Coaching

[Sirref]

Originally Posted by snot

Coaching is a tough job. It takes a special person to teach....

I agree, it's a challenging position in so many ways but at the same time it is also very rewarding.

I certainly hope I am cut out for it. So far I have been doing well with it but I'm nowhere near perfect

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by Misti

Then he is not understanding something. Go back and figure out what he does understand about correct lines and throttle control and sort out the issue from there. Is he turning too early? What is he doing with the the throttle? What kinds of things might cause someone to add lean and throttle at the same time?

He is a super aggressive rider and wants an "A" sticker on his bike more than anything. He has pulled about 12 track days and has never touched a knee down and another coach just gave him the green light for the "A" group next time. He is changing his line mid corner to make passes, many of them too close as Ben notes. At this point I have warned him 5 or 6 times and put it to him many times that he is going to bin it if he keeps upping the paces while doing the things he is doing. As much as it pains me... 10 times is enough and I have handed him off to another coach to see if they can break through the wall.

[Misti]

Originally Posted by csmith12

He is a super aggressive rider and wants an "A" sticker on his bike more than anything. He has pulled about 12 track days and has never touched a knee down and another coach just gave him the green light for the "A" group next time. He is changing his line mid corner to make passes, many of them too close as Ben notes. At this point I have warned him 5 or 6 times and put it to him many times that he is going to bin it if he keeps upping the paces while doing the things he is doing. As much as it pains me... 10 times is enough and I have handed him off to another coach to see if they can break through the wall.

Yes that sounds super annoying. Sometimes we have very difficult students as well. I like to have an arsenal of things up my sleeve to try with people like that but sometimes as you said you just have to hand em off to someone else. Sometimes another perspective or way of saying it will get through.

Super rewarding most of the time though I love coaching and seeing people succeed in something that I have taught them!

[Sirref]

I focused on racing this weekend (ended my season with TPM with a 3rd and 4th championship position) so I didn't get to coach as much as I'd like. When I did coach I got to focus on the 300 riders/racers. Only worked with 2 riders on sunday and no coaching saturday

sunday I got a session in following @howlinhoss, unfortunately there was a lot of traffic so I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked but was still able to give him a few things to work on. He's doing pretty good already

The other rider I worked with for 2 sessions, he is an aspiring racer who wanted to go as fast as he could on the 300. At the start I could tell he was forcing it and being very aggressive trying to pick up speed but his own actions were slowing him down. He was very receptive to the advice, it was a completely different experience to work with a racer on refinement. His core skills were good so he just needed to smooth out the sweeping corners and fix a few lines (ala stop making extra corners. nccar has 11 corners, he was riding it like it had 14 at first) With only a few changes here and there he dropped 3 seconds off of his time (1:46 to 1:43, for refference record is 1:36.92 and race pace is 1:38) and finished the races mid-pack ahead of people who weren't even in his sight the day before. It was great to see him leaving with a giant smile on his face, I'm gonna have to keep working on getting faster or he's gonna catch me sooner rather than later

lesson of the weekend, working with racers is very different from working with street riders on their first track day. The core skills are there and they're eager to absorb information and apply it to their riding they just need a little nudge in the right direction

[Misti]

Originally Posted by Sirref

I focused on racing this weekend (ended my season with TPM with a 3rd and 4th championship position) so I didn't get to coach as much as I'd like. When I did coach I got to focus on the 300 riders/racers. Only worked with 2 riders on sunday and no coaching saturday

sunday I got a session in following @howlinhoss, unfortunately there was a lot of traffic so I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked but was still able to give him a few things to work on. He's doing pretty good already

The other rider I worked with for 2 sessions, he is an aspiring racer who wanted to go as fast as he could on the 300. At the start I could tell he was forcing it and being very aggressive trying to pick up speed but his own actions were slowing him down. He was very receptive to the advice, it was a completely different experience to work with a racer on refinement. His core skills were good so he just needed to smooth out the sweeping corners and fix a few lines (ala stop making extra corners. nccar has 11 corners, he was riding it like it had 14 at first) With only a few changes here and there he dropped 3 seconds off of his time (1:46 to 1:43, for refference record is 1:36.92 and race pace is 1:38) and finished the races mid-pack ahead of people who weren't even in his sight the day before. It was great to see him leaving with a giant smile on his face, I'm gonna have to keep working on getting faster or he's gonna catch me sooner rather than later

lesson of the weekend, working with racers is very different from working with street riders on their first track day. The core skills are there and they're eager to absorb information and apply it to their riding they just need a little nudge in the right direction

Great! I love reading this as I can really tell how much you are enjoying coaching. It's something that is so near and close to my heart because I can relate to everything you are saying about how rewarding it is. Whether it is a racer you are helping or getting a new rider to have more confidence it is always rewarding to be able to see someone improve.

We do coach racers a little bit differently as they have different overall goals that can require different techniques or approaches, but it's interesting to note that the basics are still the basics and foundations of good riding. We give our racing students the same drills to work on that we do our regular non racing students and may just taylor them a bit more specifically to track riding/racing than our road riding students.

When I was racing AMA I was able to have Keith Code as my riding coach and the things he would have me working on and focussing on were things that I coached and taught all our regular students. There were times where I was working on fundamental throttle technique, but working on getting to WFO earlier. Same technique as throttle control, just pushed up a few levels.

