It is kind of interesting trying to put words to it so that someone can understand what you are seeing. It must be gratifying. I need to find some lump of clay to help form. I never dared with my son lest he think dad is pushing.
Yes, itās hard for me, as a 22 year old, to try to explain things to a 7 year old running in Micro. You basically just have to keep rewording what they need to fix until it sets in. It can be frustrating, sometimes kids only retain information for a weekend and we always start a weekend working on the same basics, but thatās just how kids are and theyāre usually better after a season at retaining the coaching lessons. Itās a very slow process, having patience with it can be tough when youāre thinking āweāve been going over this same thing for the past 4 weekends and Iām still repeating it.ā but you get there eventually.
Do you ever get to work with adults? That must be fascinating seeing how the two different groups process learning.
I have owned a couple pairs of their driving sneaker!
What did you think of them? I want to buy a pair
@Aaron_Hachmeister_13 i taught taekwondo for the last 3 years, and itās a completely different perspective. Teaching feeling in karting is probably one of the most complex things to do, especially to a 7 year old, who wants to go race on his mini pit bike.
They are cool looking. They have rounded heel and are pretty good. For me, tho, I didnāt like the fit so much. These were their driving specific ones that were less stylish than the ones depicted above.
They were the prototipos:
Sole is too thick for karting IMO.
Yeah, Iāve worked with adults. Iāll pretty much work with anyone that asks, but the kids are the most in-demand area. Adults are a bit nicer to work with because it generally doesnāt take as much effort for them to understand what Iām asking them to do.
Itās interesting actually, the best drivers that Iāve had in terms of being able to learn really didnāt have anything to do with age, but actively talking with me about the driving; asking questions, talking about how to drive the track, etc. It didnāt really matter what age they were, just how interested they actually were in getting faster. Sometimes drivers just want to go to the track and hang out with their friends, plus thereās a race going on too, and sometimes they are really driven to do better.
Itās very difficult and it can get misleading depending on what the driver remembers from their session. I find it helps to walk through the corner with them, asking what the kart does on turn in, at the apex, and then exiting the corner. If they say āwell the kart is stepping out on me when I turn inā Iāll stop and figure out what to do to fix that issue. If theyāre saying it pushes on exit but donāt realize thatās because theyāre catching a slide at the apex, thereās no point in trying to free up the kart apex out.
Other time theyāll just go āitās goodā but weāre still 4 tenths off so it takes a lot more to get what the kart needs out from them. Iāll usually look at data and see if thereās anything really off with that, and once they have time to sit down and think about the race in more detail, then I start to get ideas on what driving and tuning needs to be fixed.
You can lead a driver to throttle, but you canāt make them press.
Thatās a good one. Did you come up with that? I bet you did.
Well Iām retired, so I have time to think of dumb stuff like that.
Hello Everyone,
Writing from Bangalore,India!
This is my first post on this esteem portal. Posting a picture of my 7year old son Reyansh
.
Nicknames āLittle Hamiltonā by his coaches but he likes to be called himself ācoolreyā (sub name of this profile).
He just started his karting journey, will be going pro next year.
Hoping to learn and exchange notes on this amazing Karting community.
Welcome Raynash and Father!
When did you guys start karting? Is there a league He can race in?
Thanks Dom.
It all started couple of years ago when I took him to a local karting circuit on a twin kart. Then covid happened and we had to hold till Augustā21 to restart.
He took some basic karting lessons from a local professional Karting team on racing lines, braking zones etc.
We practice and race at a place called Torq3, Ezone, Bangalore. Itās on a small Kid Kart with 4 stroke Honda engine with some 8bhp. He soon broke all records in his category! Now graduating to Kid Pro Kart which has some 18bhp on 4stroke.
Planning to put him on 2 stroke KR kart to compete for Rotax Micromax championship.
Aim is to start practicing on a local (FIA certified) Meco Kartopia in Bangalore where all the national races happen.
Awesome! How is he in traffic? It can take a bit for them to figure out how to get comfortable in traffic.
He drive very aggressive, somehow wants to overtake everyone and anyone by all means.He takes whatever space is available to him, at times breaking racing lines!
Not sure if itās a good thing in long run. I see good Karters wait for the right moment for a clean overtake with no drama. Patience comes with age/experience maybe?
I wish I knew! I started karting with my son when he was 10
and we started racing at 13, in juniors. For him, he learned the courage to make the passes (and give me heart palpitations) over the first year, progressively.
Our resident pro, TJ Koyen works with kids frequently and reports that they can vary wildly in terms of mental focus, session to session. Nature of kids.
Itās much easier for experience and/or a good coach to help a driver learn to adjust their aggression down, to an appropriate level, than it is to try and get a timid driver to go faster or be more aggressive, so it sounds like you have a good āproblemā on your hands.