Q: “I’ve attended HPDE events for about 3 years now, mostly with a Porsche club in eastern PA. I drive a 2000 NB1 Miata. I find, and my instructors have all said the same, that I’m there physically and safely on Saturday but don’t seem to be as focused or consistent as I can be until Sunday. They’ve all said, “It is like you have to sleep on it to get it.” In my mind, that tells me I need some tools to better prepare myself to focus and to accept instruction more quickly so that Saturdays are not ‘one step back’. I can’t believe I’m the only one that experiences this so I’d like to see, hear, learn your suggestions for overcoming this big hurdle. Throughout my life I’ve had what I call a tough time learning. It’s not that I’m a slow learner, it just takes banging into my head a few times before I get it. Can you help with this?”
A: First, you might want to listen to this podcast that I did a couple of years ago with Dr. Matt Walker, a sleep researcher: https://speedsecrets.com/?s=walker&et_pb_searchform_submit=et_search_proccess&et_pb_search_cat=1%2C97%2C96%2C132%2C109%2C111%2C110&et_pb_include_posts=yes. We talked about how sleep over the course of a weekend can help what you learn the first day sink into your brain.
Everyone needs some amount of time for things to sink in. Consider this: you do what you do because you’re mentally programmed to do so; you sometimes don’t do what you want because you don’t have the mental programming yet. So, what’s happening on Saturday is your brain is being programmed. Then, on Sunday, you act on your programming. So, my advice is to just accept that what’s going on from Saturday to Sunday is part of your learning and programming.
Could the way you perform on Saturday be because you’re just having to take in so much information, and it’s a bit overwhelming? And then, after sleeping on it, your brain has sorted all of that information out?
How can you help learn things faster? Mental imagery, which is usually called visualization. If you spent a little time on Saturday, maybe even at lunch time on the first day, relaxing and replaying what you did that morning through your mind, it would stick in your brain — it would become part of your mental programming better. You might want to download the free eBook, Mental Imagery Guide here: https://speedsecrets.com/product/mental-imagery-guide-for-drivers/. It’ll give you some help in programming what you learn more quickly.
Sleep helps our brains consolidate the information we take in, makes sense of it, and then results in us being better able to do a physical task like high performance driving.
Here’s a suggestion: Spend time leading up the weekend event, reading or watching driving information — in-car videos, for example, or a book or article about driving technique. That way you will have primed your mind for the learning that you’re going to take in on the Saturday. And then, each night, just before you go to sleep, take 15 minutes or so to relax and imagine doing what you took in that day. I’m sure that by the time you get to mid-day on Saturday, you will be at least a day ahead of your previous schedule of “getting it.”
NOTE: If you don’t want to wait for me to answer your question(s) here (which can take months, since I have so many!), you can always use my new SpeedSecrets.ai by signing up at SpeedSecrets.ai. The real beauty of using this app is that you can get out of your car after a session on track, and immediately ask it questions and get your answers, as well as what you should work on for the next on-track session. Since it’s “trained” only with my content, it really is like having me with you at the track.