Hi Ducati999,
It's great that the information in this thread and the coaching you sought out are helping you progress. However, I encourage you to not ignore, or devalue your own experience and insights.
I do not believe that that it's a given that track time = improvement (or at least improvement that is anywhere near the potential that said track time contains).
I believe that track time = experience, and hidden within your experience is the next lesson you must learn to improve.
As you've realized, good information and a good coach can point out (or guide you to) these lessons, which is awesome. However, you will accelerate your improvement if you also put the effort into 'pealing the onion' of your experience to discover, understand, and implement what your track time is trying to teach you. For example:
Quote:
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When I enter a turn, I end up making too many corrections since I am not sure of the "arc/line" my bike will take thru the turn.
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I know this is just one sentence in a long thread, but it contains a lot of stuff (layers) that you can dig into that might lead you to some answers.
"When I enter a turn"
- Every turn, or only certain types of turns (speeds/radius/directions/elevations)... what triggers it?
- How big an influence does speed have on this & where is the influence strongest (braking, turn-in, from turn-in to apex, from Apex to track out)?
- Etc. Just keep pealing until there is nothing left to peal.
"I end up making too many corrections"
- How many corrections?
- Where in the turn do you start 'correcting' after your initial turn-in inputs?
- Are these 'real' corrections or 'phantom' corrections. That is, are you correcting for a mistrust (or an overthinking) of your initial turn in... thereby screwing up what would have been a correct line (ultimately causing yet another correction to undo the effects of the phantom correction), or was your initial turn-in executed erroneously, so the corrections are 'real' and are required to make it through the turn? These may coexist and/or be intertwined, but digging until you discover which one starts the problem is critical because these are two very different 'causes' that require different 'fixes.'
"I am not sure of the "arc/line" my bike will take thru the turn"
- At what point in the turn do you lose confidence in the 'arc/line' that you establish at turn in?
- It sounds like you are reasonably sure about the 'theoretical' line you 'should' take, so do you end up doubting your ability to put/keep your bike on that line, or your bike's ability to respond consistently to you 'correct' inputs to get/stay on that line?
- Same 'real' or 'phantom' question as above... you lose confidence in your 'arc/line' because you mistrust yourself or second guess what you've already done, or because you are in-fact offline?
If you determine that the corrections and lack of confidence in your line are all 'real' (aka technical skill related) then it looks like Misti's got you covered. However, if you think that part of the cause may be responding to 'phantom' problems (aka mental skill related), then you might want to read '
Reducing the Sensation of Speed'. Of course nothing's black & white in learning to ride fast, so there is probably a blend of technical and mental skills that are asking for your attention.
Lastly, you mentioned at some point in this thread that you feel more comfortable following faster riders because you don't have to worry about judging entry speeds. That makes perfect sense, however, consider this; what if at least part of that 'comfort' is because you have given your intellect something to do 'follow those riders.' While it's busy doing that, it does not have the bandwidth to also stick it's nose into the actual riding process... by, oh lets' say, questioning if you did that turn-in correctly or if you really are on the right line.
