When Trying Harder Backfires: How to Identify and Correct Over-driving in Karting

Learn to spot the subtle signs of over-driving, understand its evolutionary roots, and master practical techniques to maintain peak performance under pressure.

Finesse goes out the window when the pressure is on, the wrong instinct takes over and we leg it!

Over-driving plagues many drivers, especially at high-stakes events like Kartmasters where qualifying can make or break your weekend. With such depth of talent in the field, there's no easy path through the pack if you start below where your natural pace would normally rank you.

And its over-driving, however slight, that is the number one culprit of a dodgy qualifying run.

So you don’t sabotage yourself with over-driving, in this week’s article, you'll learn:

1. How to identify when you're over-driving, even when it's not obvious

2. The psychological and physiological reasons behind over-driving

3. Practical techniques to combat over-driving and maintain peak performance

4. How to turn pressure into a performance enhancer rather than a hindrance

How Over-driving Manifests: From Subtle Tension to Performance Collapse

Over-driving isn't always as dramatic as Tokyo Drift-style cornering or locking up the brakes. It can be a subtle tension, a slight push beyond your normal limits. Even drivers who've honed their craft to perfection in practice can fall victim to it when the pressure mounts.

This phenomenon doesn't necessarily grip you for an entire session. It might creep in for a single lap, or even just one corner on your crucial qualifying attempt.

Your mind suggests, "I can brake later here" or "I need to push harder now", and suddenly you've nuked your lap.

If you drop a tenth, you’ve lost a good few places on the grid, and you’ll find yourself pushing even harder to recover it - and that leads to another 2 tenths worth of mistakes and you are out of the running altogether!

Why Our Brains Sabotage Us: The Evolutionary Roots of Over-driving

Strangely, our evolutionary wiring seems to work against us in these high-pressure situations. You'd think that evolution would have equipped us to perform at our peak when the stakes are highest - like outrunning a sabre-tooth tiger. Logically, we should be able to access our maximum performance, heightened senses, and peak skills when under threat.

Instead, evolution seems to have taken a different approach. When under extreme pressure, our bodies activate a "cut the crap" response. This primitive survival mechanism bypasses our finely-tuned skills, sensitivity, and technical knowledge. It's as if our brain decides:

"Forget finesse, we need brute force to survive! CUT THE CRAP"

This response might have served our ancestors well when escaping mortal danger, allowing them to ignore pain and push through physical barriers. However, in the precise world of karting, where sensitivity and finesse are crucial, this survival mode can be disastrous.

Physical Effects of Pressure: How Stress Compromises Your Karting Performance

When this survival mode kicks in, it can manifest as physical tension. Your muscles tighten, preparing for a fight-or-flight scenario. This tension compromises the delicate control needed for optimal karting performance. Your ability to feel the kart's subtle movements diminishes, and your fine motor control shuts down.

Karts are incredibly sensitive to input, this loss of feel is critical. Karts require a perfect balance of aggression and finesse. Even a slight increase in steering input can dramatically alter the kart's dynamics, making it feel like an entirely different machine.

So, if your response to pressure is a survival response, your body no longer cares about sensitivity through the steering and being able to make fine adjustments to keep on the edge of grip. It wants brutal inputs and force - and that means slow.

Recognising Over-driving: How It Creeps In Without You Noticing

The most insidious aspect of over-driving is how it sneaks up on you. It doesn't announce itself with a fanfare.

There's no clear thought that says, "Now we're going to over-drive."

Instead, it's a subtle shift in priorities, a change in your physiological state that can happen without you even realising.

Here’s how I think it works:

• Your subconscious recognises the high stakes situation

• In a flash it consults your most honest levels of self-belief, about how skilful you are right now for this exact scenario (check out self-efficacy to fix this)

• If it finds your confidence isn’t totally robust deep deep down, it switches into ‘cut the crap’ mode

• Beautifully smooth and balanced quick driving goes out the window.

• Over-driving begins!

Practical Steps to Detect then Counteract Over-driving