A commentary on commentary
Discussion
This article has been written after a request from a PH member - if anyone else has any requests for particular subjects, then please feel free to PM me.
A commentary on commentary.
Commentary is one aspect of advanced driving that students seem to dread, mainly because there are some unnecessary pre-conceived ideas about what commentary is and how it should be applied.
Let's look at it from the perspective of a Police driving course - I'll use an advanced course as an example, but in most forces, some commentary is also required on standard courses too.
Back when I did my advanced car course [Uncle Albert] during the war [/Uncle Albert], students were expected to commentate for 10 to 15 minutes during both of their final drives (which are both generally 40 - 45 minutes long). Back then, you'd be expected to point out upcoming hazards, both actual and potential, talk through the five phases of the system as you applied them to those hazards, point out road signs, describe the actions of other drivers, etc, etc. On top of that, at relevant points, you were expected to introduce various definitions from Roadcraft, which required us to literally learn them parrot-fashion, from the book every evening. Many of them have stayed with me today.
Acceleration sense is an easy one "the ability of a driver to adjust the speed of the vehicle to meet changing road and traffic conditions by accurate use of the accelerator".
Braking sense took me a couple of nights to get spot-on "the ability of a driver to appreciate a situation correctly and apply the brakes in a gradual and timely manner, to stop, or reduce the speed of the vehicle, where this cannot be achieved by deceleration alone."
For some reason I've never understood, we learned the old and new definitions of the system of car control (it used to be a system or drill, and then it became a method of approaching and negotiating hazards), the definition of concentration, the full description of the tyre-grip trade off, the rules for gearchanging, the four principles of safe cornering and a shed-load of other minor definitions.
Our instructor, Dicko (bless him) also insisted that we learned, verbatim, several rules from the highway code, including the rule number. I can recall to this day that rule 172 of the highway code used to be that in built-up areas, you should give priority to buses which are signalling to pull away from stops - it's rule 198 now, before you correct me, and yes - I know the wording has changed.
Did learning all this stuff parrot-fashion make us better drivers?
I don't think so, no.
In fact, part of me thinks that it detracted from the most important aspect of the course - learning to drive at an advanced level.
Does this mean that I don't approve of commentary?
No - it just means I think it should be different from when I did my advanced course, and fortunately, the majority of Police driving schools these days agree with me and have relaxed the requirement for a definition-centred driving commentary in exchange for a slightly more relaxed, but more relevant commentary.
These days, certainly in my force, and in many others, a student on test will still be asked to commentate for 10 to 15 minutes during a final drive. The difference nowadays is that an examiner just wants to know what problems the driver has seen or anticipated, and what they are going to do about it.
Crucially, the students need to remember this - if their driving is up to standard, they won't fail if they give a poor commentary. In addition, having tested at advanced level myself, a good commentary can lift an average drive.
So then, Reg, how should an advanced-level commentary go?
It's traditional, and appropriate for the driver to start with a description of what they can see in the far distance, and then work back through the middle distance, the foreground, then the sides and finally to the rear.
As they describe what they can see, they should also be talking about what their plans are - this is very important as it shows the examiner what their mental processes are, and allows them to see the thinking behind the drivers actions.
"Looking into the distance, I can see that the road bends to the left, out of sight, so I'm looking to the left of the road, along the hedge-line, to see if there are any hazards. I can see a couple of triangle warning signs for double bends, the first to the left, which we've already seen, and for a junction to the right, for which I might need to adjust my position for safety."
"In the middle distance I can see that we're approaching a slow-moving HGV, for which I'll have to slow to get into a following position. I'll be looking to overtake it when appropriate, and as the left-hander is followed by a right-hander, I'm planning to look for an opportunity to overtake off the right-hander."
"In the foreground is a cyclist, for whom I've already moved towards the offside to pass safely."
"To the sides are fields and hedges, it's a rural area, so I'm anticipating there might be tractors pulling onto the road at some point."
"To the rear is a fast-approaching motorcycle, which is something I'll have to consider when I'm looking to overtake the truck."
So, no definitions - just a straightforward description of what you can see and what you're going to do about it.
It's not easy at first - any instructor will tell you that if they've got a student who's getting ahead of themselves, the easiest way to slow them down is to ask them to commentate. Because they're concentrating on what they're saying, their speed drops almost instantly.
With practise though, commentary can come quite naturally, and even with all the bumph I had to learn on my advanced course, I was disappointed when the examiner told me to stop commentating.
In a nutshell then, keep your commentary simple, [catchphrase]say what you see, [/catchphrase] and say what you're going to do about it.
A commentary on commentary.
Commentary is one aspect of advanced driving that students seem to dread, mainly because there are some unnecessary pre-conceived ideas about what commentary is and how it should be applied.
Let's look at it from the perspective of a Police driving course - I'll use an advanced course as an example, but in most forces, some commentary is also required on standard courses too.
