How to Walk the Course

[Professional_Slacker]

I ran across this thread on Spyderchat and didn't see anything like it here, so figured I'd share it.

Originally published by rocwandrer from Spyderchat.com
How to Walk the Course



My take on how to learn to drive the course for brand new novices, people who are still seeing a sea of cones not a contiguous and easy-to-follow-the-first-time course. This advice may still have something in it of value to the experienced driver.


HOW TO COURSE WALK

1.) Walk the course.

Walk the whole course as many times as it takes, asking people or whatever until you know where it goes and where it doesn't. Don't proceed on a walk without knowing you are walking it correctly. People who walk it wrong once often drive it that way too.... stop and ask directions. This might take only one walk. Most people stop there.

2.) Now really walk the course.

This next step is easier to do than to describe. Start by walking the course to the end of the first element. Stop. Visualize the course from the start line up to where you are. Now continue to the next element. Start your visualization from the start line, and move forward element by element until you reach the part of the course you are standing on. If you lose any part of the course, go back to the start and start over with your visualization, not skipping any steps. When I first started doing it this way, it took maybe 6 walks. Now I can do it in 2, including the "where does it go?" walk if I am careful to avoid chit-chat on the second "visualize" walk.

Visualization doesn't mean memorizing cone locations. Think of it like creating a memory of your favorite twisty road by pretending you already drove the course once. If your "movie" was narrated, it might sound like this: "It starts out by the lamp pole off the line, launch doesn't count because there is a hard right before the lights, and on it, slalom with a straight exit, bit of sand just after the last cone....." or something like that. But seriously, don't narrate; it should be a silent movie. Later, includes bits like which cone marks your apex, or whatever, but at first, it should be a rough visual picture of the corner angles, tightness, direction, I tend to ignore straights as straight for a bit. It is a movie you play in your mind, not a verbal list of directions. My movies include about 3-6 cones now, but to never get lost you don't need to see any cones in your movie.

The difference between knowing a twisty road and not knowing it isn't memorizing the guard rails or telephone poles (cones), it is the general gist of where the road is going around the next turn (course). Think pencil sketch stop motion more than 3D HD video. My personal version of this technique looks in my mind a lot like daydreaming, but structured.

3.) Sitting in line in grid. Once you are comfortable with how the autocross day works, and what is expected in grid, try something many experienced drivers do: Be sure you won't have to move up for a few moments. Close your eyes, and picture running through the course from the start line to a complete stop in the stop box. Some people even move their hands on the "wheel" and feet on the "pedals" in air as they do this. Everyone is different, but I suggest doing the visual with 1 car ahead of you in grid. Then just relax for the moments while you are at the start line. When the flag drops, you do what you pictured doing.


HOW TO DRIVE THE COURSE NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHERE IT GOES WITHOUT LOOKING

4.) Look ahead! Don't stare ahead. If you knew where you were going on a road you had driven many times before, could you stare at the white line beside the car and drive it fast? Your eyes should be moving around to give your brain more information so you can react appropriately. If you leave out the info further ahead, you essentially ask your brain to do more work, quicker than if you give it more information, earlier in advance. Speaking of novice error corrections, a 15 foot correction at 100 feet might be a 1/6 turn of the steering wheel. The same correction left unnoticed until 20 feet is more than a whole turn of the wheel, provided you also were going slow enough so the tires will even let you do it. Giving your brain advanced notice lets it be more accurate, more precise, and allows the control inputs to be smoother. Seeing both the near and far field views of the course is critical to being very fast. You will never have a novice marveling at what you can make a car do some day if you don't learn how to "look ahead".

Novices tend to stare a short distance, say 1-2 gates ahead (I did this, and the habit is very hard to break). Some novices even occasionally glance ahead. An expert driver looks ahead (often so far ahead that they are looking out the side window to see the course ahead when entering a tight corner) and glances frequently back to the field of view that makes up the novice comfort zone. Your eyes should be constantly scanning. If you find yourself able to see through to the last slalom cone, but then when you get there, you realize you haven't looked past that point yet, you are more than halfway there. Just remember to keep scanning forward further.

5.) Remember, you are doing this for fun! People generally come to their first autocross thinking they know how to drive. People who stick with autocross long enough ALWAYS decide they had no idea how to drive when they started. Some of us were frustrated a lot in between those two moments. Think of it like this; autocross uses a car, but it isn't the same as driving on the street. You need to learn how to do it before you can begin doing it well. Part of the fun is improving your driving skills, but don't get too stressed out about how well you do. None of us were any good when we first started.

A lousy run should still be a lot of fun; it is just more fun to see improvement! These instructions are intended to guide you on the most efficient way to improve, not stress you out about how you are doing.

Richard

[Carracer]

Something I like to do is walk the course from my "drivers" position. I'll keep tight to cones on my left and give about my cars width of room on the right. I find it helps me see things better.