What technique would you say you find yourself coaching the most?

[Sirref]

Hmm, that's a good one. I focus on visual skills the most, especially when dealing with confidence issues or riders being consistently off line. When it all boils down our eyes are the most important tool we have on the racetrack

[Sirref]

In terms of physical skills I do emphasize bp, especially with the little bikes. I try to teach every skill I've learned down the line though

[Misti]

Originally Posted by Sirref

Hmm, that's a good one. I focus on visual skills the most, especially when dealing with confidence issues or riders being consistently off line. When it all boils down our eyes are the most important tool we have on the racetrack

Agreed that it all comes down to our eyes! Visual skills are very important.

Originally Posted by Sirref

In terms of physical skills I do emphasize bp, especially with the little bikes. I try to teach every skill I've learned down the line though

Is there a set format you follow or do you ride around and watch what the track riders are doing and pick out their biggest mistakes? How do you decide what to focus on with each person?

[Sirref]

I do not have a set format. Typically I ride around until I find someone who is off pace a bit and figure out why then find a way to show them or tell them after the session. Unless it is unsafe in which case I'll pull them in and talk to them.

When someone requests a coach I ask them what they feel their strengths and weaknesses are and what they want to work on. From there I'll follow them around or lead them around to focus on whatever it is that they want to work on. I then review their riding in full while riding and look for factors that may determine what is holding them back.

For instance say a rider says he isn't comfortable with T4 at ncbike (a right following a fast left and leading into another fast left) I go out and work with him and discover he's using his arms to move side to side rather than his knees. Introduce knee to knee transitions.

I don't have a structured approach per se as every rider is distinctly different. I do approach similar issues similarly though but not everyone has the same issues.

In summary, I follow them and find their biggest weaknesses or I focus on what they feel is their weakness while looking for other issues that they may not have noticed.

[Misti]

Originally Posted by Sirref

I do not have a set format. Typically I ride around until I find someone who is off pace a bit and figure out why then find a way to show them or tell them after the session. Unless it is unsafe in which case I'll pull them in and talk to them.

When someone requests a coach I ask them what they feel their strengths and weaknesses are and what they want to work on. From there I'll follow them around or lead them around to focus on whatever it is that they want to work on. I then review their riding in full while riding and look for factors that may determine what is holding them back.

For instance say a rider says he isn't comfortable with T4 at ncbike (a right following a fast left and leading into another fast left) I go out and work with him and discover he's using his arms to move side to side rather than his knees. Introduce knee to knee transitions.

I don't have a structured approach per se as every rider is distinctly different. I do approach similar issues similarly though but not everyone has the same issues.

In summary, I follow them and find their biggest weaknesses or I focus on what they feel is their weakness while looking for other issues that they may not have noticed.

Sounds awesome What do you think is the hardest thing to teach students or to get them to a solid understanding?

[Sirref]

The hardest thing to teach is the mindset of being smooth and allowing the speed to come over time. Individual techniques are easy by comparison. The mindset, to be smooth, that best creates a safer and more skilled rider is typically something that many riders do not realize until they have taken classes at the school of hard knocks.

[csmith12]

The hardest thing about coaching is helping riders understand that we are there to partner with them for one day to help overcome but just a stepping stone in their lifelong learning about themselves. While the days events and individual riding skills are well managed by experienced coaches, at the end of the day.... if the rider is leaving with a better attitude and a positive sense of self about riding, then we have a better chance of seeing that rider succeed. imho... This is the difference between a coach and a cr.

Spoken by a coach in a sling to one of their riders after they both went down.

[Misti]

Originally Posted by Sirref

The hardest thing to teach is the mindset of being smooth and allowing the speed to come over time. Individual techniques are easy by comparison. The mindset, to be smooth, that best creates a safer and more skilled rider is typically something that many riders do not realize until they have taken classes at the school of hard knocks.

Excellent, yes. Speed comes with good technique, not the other way around.

Originally Posted by csmith12

The hardest thing about coaching is helping riders understand that we are there to partner with them for one day to help overcome but just a stepping stone in their lifelong learning about themselves. While the days events and individual riding skills are well managed by experienced coaches, at the end of the day.... if the rider is leaving with a better attitude and a positive sense of self about riding, then we have a better chance of seeing that rider succeed. imho... This is the difference between a coach and a cr.

Spoken by a coach in a sling to one of their riders after they both went down.

Good point. That is one of the reasons why I really like the method we use at CSS. We don't just tell the students what they are doing wrong or what to do in order to get better, we ensure that THEY understand what they need to do. We accomplish this by asking questions to further their understanding and to help THEM come up with the solutions. We are there to help and guide them, not to just tell them what to do. That way they do leave with a better attitude and positive sense of self about their own riding. It's very rewarding when a student looks at me after I've asked a question and he just says, "well duh." like he just realized for the first time in however long he has been riding what his mistakes have been. hahah.

Love it! I'm excited to be off to Vegas next week to teach the final 2 schools of the year! Woooooo

[csmith12]

Still jealous Misti, best to ya'lls out there.

[Misti]

Originally Posted by csmith12

Still jealous Misti, best to ya'lls out there.

Thanks