Tuesday 28 May 2013

Ignore your race results to build real confidence

Getting a kick out of a race result is fine, but if you want to set yourself on a path of mastering kart driving then race results need to quickly become an irrelevance.

Developing real confidence in yourself.

Karting requires incredible levels of self confidence. And that self confidence needs to be built from  developing tremendous capabilities in specific kart driving skill areas.  This kind of real confidence I describe as bullet proof, it means it cannot be shaken in the face of adversity.
Results based confidence is completely different. If you allow your confidence to be built on gaining race results you are creating a future disaster. Confidence based on where you finish in a race is the opposite of bullet proof - it is fragile and dependant on factors totally out of your control.

Warning - fragile contents

Now, there are a great deal of drivers out there who feel confident based on their race results. You may look up to them or find them intimidating even.
But when your confidence is based on results, you are hiding a deep rooted fear of getting a batch of bad results.
These guys are fine when in their element, but install a bit of doubt in them by putting them in a new situation and they crumble. It happens all the time, very often when drivers move out of karting and into car racing.
Those kinds of drivers are terribly vulnerable, they took the short cut route to confidence, and they will eventually hit a confidence crisis.

The key to bullet proof confidence

Identify the skills that make a top driver, break them down into small chunks. Set out to master each of those chunks and measure your progress.
That way you build the right skills, and when you measure that progress honestly you self confidence builds on solid ground.

Monday 27 May 2013

What this blog is all about

Welcome to my kart driving mastery blog.

Why winning doesn't mean a thing to me

The purpose of this site is to show how mastering the art of kart driving is a worthwhile pursuit in and of itself, regardless of wins or race results. In fact I assert that treating kart driving as an activity to master, is a far more worthwhile pursuit than trying to win races.

Mastery means constantly improving yourself as a driver, which means that there is no end. You are constantly engaged in improving, finding new ways to go faster. 

But if winning is the goal, once you win what is left? You need to find a bigger race to win, or a more expensive class to race in! What's even worse about winning is that it usually isn't up to you - you will find you win races when everyone else has a bad day. What's so good about that?? Quite often winning a kart race can be a pretty mediocre achievement, and mediocrity is not the pursuit of a kart racer in my opinion!

Mastery though is different. Mastery is about dedicating yourself to learn in great detail the fine points of driving a kart. With mastery the motivation to improve and search for performance in yourself is inexhaustible. Problems become challenges, obstacles energise you.

So, the posts on this site will be with the aim to help drivers on the road to mastering kart driving.