Instructor Candidate Manual

By Richmond Shreve

This manual provides practical ideas to help experienced high performance drivers communicate what they know to students. It is designed to be an aid in bringing back to consciousness some of the skills and techniques that are automatic and unconscious for experienced racers and high performance drivers. It also suggests a structured approach to instruction particularly useful to new instructors. Tables and illustrations compare and contrast the performance of novice, intermediate, and advanced students to help the instructor candidate observe and diagnose problems when coaching students. A glossary of track terms is included to aid instructors to recognize jargon and to help explain terms commonly used at the track.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 29, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257215973

Book preview

Instructor Candidate Manual

Richmond Shreve

[e-mail]

Performance Driving Institute, LLC

Box 250

Cape May Point, NJ 08212-0250

ISBN 0-9729493-0-5

Copyright Notice.

©2000, 2002, 2003, 2005 Performance Driving Institute, LLC (New Jersey, USA)

This work is the intellectual property of Performance Driving Institute, LLC. All rights are reserved, and no portion of this document may be reproduced in any form whatever including but not limited to print, electronic or digital media without the express written permission of the copyright owner.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Version 4.12

BMWCCA Edition

Abstract

This manual provides practical ideas to help experienced high performance drivers communicate what they know to students. It is designed to be an aid in bringing back to consciousness some of the skills and techniques that are automatic and unconscious for experienced racers and high performance drivers. It also suggests a structured approach to instruction particularly useful to new instructors. Tables and illustrations compare and contrast the performance of novice, intermediate, and advanced students to help the instructor candidate observe and diagnose problems when coaching students. A glossary of track terms is included to aid instructors to recognize jargon and to help explain terms commonly used at the track.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER

OPERATING OR RIDING IN ANY MOTOR VEHICLE AT HIGH SPEED IS INHERENTLY AND UNAVOIDABLY DANGEROUS. When you engage in motor sport activities like those described in this document you are constantly at risk of death, serious injuries, burns and harmful stress. In seeking to mitigate the risks, there is no substitute for your own good judgment and prudence. This document may be helpful in anticipating some, but not all, of the situations that can lead to accidents, injury and possibly death. The descriptions of driving and/or instructional techniques in this document are not sufficient in themselves to prepare the reader to execute them. Do not rely solely on this document. Take from this text what is useful, always and at all times tempering it with your personal experience and prudence.

THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED THAT THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS COMPREHENSIVE, FREE OF ERROR, OR THAT IT WILL MEET THE REQUIREMENTS FOR ANY PARTICULAR APPLICATION. THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR OR PUBLISHER HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND EVEN IF A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS DESCRIBED IN THE TEXT. THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER ALSO DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM ANY USE OF THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS BOOK, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO EXAMPLES, ILLUSTRATIONS AND OTHER INFORMATION.

Although others may contribute to your safety, you must rely solely on your own best judgment and skills. Maintain presence of mind and a high state of vigilance while participating in high performance driving activities. Stay alert. Be prepared to break-off participating if you are not fully satisfied that your exposure to risk is acceptable. You alone assume responsibility for your safety anytime you participate in a high performance driving activity. Your choice to participate represents a conscious acceptance of the inherent risk. No one can ensure your safety.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We stand on the shoulders of many teachers.

The material in this work is taken mostly from classroom notes and the experiences colleagues have shared in conversations about instructing. With great generosity those wonderful instructors demonstrate their love of motor sports by devoting hundreds of hours of personal time to teaching others. The information also derives from the patient coaching of dozens of instructors who were willing to risk life and limb by riding in the passenger seat while I learned to drive faster. My thanks go to all of them. I hope they are affirmed and pleased with what they see here.

Credit for the best ideas in this text goes to Tony Funicello, the chief instructor for Trackmasters and the creator of the Instructor Candidate School I attended and at which I later instructed. Many of the chapters are unabashed restatements (with his consent) of material that he presented in his classes and seminars. Thanks Tony!

Early drafts were reviewed by a number of instructors, racers, and students who were kind enough to offer suggestions to improve the content. Special thanks go to driving enthusiast and English professor Dr. Michael J. Kiskis of Elmira College for reviewing the manuscript and providing editorial help to improve the clarity and style of this edition.

My principal reference for technical information is the book Going Faster by Carl Lopez (see bibliography.) Most enthusiasts would agree that this is the best and most readable discussion of high performance driving and racing technique available.

If there is lasting value in this work it is largely thanks to the generosity of others. If there are errors or omissions, they are my own.

Richmond Shreve

February, 2003

Cover and illustrations are by the author.

INTRODUCTION

Mastery blinds you to what you have learned.

This manual is written for the advanced high performance driver who is preparing to take on the role of instructor. As an instructor candidate, you certainly have considerable mastery in driving on racecourses. Paradoxically, your mastery may make you blind to the learning needs of novices. The aim of this text is to help you bring into consciousness the skills and techniques that have become unconscious and automatic through years of practice on the track. It is not a textbook and does not presume to tell anyone how to drive faster. You will find nothing truly new here. It’s the compilation of common knowledge that makes this text uniquely useful to instructor candidates.

Portions of the text discuss some very basic driving techniques, not because you may not know them, but because you may know them so well that it is hard to recall that you ever did not know them. Using a knife and fork and riding a bicycle are skills that are very natural for most American adults. But both are very challenging for three-year-old novices. We say that we have mastered something when the required action is swift, precise, and seems effortless. The very nature of mastery is the state of being so highly skilled that what was once demanding becomes effortless. In fact, a mastered skill is so automatic that it requires no conscious thought.

As an instructor, you must be able to communicate about driving basics verbally and concisely. Even at moderate student speeds, there is little time for words. Your student’s attention must be on the track. Your words are competing for that attention and can create more confusion and stress than enlightenment.

The best instructors have skills in observation that let them analyze and offer coaching that improves the student’s performance. Part of the instruction will be coaching on techniques. Some of it will be explanation that enhances knowledge and understanding. Often you will simply be encouraging the student, building confidence and urging him or her to try something new to gain experience.

You also will learn to anticipate for your student. By keeping your attention well ahead, you will provide correction in the moment by using words like: Turn in now! Brake! or Don’t lift! You will seek to prevent the student from overdriving the car or his or her own skills.

The process of teaching benefits us, the instructors. On any given day at the track, instructors tour the track hundreds to see things we missed at higher speeds. The student’s mistakes are usually boldly obvious. Yet they reveal to us, often with unflattering exaggeration, the subtle errors we make ourselves. Students offer us a caricature of our own bad habits. Once we are able to tell a student how to observe and correct a problem, our own performance sharpens.

As an instructor candidate, you will re-discover with pride all the areas of mastery that are now largely invisible to you but were the fruit of many years of practice. You will enjoy the satisfaction of becoming a student of the art of high performance driving.

If this manual helps you to be safer, more insightful, and more comprehensive in giving instruction, it will have achieved its purpose. Beyond that, I hope it introduces instructing as a new aspect of the sport for your enjoyment.

THE ROLE OF AN INSTRUCTOR

Teacher, coach, psychologist, ambassador…

It all seems easy enough: the student drives and