Hesitation Kills Overtaking - How to Get Over it.

From raw braking skills, to getting inside your own head to solve your overtaking problems.

This week I'm tackling the problem of making decisive overtaking moves.

This is for drivers who are fast, but not getting the results their lap times justify because they're either not overtaking at all or taking too long to find a safe opportunity.

How learning to be quick can make overtaking harder!

Getting quick lap times in a kart requires repeatability - braking at the same point, same turn in, just slight adjustments. Quite often, holding back a bit pays off. You resist the urge to push harder so you can get in a groove, repeat, and find flow.

Overtaking is different. You have to break your pattern, get offline, and sacrifice some repeatability to make a move. The habits you develop to be quick - dialling down risk, repeating, flowing - can be the opposite to what's needed to overtake.

There are other reasons drivers struggle to overtake, mostly related to risk. Some have a general discomfort with risk. Others expect slower drivers to get out of the way. Some have an over-exaggerated perception of the risks. And some simply lack the skill, with a history of moves gone wrong.

Get magic on the brakes first

When I work with drivers, the first thing is to deal with the physical skills needed to overtake, starting with braking.

I bang on about taking braking to extremes, not because it's the fastest way, but to widen a driver's skill base. You need confidence to induce and control a moving kart, not be a victim to it. Most overtakes are missed from lack of brake confidence, or go wrong from panic braking.

You need zero doubts on the brakes for overtaking.

What if I lock up? Don't brake hard enough? The kart slides? Brake too late? If any of those are on your overtaking doubts list, knock them over by mastering your braking. Become so good it's muscle memory - so that you can only be fantastic on the brakes, never average.

Many drivers have locked up and gone off trying an overtake, getting frightened of it. Or halfway through a move, approaching the apex, sudden panic sets in. A safety shutdown in the brain says "I've cocked this up" and your left foot jumps on the brake to abort and escape.

Of course, that does the opposite, loses grip and control, and you go backwards into the other kart. The overtake wasn't wrong, the panic braking to abort was. Without that instinct you could regret the move but still make it work.

A key braking skill is learning to release the brake to control deceleration into a corner. Master this and you develop an aversion to panic braking - instead of pressing harder when it feels wrong, you release.

Sorting your braking cures overtaking issues 75% of the time. Drivers who can brake like demons suddenly overtake like shooting fish in a barrel. But not always. Even with demon braking skills, some still hesitate on overtakes, needing the stars to align perfectly. Then it's too late - you need to overtake 15 karts, not 3.

If braking skills didn't solve your overtaking problems

If braking mastery didn't cure your overtaking woes, it's likely a an issue related to discomfort with risk.

You might feel completely gung-ho in your attitude, but when you're out on track, you discover this hesitation, this tendency to say no to overtaking moves. And it's a shock, because you're supposed to be this brave, committed racer - that's why you're out there in the first place, racing these fast karts where things can go wrong, where you can get hurt.

But now, in the heat of the moment, you find a part of yourself you didn't know was there, a part that doesn't want to do what the rest of you wants to do - go for that gap and overtake. It's an unwelcome surprise, feeling that internal resistance. It might be the first time you've come face to face with a side of your character that's holding you back from being the racer you thought you were, from doing what you really want to do.

Why can’t I just send it!?!?!

In the split second you decide to go for a move, a tiny "no" and the opportunity is gone. You either tuck back in or end up in the worst place - a half move.

It's hard to deal with because you don't want that part of you. You don't want to confront it, especially not to others. Hopefully this helps article you address it yourself, without being judged with "you're supposed to be a racing driver".

Strengthening your YES to overtake, weakening your NO