Dear racers, I bought a set of reaction light equipment for my children (a total of 8 lights), and I put the lights on the wall to practice, but I don’t know if it makes sense to keep practicing every day? I think the child is always half a beat slower than other children when starting the race. I wonder if the reaction light training will help him? Thanks
I haven’t seen any scientific evidence that suggests light training has any beneficial effect for drivers.
To be honest as your kid is just 6 or 7 years old I am more concerned what he is having to deal with at such age just to go karting.
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Agreed with Alan. I would work on more of the understanding of when to get after it on a start. Video is always great for this. Record from the fence and from an on-board. Show your child the videos and compare a good start from their competitors vs. theirs.
Still working on eye-hand coordination and reaction time will help improve all aspects of driving not just starts. From past experience I prefer doing a light mental and physical exercise just before going to the grid to help warm myself up. This is especially useful on those long racedays with time between being on track. Here is a sample video for you.
Is it really reaction timing that’s hindering his starts?
My nephew sucks at starts…it’s not the kids reaction time it’s that he’s scared of wrecking and running people over so no matter what we do he sits back and loses positions on the start because he’s being conservative. No matter how much we talk him through what he should be doing on the starts it just doesn’t work. He just needs reps and positive start experiences to be more comfortable with it.
Now, as a 42 year old fat guy I find I do need to practice reaction timing, balance exercise and brain integration activities to make sure I’m as sharp as I can be. These aren’t going to hurt for a kid but I have a real hard time believing that’s the root cause of his poor starts.
I can almost guarantee it’s not reaction time that’s the issue, because on a rolling start, you can anticipate the green and go before the flag is dropped. No one is reacting to the flag really except for the leaders.
One tip I try to give drivers on starts is to watch the leader’s right foot or exhaust plume rather than the flag. The flag isn’t important. What’s important is jumping when the leader takes off.
Soft parenting is obviously an issue here. A gruel diet will motivate improvement.
Thank you for the video, I will let the kids practice
I can second this. I think ive reacted to the flag once or twice. Half the time I cant even see it because im so far back in the grid… (I struggle in qualifying)
I found the most helpful tool to be watching onboard videos. During the race you may think “oh im way to close to this guy I should let off” but after watching footage you can realize that you didnt have to let off, and werent where you thought you were