Visual skills lead a smooth flowing path

[Motofool]

He is Toyoaki Ohtaki, the winner of the 2013 Moto Gymkhana JAPAN Cup.

Watch those eyes and head movements, ...... and practice frequently and improve your visual skills on the road or the track.

Smoothness and effortless control will follow:

Link to original page on YouTube.

[rojoracing53]

Weird how he keeps glancing left in right corners and glancing right in left corners. I can only guess he's scouting where he has to go next but I'd had thought these top level guys would have the course well memorized after only a couple practice runs.

I couldn't say since I've never done this type of riding but I'd think a video of me would look very different

[csmith12]

Lemme start by saying... for most of us riders, we will never be any better than our visual skills. Yep... imho it's that important.

Recently, Dylan Code has focused on the smallest of inputs that people take for granted. Eyes and feet are the current focus of some of the videos on the CSS forums.

I have a bit of my own research on this because in many, many of my track photos (some you have all have seen) my eyes seem shifty and the camera guy always seems to catch me not looking in the direction that my head is turned. I have always wondered why but haven't nailed down what or why it is going on. I am not even sure if it's a bad or good thing yet. I will report back when I have something worthy to add aside of "I see". (pun intended )

[Sirref]

Originally Posted by csmith12

Lemme start by saying... for most of us riders, we will never be any better than our visual skills. Yep... imho it's that important.

I agree it's super important, but I figure (theoretically of course, I don't want to be my own guinea pig) if you memorize a short-circuit track well enough you can ride it at pace blindfolded since you've memorized all of the timings

that is to say that if you know the track well enough you can ride it without your eyes at pace just by knowing it that well. Visual training is also about knowledge of where you need to go and when, so mental training should match up directly with it. For instance I can think of a few roads and imagine heading down them, knowing where all of my gear changes and braking points are as well as where I should be in my lane and how much throttle I should be using at any given point down these roads and I'd imagine the same thing would be significantly more effective on a track where all you do is go around the same circuit again and again.

[csmith12]

^^^ yep, in a perfect world we would hit every marker, every shift/brake point, every line and do it every time. Thing is... we get better or sometimes go the other way (a bad day or mother nature's involvement) and things must change.

If we are speaking theoretically, I think it's a physical clue of when a rider can go faster or the mind is scanning for info to satisfy some need. Some say, really fast riders have ADHD lol, maybe they're right.

[rojoracing53]

Originally Posted by Sirref

I agree it's super important, but I figure (theoretically of course, I don't want to be my own guinea pig) if you memorize a short-circuit track well enough you can ride it at pace blindfolded since you've memorized all of the timings

that is to say that if you know the track well enough you can ride it without your eyes at pace just by knowing it that well. Visual training is also about knowledge of where you need to go and when, so mental training should match up directly with it. For instance I can think of a few roads and imagine heading down them, knowing where all of my gear changes and braking points are as well as where I should be in my lane and how much throttle I should be using at any given point down these roads and I'd imagine the same thing would be significantly more effective on a track where all you do is go around the same circuit again and again.

This isn't the case for someone like me. All my timing is based on what I see as I see it. People in the past have tried to get me to close my eyes and imagine doing a lap of a course based on all my memory points and timing. It's said riders can do this and imagine a full lap in nearly the same time that they actually ride the lap. In my case no matter how much a try to slow down my visualization my imagined lap time is always half of my actual. This in short kinda means I don't pay attention as much as other to details of a track and honestly I kinda think that's probably true.

I'm a ride by momentary impressions type person so I just go with my gut and substitute in experience where needed. In my case when I ride a new track, new road or new trail I only take in things of importance or danger and everything else is just skimmed over as things that are handled on the fly. This may also be why I can learn pathways(any type of track, road or trail) so quickly. I can also follow a rider who is just as good a rider as myself on a trail that they know very well and match their speed without ever seeing the trail beforehand. Their body English hints me to dangers and obsticals and my intuition takes care of the minor details. Although if the rider crashes I'm most likely to follow

One funny thing about me and trails is after only one try I can draw you a map or anything but a week later if I take that same trail a second time there isn't a single turn or rock that doesn't look familiar, almost like I am streaming the data in my head 3 seconds ahead of time.

[Sirref]

I'm not sure if an ADHD approach is the best way, personally I feel that a quick glance at the apex then using peripheral vision for pretty much everything while looking at the important points and linking them together as far in advance as possible is the way to go.

granted on a smaller course like the one in the video it could very well turn out like what I described as the ideal since all of the points of interest are much closer together than a typical road course
@rojoracing53 I feel that you could chalk that up to different kinds of people who take and process information in different ways, I do see being able to learn new pathways quickly is a vital skill. I must admit I am a bit envious of your ability to take in large amounts of information like that quickly, for me I take longer to learn new pathways but once I do I have them down permanently and know every detail.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by rojoracing53

Weird how he keeps glancing left in right corners and glancing right in left corners. I can only guess he's scouting where he has to go next but I'd had thought these top level guys would have the course well memorized after only a couple practice runs........

The key of good times in this sport is achieving the shortest distance between obstacles rather than trying to move faster than the max possible for the circuit.
Too much speed and the circle around a cone widen and the rotation takes longer, messing the total time up.

In my opinion, that makes a difference with a speed track regarding why, where, when and for how long the head and the eyes are directed to.

As soon as the rider is looking to the next cone, its mind is quickly calculating the shortest trajectory.
Via the relaxed and flexible connection of the upper-body, the bike follows, with some time delay but with precision, the trajectory that the rider drew in his mind.

While the bike is doing that, the eyes of the rider are on the next cone and his mind is doing the next calculation.
There is an evident time delay between the movements of the tires and bike, and the focus of the sight, just like between the handle and the tip of a whip.

The head and the eyes are not always in synchrony, because the head contains the balance instrument (the inner ear) and the sense of balance must be kept at max alertness.
More than the peripheral view, is the sense of balance what indicates to the rider whether or not the bike is following the planned trajectory correctly and smoothly.
Note that the rider tries keeping his head level with the horizon and turned intermittently (to avoid dizziness).

The courses are complicated and different for each competition, precisely to make memorization harder and rely more on visual-motor skills.