The Deadly Over-Driving Habit and How to Defeat it.

Over-driving comes from weaknesses in executive function, or when you aren't strong enough in commanding your instincts to work for your goals. The war between executive function and speed goblins!

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How to do your mechanic’s head in - Over-drive

You've seen mechanics doing that funny signal to drivers, the fingertips tiny steering movement mime thing they do.  

It's like a gentle reminder to drive smooth, use small inputs etc. A plea to ‘remember what you know’.

But there’s nothing gentle going on in the mind of the mechanic at the time!

 'Oh God here we go again!!! We've lost our head! That’s it… FFS - over-driving.'

By then the driver is unreachable, all the laps they've done, with beautiful smoothness and perfect consistency and speed, are no longer relevant to them; they are now in the dread-zone of….

OVER-DRIVING

Over-driving is the state of mind where the driver, under pressure, feels they have to be quicker or else they are in trouble. They get desperate to: 

• Catch the driver ahead.

• Escape the drivers behind.

• Find a tenth to qualify well.

All perfectly reasonable desires for a driver to have of course. And when a driver is ruled by their ‘Executive Function’ they KNOW exactly how to go about doing that. 

BUT…

Under pressure, when the executive function doesn’t have enough authority, then an over-driving disaster is waiting to strike.

Executive Function - The Boss - The part of you that instructs you to drive the way you know is correct.

Executive function… mental skills that help an individual plan, monitor, and successfully execute their goals.

You know your executive function is in control when you are driving cleanly, smooth and hitting all your marks. You are being super economic with the wheel, hitting consistent times and feeling calm and in command.

It’s the feeling of confidence and clarity that comes along with knowing what is correct for you and executing that on the track, time after time.

Everything feels balanced, correct and you aren’t much surprised by excellent lap times. It’s a natural and predictable consequence of being on it.

Over-driving happens when your executive function gets defeated.

Imagine old over-driving habits like little mischievous speed goblins looking for their opportunity to take over again. I call them old habits because they are things drivers do in the early stages of driving fast, and having fun.

• Braking too late and missing apexes.

• Early on the power and using too much run off.

• Putting loads of physical effort into steering a lot.

• Looking for overtakes in new places.

• Lack of finesse, being brutal on the kart.

• Using up the tyre with excessive steering angle.

• Loads of opposite lock moments and a bit of dorifto.

Come on let’s just let it rip, all that clever driving BS isn’t working!

As you improve as a driver you are developing the power of your executive function skills to rule over the ‘speed goblins’, so instead of letting rip all the time you start applying intelligence to turning raw speed into producing seriously quick lap times and achievement of your racing goals

You would think that the speed goblins would be happy with being quick and winning, but they aren’t!

All the time the speed goblins want to get rid of your executive functioning skills and let it all rip again. They don’t like to be contained, after all that’s what they are all about, they are speed freaks who want to kick up dust and burn rubber!

So all the time the speed goblins are waiting for the boss (executive function) to show weakness, so that they can take over rule again, and over-drive the hell out of everything!

Driving under pressure - when over-driving habits will launch their attack and take over.

The weakness they are waiting for is during a high pressure moment. That’s when your faith in your executive function is really put to the test. Those little goblins will then start to drip lead into your ear!

‘Something must be done, this BS smooth stuff isn't working, we’re going to have to find time by trying harder, it's all we have. This is an emergency’

Under pressure you start to doubt what you know and its effectiveness:

• I’m not catching the driver in front, this isn’t working

• I’m being caught by the drivers behind, I’m gunna get ‘freight trained’ in a minute.

• If I don’t find two tenths I’m nowhere, this way of driving is slow.

Now you are inviting the goblins to stage a coup. And they don’t need to be asked twice, they’ll jump at the chance and go bananas. Your executive function gives up and your goals to win go out the window.

It’s party time for the speed goblins, and off you go into over-driving mode.

You know they have taken over when you say to yourself:

Screw this crap, I’m having it.

And it feels soooo good to let rip when the goblins take over!

You can go wild, start going bonkers at the wheel and let it all go. Hang it all out and relieve all that frustration.

You already know the consequences but I'll spell them out. Lots of mistakes, lots of time loss from slow exits, lots of sliding wide and lots of other drivers diving up the inside of you.

