Clarity of Purpose

Topics relating to Advanced Driving in cars
MrToad
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Clarity of Purpose

Postby MrToad » Fri May 11, 2018 10:57 am

Whilst out with someone recently, I found myself thinking about how a drive feels when the driver is thinking about too many things at once.

Like many others I suspect, I have an idea of how I'd like to drive and how I'd like that to come across to my passengers, based on what I've felt when being driven by others. One of the most striking things I've experienced is a driver with complete focus on the task at hand. This comes across as a compete clarity of purpose - it's confidence-inspiring and exhilarating to watch.

The opposite situation is easy to spot - opportunities are missed at junctions and roundabouts, positioning is not fully exploited and overtakes are fudged. Other road users are overly engaged with, rather than effectively dispatched. The driver's attention often seems to be inside or even behind the car, not way out in front.

This clarity requires very effective decision making about what's important and what's not, so that the important things can be given a much greater share of the attention, and trying to recreate it reveals just how much skill is required. Rapid decision making like that is only possible with a lot of experience - having been in a situation many times before enables a driver to access the best way to deal with it without much thought.

There will be situations where the nature of the road of the density of traffic makes it impossible to achieve, but on the right road at the right time, it's a joy to behold.

Has anyone else ever been struck by this feeling?

Do you struggle with distraction from the task in hand?

Is it undesirable for a driver to focus too much - do they risk missing other important things?

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akirk
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby akirk » Fri May 11, 2018 11:35 am

Is a part of that discussion also needing to consider how much is sub-conscious skills being used, and how much is conscious skills? Focus is presumably conscious skills, yet very often conscious skills are far harder to deliver well - and most humans can only do one at a time - therefore sub-conscious skills are needed to effectively multi-task, and to drive well...

does that mean that the driver who is very focused may be bringing conscious skills to bear, with possibly a reduction in the number of skills they can demonstrate simultaneously, and therefore losing some of their sub-conscious skill set? Or is focus, simply including all sub-conscious and raising the level on the conscious?

which is a higher skill level: the driver who appears to be very relaxed, yet, the skill is still there - i.e. they have headroom and contingency in their skills set - or the driver who is very focused and delivering 100% of what they are doing, but perhaps misses factor B because they are so focused on A?

Alasdair

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Horse
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby Horse » Fri May 11, 2018 12:29 pm

MrToad wrote: The opposite situation is easy to spot - opportunities are missed at junctions and roundabouts, positioning is not fully exploited and overtakes are fudged. Other road users are overly engaged with, rather than effectively dispatched. The driver's attention often seems to be inside or even behind the car, not way out in front.


In a training context, that sort of thing can appear when the driver is trying to impress - but doesn't actually know what you want /expect to see. Mentally, they know what they consider [e.g.] 'safe' or acceptable, but are trying to drive to your standards rather than their own.

Even away from 'training' where you are simply a passenger and no more, it's a mismatch between your expectations and theirs. And, giving context, you're at a fair distance along the scale away from the 'average' UK driver.
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.

MrToad
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby MrToad » Fri May 11, 2018 12:35 pm

Horse wrote:In a training context, that sort of thing can appear when the driver is trying to impress - but doesn't actually know what you want /expect to see. Mentally, they know what they consider [e.g.] 'safe' or acceptable, but are trying to drive to your standards rather than their own.


That's an interesting tangent. Obviously when doing IAM observing and the like we'd really prefer to see the driver's natural behaviour, but if they're trying to deliver what they think we'd like to see it'll be harder to tell what's actually going on.

Apart from the lack of focus thing, what other clues are there that the driver isn't being themselves?

Just as importantly, what can you do to help them to drive naturally in that unnatural situation?

Gareth
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby Gareth » Fri May 11, 2018 1:30 pm

MrToad wrote:Other road users are overly engaged with, rather than effectively dispatched.

This part feels a little awkward as effective dispatch sometimes isn't far away from a brusque attitude towards other road users. On the other hand I like a certain directness in the manner by which a driver negotiates fixed and mobile hazards.
there is only the road, nothing but the road ...

