Speed Sight Tip #1

Most people consider motorcycle racing to be an adrenaline sport. Indeed it is -- for the fans. The racers should be relaxed and calm on the track. The fastest racers are the most relaxed racers. Adrenaline burns excess energy and it makes you tense. It's hard to ride your best if you are tense.

As you probably know, if you grip the handlebars too tightly you will get arm pump or arm fatigue. And your reactions will be slower. Riding fast requires mastering the ability to be relaxed while still controlling the bike. We know that is true when it comes to the body's muscles. But what about the eye's muscles?

Did you know that tense eye muscles diminish your vision? The effect is similar to holding on to the handlebars too tightly. If you look at the track with tense eyes, you will not be able to ride your best.

Tense eyes are the opposite of fit eyes. Tense eyes make it seem like things are happening faster. If things seem to be happening faster, you are going to be riding slower. Remember James Stewart's secret to going fast, as explained by former champ Jeff Emig. The secret is seeing things as if they are going slower. (Think how much faster you could ride than the competition if everyone and everything was moving in slow motion. The same thing would be true in a video game if the action appeared to move slower for you and faster for your competition.) The only way to have this speed sight where things seem to be moving slow while you are going fast is to learn how to remove any tension from your eyes.

Achieving this goal takes a lot of practice. Learning to let the tension leave your eyes is a skill that must be mastered. You cannot achieve it with effort. In fact, the more you try, the less you will succeed. After all, "trying to relax" is an oxymoron! If you don't get this concept, consider supplementing your racing training with some training from the Far East - meditation, martial arts, etc.

Often we can have tension in our body and not even know it. When you are learning to race, you can hold on to the handlebars really, really tightly and yet not even be aware that you are riding with so much tension until after you stop. Even then, it often takes an experienced rider to point out the fact that you are holding on too tightly. I'm sure you can think of thousands of situations where you hold tension in your body and you are not aware of it.

Most of us hold tension in our eyes and we are not aware of it at all. If you don't see better than 20/20, then you definitely have tension in your eyes. If you don't already have extremely fit eyes, then you certainly have some tension in your eyes even if you do see 20/20 or better. And even if you don't notice the tension, my point is that you can find extra speed on the race track by learning to let go of any unnoticed tension in your eyes.

Here is Speed Sight Tip #1.

It will help if you do each step before you read the next step. Do one, then read the next one and do it. In other words, don't read this whole technique right now. Print out the steps, and only read the next one after you have done the previous one. You may want to get some assistance from a friend the first time you try this.

This is an exercise designed to teach your body how to automatically remove a specific type of tension from your eyes. The tension we are addressing in this exercise is the tension associated with your eyes grabbing onto objects too hard. This is similar to holding onto the handlebars too hard.

