Novice School Instructor - March 2, 2013

steve remchak · **Posted:** Mon Mar 04, 2013 10:04 am

Huh, really? Whoodah thunk one of my ideas would work? Or better yet whoodah thunk my idea to "run it like a business" would have worked? :mrgreen:

In all seriousness now, I'm removing my jester's cap here, I am glad to see the Club taking a vested interest in the development of noobs. As with anything the experience has to be enjoyable and the atmosphere welcoming for people to return.

Now, you Bullies have a good season.................... ciao bella ...........

JamesShort · **Posted:** Mon Mar 04, 2013 10:09 am

We ran it as methodically as we planned: 2:1 student to instructor ratio. 4 non-waitlisted students dropped out, 4 instructors were added. On Thursday morning we had 23 instructors and I let in 47 students (1 exception).

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:05 am

My experience as an instructor was great. My students were ready to learn, and I worked with them from the start on teaching them how to evaluate themselves. I actually went with the flow and took them into many aspects from course reading (critical cone selections), mental ques (more on that in a moment) on course, to steering wheel control, to back side slaloms, to a bunch of stuff, and they just sucked it all in. I was really happy with their progress and left them with a plan to mentally review the day later that night, eyes closed, reliving all the information and all the driving progress, etc -- tried to impress upon them that that nighttime review was easily 50% of school and of critical importance if they want to leap forward to learn more at the next autocross.

Whoever setup those two sets of pointer cones on the return part of the main course was a genius. The first pointer was worthless of course and should be easily ignored from one's vision in order to concentrate on the important 2nd one. However, coming into the prior element and looking ahead, that first one just stood out like it was lighted from above.

That one feature was a huge learning tool to my guys as even I was getting visually sucked into it as we ran the course. So I told them when you have a problem, you have to "feature it." Hence a bit of mental rehearsal of now allowing that 1st pointer sucking your attention to remind you to do three things: (1) instantly jump to the 2nd pointer, (2) trigger your "manage entry speed programming for 2nd pointer cone" and then visualize back-siding it with the inside left rear just perfectly, and (3) use it as a trigger to remind you of the rest of the course. I told them to love course elements like those since you can now mentally allow them to become your biggest asset on course. All that worked like charm -- it is such a great feeling when you have students who just suck in your ideas/thoughts/BS and then go out and do it well on course.

One comment on the slalom course on the lower part of the runway -- I think if we run that setup in the future, we should figure out a way to have the students do two laps at once. It would be fine to end the last slalom and then just pull slowly up to the start again imo. The repetitive learning of two laps would go a long way as it was such a short course, the "time on course at a time" was too little versus the downtime.

I really tried to get my students thinking only about their inside rears on the slaloms. We walked it, talked about it, visualized it, etc. After one of the runs with one student where he clipped a cone, I asked him to critique his run. He replied well I hit a cone, so I guess that's not too good. My reply was, "What? That was AWESOME!", and then went on to explain he had hit a slalom cone with his BACK tire, just barely. To be a novice autocrosser and be running slaloms, doing a nice job and then just clipping a cone with a BACK tire was about the best thing you could ask for imo.

To Rob, Steve and everyone who organized the day -- good job! I think it went superbly well, and the instruction plus all the seat time for the students was exceptional.

I agree with Steve about Rob -- his tireless commitment to novices is amazing and sets an outstanding example for others out into the future.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:55 am

well-stated, Chuck.

I need seat time with you, BTW. I like your approach to instructing....

I also found it very useful to instruct on the idea of "good" misses. Backsiding a cone and hitting it with inside rear is the right way to miss a slalom (like missing a breaking putt on the high side), and all they need to do is dial in the slalom speed and that "miss" becomes a perfect entry. Great case in point on visualizing the course: I rode with a novice on Sunday in a gorgeous E46M3 and he was all over the place, completely lost on course after two runs. After we were done I said "All I want you to do is memorize the course (he had a perfect view of it from grid) and then recite it to me when I come back." He did it, and we mentally drove the course while waiting in line. That run was a clean 54 after two 60+ sec runs.

The other prominent feature in novices (and some not-so-novices) is a lot of negative imagery. "I can't go faster through that element" or "Don't hit that cone" or "my car isn't set up right" were pretty common phrases I heard. Getting over that negativity is crucial in any sport, and I think it's pretty important in autocross as well. Success is founded on having the confidence and bravery to take charge of the course and drive 110%, and only a positive mental state can open that up. It's amazing what an encouraging phrase did to turn it around for the novices, even as little as saying "I know you can get a 37" when they've been running 39s all day, or as you pointed out, turning a hit cone into a "good" mistake.

(another example I am claiming credit for: Chris Vasques in RT had been languishing in the 54-55sec range. Before his fourth run I cheerfully chastised him about not being confident enough to drive WOT through the uphill slalom and wallom, and told him that I knew he could make that work and have a great run. His fourth run result: a 51.8, backed up by a 52.4. Positive imagery works.)

We have a follow-up novice school poll going out soon, and hopefully we will get some feedback for our efforts.

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:53 am

My student wanted to know why we don't run novice school's once a month.

I suggested he ought to volunteer with the club

(though finishing high school is also a priority for him)

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:04 pm

Scott Johnson wrote:

My student wanted to know why we don't run novice school's once a month.

I suggested he ought to volunteer with the club

(though finishing high school is also a priority for him)

I think that brings up a very good point. My student in the boss 302 had purchased the car in April last year and we had already hosted the novice school, so he decided not to come out and drive. Dan missed a year of driving. I do suggest at least a fall novice school.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

Steven Carter wrote:

It's amazing what an encouraging phrase did to turn it around for the novices, even as little as saying "I know you can get a 37" when they've been running 39s all day, or as you pointed out, turning a hit cone into a "good" mistake.

I have to disagree; I don't think that this is good advice. I told Chip last year at the first event my smokin' times in the 2, and then he beat me in his Leaf.

But real talk: It's pretty staggering what a few good ride-alongs can do for a novice; however, they need to understand what's going on to make good use of it. A prime example is wiggling through a slalom versus trying to make 90 degree turns out of each cone; telling novices what you're doing with the wheel definitely helps.

Alec Moody · **Joined:** Fri Feb 15, 2013 9:02 am **Posts:** 299

I learned a lot and plan to do it again. I think the club could easily charge more for it too. I heard several people say things about how they couldn't believe how inexpensive it was for the amount of seat time and instruction they got. Another novice school before points 7 or 8 would be great.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:06 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Whoever setup those two sets of pointer cones on the return part of the main course was a genius. The first pointer was worthless of course and should be easily ignored from one's vision in order to concentrate on the important 2nd one. However, coming into the prior element and looking ahead, that first one just stood out like it was lighted from above.

That one feature was a huge learning tool to my guys as even I was getting visually sucked into it as we ran the course. So I told them when you have a problem, you have to "feature it." Hence a bit of mental rehearsal of now allowing that 1st pointer sucking your attention to remind you to do three things: (1) instantly jump to the 2nd pointer, (2) trigger your "manage entry speed programming for 2nd pointer cone" and then visualize back-siding it with the inside left rear just perfectly, and (3) use it as a trigger to remind you of the rest of the course. I told them to love course elements like those since you can now mentally allow them to become your biggest asset on course. All that worked like charm -- it is such a great feeling when you have students who just suck in your ideas/thoughts/BS and then go out and do it well on course.

I saw that on Sunday, identified it as a problem and my eyes caught the sucker cone on every single run :oops:

I have always struggled with two cones that you pass on the same side of, I want to try to slalom them. I guess I should have showed up on Saturday :stick:

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Novice School Instructor - March 2, 2013

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