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Street Of Willow 2-day Camp, 4/23-24-09


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Greetings everyone.

 

I attended the two-day camp, April 23-24, 2009 at the Streets of Willow section of Willow Springs racetrack in Rosamond California. I did level 2 the first day and level 3 the second.

 

I have somewhat of a history with CSS as I did my first session in 1989 at Loudon, New Hampshire. Last year I decided to come “back to school” and did levels 1 and 2 during separate one day schools. I repeated level 2 at this camp as I didn’t think I got enough from level 2 the first time around.

 

Day one began at the track at 7:00 a.m. with breakfast (thanks Judy!). We then registered and were broken into two separate riding groups. We were broken down further, by level, within these riding groups for our respective seminars. Low and behold, I found myself the only level 2 in my riding group. At first I wondered how this would work as it seemed a bit awkward. As it worked out, I had the good fortune to basically have private tutoring for two days, including a video review each day – fantastic! Thanks James, Dylan, Cobie and Keith!

 

My on-track coach for both days was Lonnie. All I can say is that you are the man. I really felt that you were truly looking at my riding which gave me a lot of confidence in the feedback that you gave me. Thanks.

 

I did two off-track drills, the steering bike and the lean bike. Both drills revealed weaknesses in my technique and provided information to take and apply.

 

Level two is about vision and helping you decide what to look for in working out your riding. My initial foray with level 2 was difficult as I was not identifying my reference points and basically had trouble knowing where I was on the track (Note, it is VERY helpful to learn the turn numbers. You will be at a great disadvantage if you can’t speak the language). This time around I was able to identify my weak spots (two-step, quick turn) and consciously work on them. I will continue this work at the next level.

 

The level 3 seminars are workouts. It’s a lot of moving around the bike and learning the best position for keeping in contact with the machine and distributing your weight correctly. Keith had a challenge trying to get me to maneuver my hips quickly across the bike to use for quick, smooth transitions (amply titled drill, the Hip Flick). It’s an unnatural motion but I’m working on it Keith! J

 

As always, it was a fantastic experience in which I learned a lot and my riding will be better for it. I will be back to do level 4 at Thunderbolt in August. See ya then!

 

 

Albert

 

 

PS. I had never seen Dylan ride before. He is FAST!

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Hi Albert,

 

Thanks for write up. It's nice to know what the guys that do the schools think of how it went. I know what you mean about those skills, does take some work.

 

Yeah, Dylan can go :)

 

CF

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