• Go outside in grass. You should be in the grass in case you fall down while doing this exercise.
• Standing up normally, turn around slowly in a 360 degree circle.
• Just look out as you normally would.
  • Look straight out in the direction your nose points in whatever way you would normally look.
  • Gently notice what you see and how it appears.
• The next step is where a friend can help. Have your friend watch your eyes while you again turn around slowly in a 360 degree circle.
  • The friend will only be able to see your eyes during part of your turn, of course.
  • You should ignore your friend. Just look out straight ahead while you turn around.
  • Your friend will probably notice that your eyes jump. They lock very briefly, then unlock and jump to the next point and lock instantaneously again. Isn't that surprising!?
  • I'm sure you are not telling your eyes to lock (fixate). You probably cannot even notice it. But your eyes are locking. (If they aren't then you probably have a good start on speed sight already and you should get out there and gives James and Ricky a run for their money.)
• After you finish turning around a couple times, compare what you saw with what a movie or video looks like when the camera pans with continuous motion.
  • In the movie, even when the camera is moving slowly, the scene blurs. There is motion blur and this blur effect is smooth and constant as long as the camera is panning (moving).
  • I expect that when you turned around you did not see motion blur. That's normal. But it is a consequence of your eyes locking unconsciously.
• Next, start by looking up at the sky and turning around.
  • Notice how the sky spins. There is motion blur now. (If not, turn a little faster.) The sensation is not unlike watching a movie when the camera is panning.
• Now, do the 360 degree turns looking out straight ahead again. This time, do them a little faster. If you turn fast enough, you will get the motion blur. However, after doing this just once, you do not want to do it again. The objective is not to spin around fast.
• Now, here is the goal: you want to be able to turn around slowly and have a sensation of motion blur. The slower the better. When you master this after some practice, your eyes will not be jumping. Your eyes will not be locking. Your eyes will be relaxed. This is a skill you will only be able to master through practice. It will take time. It might take several months to see progress. However, with practice, you will be able to turn around slowly without your eyes jumping and locking. Your eyes will stay relaxed and looking straight ahead. This will create a motion blur effect.
• As you practice, remind yourself to just let the results come to you effortlessly. If you try to make your eyes stay straight ahead without jumping, you will be defeating yourself. You will be introducing even more tension than before.
  • Be aware of any tension.
  • Be aware of slightly crossing your eyes. This is a trick that works against you. If you slightly cross your eyes, you will notice motion blur. But crossing your eyes introduces tension. This is where your friend can help you master the skill correctly. Have your friend watch to point out if you are turning your eyes inward while you are practicing.
  • The way to success with this technique is to do it without effort. Notice any tension around your eyes. If you detect tension, then regroup. You may need to stop the exercise for a few minutes. Or you may need to simply stop trying to achieve the result. Let the result come without effort.
• Work up to the point where you are practicing this for 10 minutes twice a day.
  • You make progress simply by putting in your time practicing. You do not need to force it.
  • Your eyes will naturally unlock and release the hidden tension when you give them a chance. You give them a chance by doing the practice 10 minutes twice a day.
  • You can not make your eyes relax. That's impossible. They will automatically do it simply by you having an intention and doing the practice regularly. An intention is a quiet idea in the back of your mind that you don't keep thinking about. It is enough to simply understand the goal. Then you forget about it and simply do the practice. (If you have taken martial arts, you have probably heard similar instructions. You can even apply this idea of intention to your riding.)
• When you consistently experience motion blur for most of the 10 minutes, then start making your movements smaller. Instead of a 360 degree turn, do a 180 degree turn in one direction, then reverse it and do a 180 degree turn in the other direction. Ultimately, you should be able to do just a few degrees of turn and notice motion blur (when you want to). This indicates that your eyes are relaxed and that you have broken the habit of your eyes always locking onto objects.

Note that your eyes still have the ability to fixate when they need to. This is the same as learning to ride with a relaxed grip on the handlebars. Just because you learn to ride relaxed doesn't mean you can't grab on tightly if you needed to for an emergency. Your eyes work the same way. Before you learn this technique, you don't have any control over how your eyes relax. After you learn this technique, you will be able to release tension from your eyes, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to focus exactly when and where you want to focus. In fact, you will find that your focus and vision clarity improve. If you want, you can test this with an eye chart. You can purchase an eye chart on the Internet for less than US$ 10. Test yourself. After several months of doing this exercise correctly, your visual acuity will improve.

However, your main goal is to release tension from your eyes. You want to teach your eyes that they don't have to constantly grab onto objects. When you have less tension in your eyes as a result of having mastered this first Speed Sight technique, you will have taken one step toward making obstacles on the track appear to be moving slower while you are moving faster.

As you can guess, it would be ideal to have a Speed Sight coach. The top racers all employ physical fitness trainers. One day I expect Speed Sight trainers will be just as critical to the top racers. But for now, you will probably have to training yourself and use whatever I can share with you online.

After you try this, please leave a comment (or question) here on my blog. I'd like to hear about your experiences.