Hello and welcome to the PowerDrift Podcast. Today, for the first time we are attacking a
riding skill on the podcast, it's something that many of you have requested.
So I do request you that if you think this is going to be useful, and this is something
that you'd like to see more of, it's very important that you like this video,
share it with your friends and do leave us a comment
suggesting not only that you'd like to see more of this, but what
other topics you'd like to cover.
And I cannot imagine starting a skill based podcast without talking about the most essential
riding skill and that would be, 'look where you want to go'.
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so that you don't miss out.
How crucial is looking where you want to go?
Now I remember the first time I went to California Superbike School, Keith code, the legend,
was there that weekend,
and I asked Keith, that if there was just one piece of advice, just one piece of advice
that he could give to a motorcyclist, what would it be? And he didn't even hesitate,
he said, I would tell them to look where they want to go.
It's the central piece of riding skill that you need to understand.
Now to understand this, the simplest thing you can try is, if you get up from a chair
right now, turn your head all the way to the left or the right and try walking forward,
you will discover that it's much harder than it looks, your body tends to move in the direction
that your eyes are looking in, this is built into our systems.
Now, target fixation, which is, you're looking at the wrong thing
and then you run over the one stone in the road or nearly hit the tree or whatever
is one side of looking where you want to go
and the other side of it is to take this target fixation and turn it into something we can use.
So, most of the time, in the level one program at the school where we teach at, the one thing
that we want the students to do is to learn that their eyes are defining where the motorcycle
will go next and to be able to use that to their advantage and reduce the amount of disadvantage they
get from this biologically built in initiative.
Now your eyes look at the world in two separate parts.
The centre of your vision is used for targeting, for details and for accuracy
and they lead you in the directions that you're moving in.
Your peripheral vision is not very good at reading detail, but it's excellent at reading motion,
and luckily for us, as we ride our motorcycles, all the static objects around us, like trees,
or whatever are all in motion and therefore they're very easy to track with peripheral vision.
Good riders are able to target where they want to go and monitor the world that they
are moving through using peripheral vision and that's what creates great vision
and in most of the cases, if you have great vision, you will have great smooth riding as well.
So, what can you do?
First, let's talk about why you shouldn't be looking at things hither you don't want to go into.
Okay.
So for example, you're on a mountain road, there's a corner coming up
and let's say there's a huge cliff face in front of you, which is like a wall of rock.
Think about it, that wall of rock is very unlikely to move.
So any attention you pay to that wall of rock in itself is actually a waste of time,
it's not going to do anything.
But, if you continue to look at the wall, chances are your motorcycle will continue to head
towards the wall instead of turning into the corner.
So, the crucial thing here is, if you continue to look at that wall for too long, you will
miss the time at which you should have turned the motorcycle and the timing is crucial
and therefore, you will either make a turn very late or you will get scared or you will
eventually hit the brakes in panic and come to a stop
hopefully before you hit the cliff face itself.
The problem, you should realize, was created by you looking at the cliff face for too long
and timing is crucial to the idea that you go where you look.
Let's say that you're a better rider than this and you're doing the same road again
and this time you know that looking at the cliff is dangerous.
If you were able to move your eyes into the corner at the right time, then what your eye
continues to see is a ribbon of tarmac sneaking in front of your motorcycle, which means
your confidence level will be high, your lines will be cleaner and your riding will be a
whole lot smoother, and that's the whole point of looking where you want to go.
So, if you want to go faster into a corner, what you want to see is more of the corner
as early as possible so that you can commit to it, so that you have the confidence that
this corner is in control, I know what to do
and therefore my motorcycle can smoothly execute those actions.
This also has a speed component,
the faster you go, the harder this becomes.
Again, human beings adapt, which means that if you're riding your first motorcycle
and 40kmph is scaring you, I promise you, in three months it will not be so scary anymore,
but 80kmph might feel like what 40kmph feels like today.
