Hey Racers,

I am back from my travels promoting Racers Workout and meeting with clients. One of my new Racer friends, Mr. Aaron League of RIT Racing is a guy that takes his fitness and preparation seriously. I love his attitude towards his passion. He brought Ross Bentley's Racing Books to my attention and specifically Mr. Bentley's reliance on visualization techniques to sharpen your racing senses.  First, I want you to become acquainted with Aaron.  Here is his facebook contact.  I can't stress enough the power of sharing ideas and goals with other Racers who are working hard to go places. It's a simple formula: limit your time around the stinking thinking crowd and replace that time being around winners. Second, start setting aside 10 to 20 minutes a day to read things by experts like Ross Bentley. Your local library either has his stuff or will order it for you.

I am giving you Aaron's review of the important of visualization. I think he did a super job on this.

I will try to relay the information I know and understand about Ross Bentley’s visualization technique. Here is my summarization of the point he tries to get across. I do recommend the read, however. It does base majorly on this method, but also has good fundamental race driving information that covers everything from technique to physical fitness to sponsorship.

In his series of Speed Secrets books, Bentley explains that the perfect driver does not exist. Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Ayrton Senna, Sebastien Vettel- none of them are perfect, in reality. But what if one were to take all the mistakes that each of those drivers make, and just erase them. We would have the perfect driver, wouldn’t we? That racer would brake at the latest possible moment into every corner, accelerate at the earliest possible moment out of them, and be on the limit 100% of the time. That racer, believe it or not, exists. He/she can exists in the mind of every dedicated racer.

Ross Bentley

Through a series of exercises and various scenarios, Bentley teaches the reader to visualize the perfect run, the perfect qualifying lap, the perfect endurance stint, the perfect pass. By doing so, the driver is prepared for every scenario that he/she may ever encounter on the track. They can all be rehearsed in one’s mind, and with a little guidance to steer away from false scenarios, the driver is then armed with perfect practice- which, as we all know, makes perfect.

The learning curve is difficult for those that do not have imagination, so be warned. It certainly takes practice to be able to visualize a great run, to remember everything that happens on the track and figure out how to correct it in your mind. To be completely honest, I'm still working on being perfect at visualization; I practice every day, whether I'm in or out of the car. With each passing track run in my mind, though, I learn a little something more about what could go wrong and what I need to do to gain that lost time back. I feel myself getting closer and closer to visualizing the perfect run every time I drive a track in my head. I become more focused, I am able to concentrate better, I can see each camber change and surface imperfection in the track. It really is amazing how acute your senses become when you take the time to soak everything in.

 Let me know if you'd like to know more. The book itself is a lot more in-depth than this- my summary only scratches the surface.

Filed under: Racing News • Workout Tips

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