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Horse
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby Horse » Fri May 11, 2018 3:00 pm

MrToad wrote: Apart from the lack of focus thing, what other clues are there that the driver isn't being themselves?


Right things, but inappropriate implementation / timing? Lack of fluidity evident, e.g. when attempting something which is lower on their personal conscious competence ladder.

MrToad wrote: Just as importantly, what can you do to help them to drive naturally in that unnatural situation?


Appropriate circumstances / planned route
Phased & prioritised introduction of techniques, moving on only when secure in application
Remove other pressures e.g. don't expect 'progress' when they are focussed on balancing the car through a bend
Allowing time/distance for giving coaching advice where the driver will need to identify/think/react/implement etc.

Basically, remove the pressure to perform!
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.

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Horse
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby Horse » Fri May 11, 2018 5:29 pm

Addendum: I missed the most important thing! If, in a training context, they are distracted, then you have two options:
1. Empty their head, best done by giving a task that takes their mind off the distraction, or
2. End the session

For 1, an example (it's bike training related! ;) ) was a trainee that could do good clutch control and balance for slow straight line riding (below walking speed), but not when combined with a head turn to look through a turn. For this exercise I wanted her riding in a circle, as if going around a mini roundabout, with head turned to look diagonally opposite.

Machine control or head turn, but not both together. It just wasn't happening.

So I took 'bike control' out of it, and focussed (sic) on 'head turn'. This, unfortunately, required me to push her and the bike . . . But also I wanted her distracted, so she wouldn't tense up etc - by giving the "I can't do this!" part of her brain something distracting.

"Do you like music?". "Yes"
"What sort?" This quiet lady, mother of teenage boys, looked sheepish and said "Heavy rock"
So as I pushed, we both sang out aloud "Born to be wild" by Steppenwolf.

Once she realised should could do it, problem solved.

Another training example: cornering lines. Very often *something* will be visible in the distance but the trainee just seems to ignore it - even when you know that they, surely, must have seen it.

So, for some riders, on carefully selected routes, I get them to ride one-handed. No 'progress', just humbling at a steady speed.

The instruction is that as soon as a bend is visible they have to point, above head height, which way it goes. Then, that triggers the rest of the system nice and early.

Often, riders who've crashed In a certain situation will tense and self-talk themselves into trouble at the hint of a similar bend etc. There, use positive self-talk of what they need to do to negotiate the situation. If they say - even out aloud - what they have to do that achieves two things: they are concentrating on 'do' so won't have mental capacity for 'don't', and also if they're telling themselves what to do then they can follow those instructions and get it right, so unlearning the bad memories.
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.

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jcochrane
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby jcochrane » Fri May 11, 2018 5:58 pm

A great post Tony. To me it is a state of being where the mind is freed of emotion, body and sense of self. Akin to meditation. In driving, where the mind becomes freed to become at one with the car and the road. An intense, loose focus in that no effort is wasted in staying in that state of heightened awareness. Some call it driving in "the zone". As an aside it is one reason why, apart from training purposes, I am not a keen supporter of commentary driving. In the same way that I can't meditate and talk at the same time although I can walk, run, be in a noisy place, eyes open etc and still meditate.

Being driven by such a driver, as many of us here have, is a privilege A special moment to be savoured.

I think I got carried away a bit there. :lol: but I do think it is an ultimate state of driving.

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Horse
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby Horse » Fri May 11, 2018 7:39 pm

Wasn't there a story about Senna getting into a 'zone' - then pulling into the pits because he felt that he wasn't aware/concentrating enough? Or summat.
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.

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Horse
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Re: Clarity of Purpose

Postby Horse » Fri May 11, 2018 7:46 pm

“Suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was kind of driving by instinct, only I was in a different dimension. I was way over the limit; but still I was able to find even more. It frightened me, because I realised I was well beyond my conscious understanding.”
.
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.


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