Those of us who've been testing for a long time like Kartikeya Singhee or me,
we no longer notice speeds like to 220, 230
because in the process of testing at various air strips or whatever, we have experienced
these speeds again and again and again
and now our brains are conditioned to perceiving the world even at those speeds,
and sometimes 100kmph can feel slow.
So, human beings adapt
and what we're asking you to do on this podcast episode is to make the most fundamental adaptation,
which is, 'don't let your eyes go wherever they want to, choose where your eyes are going and
choose when they go there'.
So, for example, if you're entering a corner, which is the most crucial time when you want
to be looking where you want to go, what's a good time to look into the corner,
I would say about two seconds before you actually turn the motorcycle.
The trick that the CSS guys use is something called, 'look, then turn',
which takes about two seconds to say
and the idea is, let's say I'm approaching the turning point, my eyes are still forward
I'm looking for where I need to turn the motorcycle,
but as soon as I have established that point, I turn away and I start looking into the corner
and looking where the motorcycle will go next.
And two seconds later, my peripheral vision can track that I have arrived at the
turning point and actually turn the motorcycle, which is just a steering movement.
and I'm not going to confuse that by adding, for example, throttle and braking to that.
Just in simple way, that's the right time to turn your eyes away.
Similarly, when you're in the middle of the corner, you're looking for the exit,
what's a right time? Once you're confident that you will find the middle, I'll call it apex,
although that's not the right term for it,
but once you're in the middle of the corner, you're confident that you're going to hit it,
that's the time in your eyes should move again and start looking for the exit.
The movement of the eyes initially at least has to be an active, conscious thing,
because as soon as you start doing this consciously, it starts becoming part of your subconscious process,
which means, if you do it enough practice,
and eventually you will be able to do it without thinking about it,
and if you're able to do it without thinking about it, you will be going faster without
noticing it, you will be riding smoother without noticing it
and what we learnt at the racetrack over 16 years of teaching students
is that, nobody comes to the racetrack and says, I want to go fast today, and goes fast,
but students who say, what's the right way to ride a motorcycle and practice those skills,
eventually end up going very, very fast, sometimes without realizing it,
because some of the fastest laps at the racetrack will always feel slow,
because what is happening is, you're well adjusted to that situation, your eyes are
seeing the world at the right time, it gives your brain time to process what they're seeing
of the world and therefore your inputs on the motorcycle also come at the right time.
All of this is happening so smoothly, that it doesn't feel fast anymore.
The other side of that picture is, if you're out on a motorcycle riding fast and you're thinking,
oh my god, I'm going fast today, that's usually supposed to be a warning sign
from your brain that it can't keep up with the pace you're doing
and it wants you to slow down.
Many of us don't pay attention to this, we just enjoy the thrill of it
but your brain is right on the edge of its ability to perceive what's going on,
decide what's a hazard and take preventive action to prevent you from getting hurt.
So the next time you're out on a motorcycle thinking you're going fast,
take a moment to think about it,
that may not be what's actually happening, it might be that your brain is about to be
overloaded and then you'll be in real trouble.
So, in summary, looking where you want to go is a fundamental biological thing,
you turn your eyes and you start walking, your body wants to follow,
motorcycles do exactly the same thing.
The faster your motorcycle is, the further from the motorcycle you have to look
because you're covering distances at that much greater a pace.
Three, it can be trained, it can be learnt and you can practice, the racetrack is a great
place to practice this, because you can come back to the same corner
again and again over say two days or three days
and practice the same set of operations again and again,
until you realize what works best for you.
But the fundamental thing, if you want to ride motorcycles better, start looking where you
want to go and don't let your eyes wander, you'll immediately see a huge jump and improvement.
Thank you so much for watching.
This is a short episode with riding skills in it on the PowerDrift Podcast.
If you like this, leave us a comment.
It's crucial that you tell us that you enjoyed this so that we can do more of this.
Thank you so much for watching.
If there's anything else you'd like to discuss, all you have to do is leave us a comment here
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we're very happy to respond and discuss.
Thank you