As you’ll read in our vision section, the natural tendency is to go where you look. By training your vision, you can use this to your advantage, avoid its dangers (target fixation) and overcome the tendency so you can apply your vision to other tasks.
Riding a line
Riding a line through a corner is hugely dependent on vision. Here’s how to do it:
- Use all you can see to assess the corner, including peripheral vision and clocking the vanishing point. This should let you select a likely turn-in point.
- Having picked your most likely turn-in point, look into the corner, search for what the vanishing point is doing and try to find the exit. Let your peripheral vision take care of the turn-in point.
- If you need to change your turn-in point slightly, it only requires a tiny amount of attention. Look into the corner, assess where the exit is and switch your attention to finding the apex.
- Turn-in towards the apex. At this point, your vision should be stretching out to the exit, letting your peripheral vision deal with hitting the apex.
- Once in the exit zone, your vision should be stretching further out to the road ahead.
Using your vision well, this piece-by-piece approach melds into a ‘visual flow’ where the transitions are seamless. It’s a bit like learning to dance: learning the steps can seem awkward but, when it all comes together, you’re dancing.
