LOOKING AHEAD WHILST RACING

[paulCRF]

Hi to all, when racing I have a bad habit of not looking far enough up the track, e.g when riding ruts I seem to look at the rut rather than past it. Any tips would be most appreciated. Many thanks

[Bmo]

Thats one of those things I have to remind myself to do.

Its like one of the basics, grip with the legs, stand up elbows out and look ahead. I usually remember after Ive blown a couple turns than once I quit starring at my fender

the bike just seems to turn on its own.

[Gary Semics]

Where or how far to look ahead while practicing or racing is a subject of major importance. The basic law here is to look at the next most important object that’s coming up next as early as possible. This may be the beginning of a rut, the entrance of a corner, a big bump on a straight, the take off of a jump, est. You see, as you’re riding a motocross track your vision is covering the ground just before you go over it. You have to focus you vision on certain things for major importance; like mentioned earlier. But what can happen to the untrained rider is that they focus their vision on these things too late and too long. This causes them to ride too close in front of their front fender, which makes them ride the track every ten or twenty feet instead of blending the sections together more smoothly and with better lines. I think this technique is one that even the best riders should be aware of and practice. When you train yourself to be comfortable at looking a little further ahead it allows you to have more time to react to things and therefore go faster. You may be going faster but it doesn’t seem like you are. Vision, depth perception and peripheral vision are all very important. So open it up and see the entire track out in front of you. For ruts, as you enter the rut look at the end of it. Ride with your eyes up toward the top of your goggles. Don’t get stuck in tunnel vision. ?

[berkeman]

Hi to all, when racing I have a bad habit of not looking far enough up the track, e.g when riding ruts I seem to look at the rut rather than past it. Any tips would be most appreciated. Many thanks

One trick that helps me (when I remember to do it) is to force yourself to point your head in the direction that you'd be looking if you were looking ahead correctly. The idea is to move only your eyes down if you feel you need to look down at something, like finishing sighting the entrance to a rut. It feels a little goofy at first, but it helps to get you in the habit of looking up. Pretty soon you don't end up swivelling your eyes down much, and lead with your head better. ?

[paulCRF]

Hi, Many thanks for the tips, my next race is in two weeks so I've got time to get to the practice track and practice the technique, there'll be plenty of ruts as it's getting very wet here in England. Cheers to all. ?

[Moto_Squid]

When I took my street bike course they kept pounding look ahead look ahead...afterwards I started doing that on the track with good results

[Moedaddio]

is this PJ?

[yamaha_matt]

semics is the man