that in the context of this thread, number 3 is a very unique place.

 

He just does not want to say publically that it took him 3 years to grow a pair.

Sorry Brian but I just could not resist

 

a combination of seat-time, coaching and self-motivation can turn #2 into #3. no coach alone can do it for you, its a matter of the desire to do it, the commitment to do it and then the coaching to get there.

extensive seat-time during opening testing at the same track, with the same car, for multiple days should quickly build confidence. the open track gives you the time to work on each corner/section at a time and build speed at your own pace. the multiple day element is key and under-appreciated. every time i come back to a track after a night of sleep the track seems wider and the corners are slower; i put it down to my brain assembling all the visuals during rest and resolving areas where i was struggling. another underrated area of seat-time is getting out on a skid-pad or figure-8 in a large lot and throwing the car around to get used to how it breaks away.

when to bring in the coach is a matter of personal preference and budget. if you car needs to be setup (brake bias, springs, bars, toe, rake, etc) then bring in the coach immediately as you'll waste all your time with a poorly setup car and learn nothing (on this note - don't take a manufacturer's setup as gospel - they're commonly way off, get the baseline of someone that has properly raced the car). if the track is new to you or you've never gotten the line right then bring in the coach immediately. otherwise bring in the coach when you plateau on lap time or find yourself over your head (having lots of offs, getting buried in the gravel or making it to the wall). assuming your coach knows his stuff and you're able to adapt your driving, then lines, braking points, gear shifts, rotation on turn-in and confidently picking up the throttle should start to become seamless.

the final setup to converting from #2 to #3 is down to you. the "speed secrets" series of books address the aspects of motivation and visualization which are instrumental in making the leap from competent track driver to true racer. coaching and seat time will reduce the fear of death, which is pretty unreasonable in the first place at most tracks, but only your own mental commitment to pushing to the limits and accepting the consequences will get you to the point of total commitment at each corner.

today most tracks are neutered so that pushing beyond the limit can be easily recovered; but at a few places (T11 mid-ohio, west-bend limerock, T10 VIR, T11 Watkins, and T1 road atlanta & road america) the consequence of an off can be huge and as a friend told me "when you go thru that corner right you think you're going to die every time." he was right, until i did i never got down to a top 5 lap time.

 

And, once you've been to that place and know what it feels like, you can get back there.

CW

 

Yes. True. I fix reasonable men and women every day... Some of them even get to #3.

 

Peter in your opinion at what point does someone go from increasingly good "reasonable man" to #3? psychologically, not just winning a race or championship, or taking X amount of time off a personal best.

 

Number one is becoming comfortable "moving the car around."

Once a driver begins to realize and manage the tire contact patch and, by necessity, stops "stopping the slide," they begin transcending what they thought was "the limit."

When a driver begins to consistently "tells the car what do do" instead of asking the car what to do, they get to the point CW talks about and graduate to #3...

 

are you up late or up early?

at any rate so you'd say it's entirely about car control? or is it deeper than that?

 

Always thinking... <grin>

No, no! MUCH deeper and more "big picture" than that.

A more global approach, in all aspects. is a result of progressing to #3.

This is why the drivers that COMMIT to the time, study and concentration this discipline takes DO sometimes make the leap and are much quicker, after they make it.

 

If you are racing, slow or fast, you have probably lost any claim to being a "reasonable man."

 

can you quantify that global approach a little more?

 

Would a Taxi Driver have an easier time making it to 3 than other professions?

 

btw here's the article the OP references

http://deadspin.com/5924856/how-being-an-idiot-is-the-smart-way-to-drive-fast

 

Alex Lloyd was writing this as part of a series of articles that have appeared in Jalopnik, so I am aware of where it came from and who was writing it. He's a quick kid, an Idiot.

GI, I'll think about that.

 

I posted the article for those who weren't aware of the references

but please do elaborate, I'm interested in the psychology of the sport as much as anything else and you have TONS of insight there

 

the speed secrets series of books has the best write up on the mental element of racing i've seen anywhere.

from experience you must:

1) be able to sit in the car and settle into the zone either in the pits or on your first warm up lap. in the zone means no thoughts about anything outside the car (work, wife, kids, expenses, mechanic that just annoyed you, etc), and total immersion in every bit of feedback the car is giving. when properly tuned in the seat, steering wheel and pedals will feel like extensions of your body and not mechanical devices.

2) the basic mechanics of driving fast must become subconscious. you shouldn't think about braking markers, turn-in points, apexes, etc; it should all just flow seamlessly. when you spin you should instantly know which way you're pointing and what gear to be in if you're still moving.

3) the ability to analyse your own driving while in the car and have recall of your session become the critical next steps. a good racer can analyze the result of adjustments to braking points, turn-in rate and apex location as he goes thru a section and determine if it was faster or made the car work better. superb racers can tell the improvement in tenths of seconds; out of the car they can recite how to drive a lap and do it at the pace of the lap without video. superb racers can also recall every corner of every lap of a session and give feedback about different things they tried or the result of setup changes.

4) on the point that seems to interest you the most - which is the willingness, desire and actual action of testing the car's limits - that comes as the natural result of being comfortable and competitive in the car. if you can get in the zone, drive subconsciously, and develop your own driving then you quickly reach the point of wanting to go faster and reach the limits. being in a competitive situation also aids in making the mental leap. using split times, watching other cars and looking at data will show weak areas and then one can focus on finding time there. finding time starts with an earlier release of the brakes and rolling the car in with more speed. the first time you do it is a leap of faith, but when it works your confidence to do it elsewhere builds.

coming back to the reasonable man vs. idiot argument - driving super competitively does require a lack of imagination about or disregard for getting hurt or breaking the car. in my best years of racing every time i got in the car i did not care about expense or give the slightest thought to injury. once i started to introduce those concerns the times got slower and the enjoyment went down. marriage, kid(s), injury all brought those realities to light. some drivers walk away immediately when this happens (vic elford, jackie stewart, niki lauda) and others toil on less competitive but enjoying their laps (petty, andretti).