e9stibi

Gopd point but we are talking about advanced drives and they have much more experience than 1-3 DEs.

todinlaw

An update on the program. We are about 60% full we have a hard limit of 60 instructors. Those who do sign up, if they have PCA credentials will be invited to instruct via email about 30 days out.

The program is going to consist of significant track time with emphasis on your driving ability. Not so much on the line although the line will be taught, as taught by the Mid-Ohio School. My experience with MO School is they teach an earlier apex faster line than what you would use on a beginner or near beginner student. The corner observations will be helpful to give you a better understanding about what works and why.

The classroom portion of this event is what I have been struggling with. MO school will do one classroom and PCA will be doing the other one or two. What I have been struggling with on the classroom portion is that Region by Region zone by zone, groups do things differently, from how the graduate students to how they evaluate students. So, I do not want to go in that direction.

First off, this school is 90% about improving your driving skill from a professional instruction point of view. Yes it includes "Ideas" about driving the line, and looking for grip. The classroom portion will be some advanced discussion about Driving dynamics and some pointer about dealing with, understanding and helping students. (we assume, you know how to instruct, we are trying to fine tune your driving understanding and understanding of the need of your student.

As to the comments about consistency in driving the line, That is not our goal. I believe that I have a line that is fastest for me and the car that I am driving, but since I have driven a GT3 and a Miata, I can tell you I do not drive the same line for both cars. However, consistency between instructors can be improved in terms of other areas of our work like communication.

I have been toying with the idea of doing a session on instructor liability. If you have some suggestions on topics that you think would be appropriate for a diverse group of instructors, in terms of ability, as well as coming from different regions, I am interested in your ideas. Frank

sbelles

Speaking of "the line" I'm hoping that those of us who are new to MO will have a chance to do some follow the leader before we get the pros in the car. I'd hate to spend all my time figuring out which way to turn.

todinlaw

Got you covered. We have 3 groups so that we can give you what you need.
Group 1 is seasoned instructors with MO experience 2, Seasoned instructor without MO experience. and group 3 is Instructors in training with or without MO experience.

The morning sessions will have lead follow. so yes you will get the line, in a lead follow format. it works well because you will be in a smaller group. You will be taught the line, Its just not the end of the training its the beginning.

Veloce Raptor

Frank, FYI, this year we have started an instructor coaching program here with Lone Star Regoin PCA. I developed a "business plan" for our CDI whereby several of the advanced instructors would be pretty much dedicated exclusively to improving the driving skills of the rest of our instructor corps. Due to the size of our instructor corps, it will take the full year for the 3 of us to get through everyone, and thus we are not doing a classroom as part of the program at this time. However, my goal next year is to also incorporate an advanced skills classroom as part of our in-car instructor coaching regimen.

Happy to discuss & compare with you off RennList.







Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Z-man

I think it is a great idea -- you can never have too much training -- look forward to attending - hopefully this will migrate to the east coast soon, or I can always trek out to MO again -- great track!

-Z-man.

kurt M

I think VR is on to something too. Having some advanced skill instructors work one on one with the newer IC members. Potomac has an informal version consisting of instructors right seating from time to time wiht each other but a more formal setup might help to insure all instructors are continuing to improve the needed skills.

todinlaw

I would like to talk about it with you. We also have moved to 8 people we call instructor coach's or advanced instructors if you will. Not to the point that you are, but I think to keep everyone on the same page it takes follow up and its to much for one CDI to do. I an following Chris Alvarado's lead on this, meaning I heard if from him as to the concept, and we are implementing.

Thought about using the Team approach to but i do not think that will work for us. When the smoke clears lets talk.
-

BTW we have 20 spots left on the sign up.

Veloce Raptor

Kurt, thanks! Frank, Chris lives here & is in that region as well as Hill Country with me. I will thank him for piming our ideas around the country when I see him this weekend!









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

racer

I must be missing something here.. so help me out.. explain specifically what your program intends to do.

As I read it, I get to pay $200 to go to mid-ohio. As a PCA instructor, I would get additional instruction on how to drive this particular track. ok. Maybe I even learn the secret "fast" line . I get to sit through the same ideas/situations and terminology I have been hearing and learning about for the last, say 10+ years.

I am not saying this isn't a good idea.. perhaps I have been spoiled by belonging to regions with very large, sucessful instructor programs AND DE programs and I am not understanding the need (perhaps from the smaller regions?) for improving an instructors driving skills. Is this the real issue? That some regions are struggling with developing "good" new ICs?

IMHO, an instructor who can't go to a new track and learn 90% of a tracks challenges/lines etc, quickly, shouldn't have been made an instructor to begin with.

I could see this as an issue for regions who only visit 1 or 2 tracks a year. They get a bottleneck of folks who KNOW that particular track and drive it well. But they never learned how to learn NEW tracks.

The best instructors (for a new student) aren't the always the fastest drovers, but the ones who know how to teach.

This "hobby" sure sounds like a lot of work.

e9stibi

VR - "She" is back ...

todinlaw

Now don't get me in trouble, I have been working with Chris closely on CR.Net because we have been working on an on line approach to evaluation of students and instructors, but hey if you got good ideas lets all get better. You get the credit!

todinlaw

This may not be the program your you, You have to assess your own driving skill and maybe, it would be helpful for you to be evaluated by other instructors or professional drivers. So it depends on your level of ability. Graham Rahal and Dad Bobby I think are still members of our region, they don't need our help. There consistency of hitting the line is a matter of inches.

It s true that much of the focus will be on driving this track. It would be nice to see other regions pick up this program and take it to there home track.

I think one way to assess your own skill level is to be evaluated by another instructor. we are going to start to do that in our region. It's kind of like the game of golf, I would have to go to my swing coach about every two weeks because things would creep and my swing would change.

As for the $200.00 you can't get professional help for 200.00 unless she is standing on a corner.

Veloce Raptor

LOL...I don't want credit, I want instructors to set better examples for students!

Seriously, though, I would be happy to discuss any time. Please PM me your contact information. We will be doing another round of instructor coaching this weekend.







Professional Racing and Driving Coach

kurt M

Frank, Is this program instruction training or driving training? I think the key to being a advanced instructor is not so much the driving (which is required) but the communication of clear, consistent and correct information to the student as well as being able to adapt to the students needs. I think we have more great drivers than great communicators.

Dave, Potomac grows its own instructors too with a yearly all day classroom event as well as instructor only days at the track for mentoring and right seat time. More formal ongoing continuing education can't hurt.