Then here comes the death spiral

Seeing you over-drive forces your opponents to make a decision:

Nail this over-driver right now with a risky move, or sit and wait - then get done myself…

Nine times out of ten they will decide to put a great big lunge/dive bomb move on you. And that means they will, at the very least, put you out wide - or just as likely wipe you out altogether.

I call it a death spiral because over-driving leads to more and more dire consequences the longer it goes on. Very often ending with you taking a load of damage and a crap race result.

How to prevent yourself descending into over-driving.

The over-driving habits can only take over when they sense weakness in your executive functions. That means when your knowledge about how to drive extremely fast doesn’t have absolute authority over your instincts.

So, the key to never over-driving is to have very high regard for yourself and trust in your understanding of driving. In short, you need to be a strong leader in command over your instincts to let rip, especially under pressure.

Here are the steps to boost the authority of your executive functions

1. Know thyself. 

Know what you are good at, break it down. If you are an all natural driver that might be a bit tricky, but unless you know what you do exactly you’ll be susceptible to changing under pressure and overdriving.

Write down what makes you quick and dwell on it, make it like a list of ten commandments! Stuff like; when I’m on it I do these:

• Brake just perfect, a bit of locking but not too much.

• Hit perfect apex points.

• Barely turn the steering wheel.

• Hit the right exit point with maximum traction.

• Make the right overtakes that don’t cost time.

• Don’t over-react to being passed, slot in and carry on driving perfect.

• Think about the tyres.

• Stick to the plan.

Thats eight commandments but you get the idea! For each point you can write why they work for you.

2. Daily invest yourself in your way of driving, so its harder to backtrack on it.

Whatever your ten commandments (or eight!) are, you really need to buy into them. This is what bolsters your authority over your instincts. A really good way is to talk about your way of driving to other drivers, mates, parents or anyone who will listen.

It’s even better to get into an argument about how to drive and why your way is best, so that you begin to attach pride to your methods.

A bit of emotional attachment to how you drive, when in control, will really support your power to command the over-driving goblins.

Invest yourself in your ideas on driving right, so that its embarrassing to show yourself up by succumbing to over-driving.

3. Know the signs that you are about to go into over-driving - nip it in the bud.

You should have a strong executive function by now, but there are always new situations that can rock your authority. Be ready to nail the doubts before trouble starts. Early signs of an imminent goblin take-over can be:

• Sensing drivers behind and feeling vulnerable.

• Starting to try stuff you didn’t plan, e.g. I’ll change my line a bit.

• Losing time to the driver ahead and feeling a bit panicky.

• Starting to miss apexes looking for time that isn’t there.

• Looking for overtaking moves that aren’t on.

This is when you need to summons a bit of pride in how you mean to drive.

Ask yourself:

‘Am I going to betray my own driving principles and drive like a twonk now???’.

In that moment your principles of driving, your own ten commandments, need to be burned into your soul, so that deviating from them actually hurts.

Here’s what happens when you successfully defeat the old habits that cause over driving.

When your executive function really is the boss here’s what happens when you feel the need to step it up. Put simply you do the right things a bit better:

• More accuracy. You know what points you need to hit, the demand in your mind to go quicker just makes you commit to hitting those points with more intensity.

• More focus. The blood chemistry that comes with the demand for higher performance serves to increase your focus on doing what you do right. You’ll feel it in your blood, your whole being is dedicated to driving right. Call it flow or whatever you like.

• More finesse. Higher focus, higher accuracy requires more feel. When your instincts are correctly commanded they don’t start going mad, they instead go into high definition mode. Your ability to feel opens up, you can make finer and finer adjustments to steering, braking and power. Adjustments so fine they are invisible to outsiders.

• More consistency and speed. Naturally when all your senses are heightened and dedicated to hitting the right points, the same correct points lap after lap, then consistency and speed go through the roof.

Quick summary on beating the over driving habit

1. Overdriving happens when your wild side takes over fully.

2. You need a strong ‘executive function’ to control your wild side goblins and use them effectively.

3. You can make your executive function stronger by breaking down what you do well and investing in your own driving method.

4. Your old driving habits always want to rule and they will look for weakness in your self belief, then try to take over

5. Be ready for early signs of over driving, nip them in the bud

6. Reap the benefits of having strong leadership over yourself and be fast af.

Thanks for reading and listening!