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Wide Vision


Hondamick

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I have been trying to practice wide vision. Not fixating on a point but trying to push my vision out.

I have managed to do it a little on the track (wish I could get more track time) and seems to have given me the ability to enter corners quicker. I'm trying to practice it while driving a car.

It makes me feel like I am staring and that I have less focus. Makes me almost feel dumb, or my mind is turned off like I am slow or doughy or almost sleepy. Kind of scares me a little.

Has anyone else experienced this notable state of mind change? Am I doing it wrong?

Mick

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It seems to me that there are two ways to do this; a right way, and a wrong way.

 

The wrong way is the feeling you get when you hold your finger out in front of you, and you look at an object behind it. That gives you (well, it gives me, in any case), a feeling of being kind of zoned out, or not paying attention to anything in particular.

 

The right way (again, imo), is to try to focus on "everything" at the same time. Actively focus your attention on *all* points in your field of view at the same time.

 

When you try these two things back--to--back (might help to use your finger for the "wrong" way, and then do it again to get that same feeling without your finger there), you should notice a distinctly different feeling/sensation/mentality. A difference between feeling zoned out, and being focused.

 

I hope this 1) helps, and 2) doesn't strike anyone as idiotic.

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I have been trying to practice wide vision. Not fixating on a point but trying to push my vision out.

I have managed to do it a little on the track (wish I could get more track time) and seems to have given me the ability to enter corners quicker. I'm trying to practice it while driving a car.

It makes me feel like I am staring and that I have less focus. Makes me almost feel dumb, or my mind is turned off like I am slow or doughy or almost sleepy. Kind of scares me a little.

Has anyone else experienced this notable state of mind change? Am I doing it wrong?

Mick

 

The two step turning technique really helped me with this. When approaching the corner and "scanning" for my turn in point, it keeps much of my attention focused on finding it and it makes me avoid the target fixation. After you find the turn in point, you then see the apex so it gives you another thing to focus on which I would imagine would keep you from "zoning out". I was watching a video last night where Andy Ibbott was talking about not looking TOO FAR away because it's basically useless. Definitely look where you want the bike to go, but I think scanning out 300 yards ahead of you isn't going to help you any.

 

Just my .02.

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It takes some time to train the mind to do this. It's not supposed to be a lack of focus, but instead a "spreading" of focus. I like to think of it as radar, there are a few blips on the radar that are more important than others, but I still need to be aware of the other minor points that factor into decisions. Overall imho, the point of wide view is to help you not tunnel down on one or two things specifically. A flawless two step execution is near impossible without a good handle on a wide field of view.

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Here is an exercise that I had my kids do when they were 15 in prep for being competent drivers.

 

Get a maze book, the more mazes the better. Start with BIG, easy to complete mazes. When doing the maze, do not focus on the point of the pen/pencil. That is reserved for peripheral vision. :) The faster you can solve the mazes, the better your wide view skill is getting. :)

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I'm glad you brought this up because of all the gazillion things I need to be better at in riding this stands way up in front. I am ok at changing my feild of reference, the challenge is using my mind to shift around the whole field of vision. Keith's orginal concept of using four points to practise on as in a rectangle is helpful but I'm realizing that that's just the beginning. Its really necessary to see the whole thing in 3D. Really...thanks!

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  • 2 years later...
On 10/30/2014 at 5:10 AM, Hondamick said:

I have been trying to practice wide vision. Not fixating on a point but trying to push my vision out.

I have managed to do it a little on the track (wish I could get more track time) and seems to have given me the ability to enter corners quicker. I'm trying to practice it while driving a car.

It makes me feel like I am staring and that I have less focus. Makes me almost feel dumb, or my mind is turned off like I am slow or doughy or almost sleepy. Kind of scares me a little.

Has anyone else experienced this notable state of mind change? Am I doing it wrong?

Mick

I can relate. The other day, I practiced my 2/3 step and wide view in the car and found that I had to time share those two skills. When I wanted to identify and select a TP or apex, my attention narrowed. Corner exits was a reminder to go wide again and I found it easy. If I were in a repetitive road (track), I might find this easier  (?) to work on.

The idea that wide view is a mental facility makes theoretical sense to me, but feels like it might also be an eye thing as there is some perceptible passage of time in shifting focus (saccadic masking???).

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  • 1 year later...

One could describe this vision as ping pong vision. In ping pong one focuses attention on the opponent and use wide vision/peripheral vision to track and return the ball. One never focuses on the ball at all. Another description that is relevant in hard focus( long sight) and soft vision ( in the near/ wide zone). Rather than think of this as being zoned out, it is more useful to think of it as an active meditation. Note it is quicker to shorten ones gaze than to lengthen it. When focusing on near objects the distant objects are more out of focus, than near objects when looking afar due to the optics of the eye.

note also the brain handles movement in peripheral vision much better than at the focus of ones gaze, that is why ping pong players attend to the opponent rather than the ball. When riding using peripheral vison to watch the near field actually means the brain processes all the seeming fast moving  near objects much more swiftly, even if they are all out of focus.

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