Back when I did my advanced car course [Uncle Albert] during the war [/Uncle Albert], students were expected to commentate for 10 to 15 minutes during both of their final drives (which are both generally 40 - 45 minutes long). Back then, you'd be expected to point out upcoming hazards, both actual and potential, talk through the five phases of the system as you applied them to those hazards, point out road signs, describe the actions of other drivers, etc, etc. On top of that, at relevant points, you were expected to introduce various definitions from Roadcraft, which required us to literally learn them parrot-fashion, from the book every evening. Many of them have stayed with me today.
Acceleration sense is an easy one "the ability of a driver to adjust the speed of the vehicle to meet changing road and traffic conditions by accurate use of the accelerator".
Braking sense took me a couple of nights to get spot-on "the ability of a driver to appreciate a situation correctly and apply the brakes in a gradual and timely manner, to stop, or reduce the speed of the vehicle, where this cannot be achieved by deceleration alone."
For some reason I've never understood, we learned the old and new definitions of the system of car control (it used to be a system or drill, and then it became a method of approaching and negotiating hazards), the definition of concentration, the full description of the tyre-grip trade off, the rules for gearchanging, the four principles of safe cornering and a shed-load of other minor definitions.
Our instructor, Dicko (bless him) also insisted that we learned, verbatim, several rules from the highway code, including the rule number. I can recall to this day that rule 172 of the highway code used to be that in built-up areas, you should give priority to buses which are signalling to pull away from stops - it's rule 198 now, before you correct me, and yes - I know the wording has changed.
Did learning all this stuff parrot-fashion make us better drivers?
I don't think so, no.
In fact, part of me thinks that it detracted from the most important aspect of the course - learning to drive at an advanced level.
Does this mean that I don't approve of commentary?
No - it just means I think it should be different from when I did my advanced course, and fortunately, the majority of Police driving schools these days agree with me and have relaxed the requirement for a definition-centred driving commentary in exchange for a slightly more relaxed, but more relevant commentary.
These days, certainly in my force, and in many others, a student on test will still be asked to commentate for 10 to 15 minutes during a final drive. The difference nowadays is that an examiner just wants to know what problems the driver has seen or anticipated, and what they are going to do about it.
Crucially, the students need to remember this - if their driving is up to standard, they won't fail if they give a poor commentary. In addition, having tested at advanced level myself, a good commentary can lift an average drive.
So then, Reg, how should an advanced-level commentary go?
It's traditional, and appropriate for the driver to start with a description of what they can see in the far distance, and then work back through the middle distance, the foreground, then the sides and finally to the rear.
As they describe what they can see, they should also be talking about what their plans are - this is very important as it shows the examiner what their mental processes are, and allows them to see the thinking behind the drivers actions.
"Looking into the distance, I can see that the road bends to the left, out of sight, so I'm looking to the left of the road, along the hedge-line, to see if there are any hazards. I can see a couple of triangle warning signs for double bends, the first to the left, which we've already seen, and for a junction to the right, for which I might need to adjust my position for safety."
"In the middle distance I can see that we're approaching a slow-moving HGV, for which I'll have to slow to get into a following position. I'll be looking to overtake it when appropriate, and as the left-hander is followed by a right-hander, I'm planning to look for an opportunity to overtake off the right-hander."
"In the foreground is a cyclist, for whom I've already moved towards the offside to pass safely."
"To the sides are fields and hedges, it's a rural area, so I'm anticipating there might be tractors pulling onto the road at some point."
"To the rear is a fast-approaching motorcycle, which is something I'll have to consider when I'm looking to overtake the truck."
So, no definitions - just a straightforward description of what you can see and what you're going to do about it.
It's not easy at first - any instructor will tell you that if they've got a student who's getting ahead of themselves, the easiest way to slow them down is to ask them to commentate. Because they're concentrating on what they're saying, their speed drops almost instantly.
With practise though, commentary can come quite naturally, and even with all the bumph I had to learn on my advanced course, I was disappointed when the examiner told me to stop commentating.
In a nutshell then, keep your commentary simple, [catchphrase]say what you see, [/catchphrase] and say what you're going to do about it.
One advantage of learning a cockpit drill parrot fashion is that it gives a student a few minutes of "settling in" time in the car when they're on test. It allows them to go through a well-rehearsed routine which ensures that they don't miss any essentials through nervous forgetfulness before heading out on test.
I don't for one minute think that students carry on doing a full cockpit check after finishing their course, but hopefully they'll consider a few more things when they get in the car than the traditional CID starting drill of "we're in, we're off".
I don't for one minute think that students carry on doing a full cockpit check after finishing their course, but hopefully they'll consider a few more things when they get in the car than the traditional CID starting drill of "we're in, we're off".
standards said:
Point taken. Does it matter which parrot? Presumably not. I can still remember the 20 year old one I learnt.
My local group adopted the local regional school (now of course defunct) one which was rather more impressive and detailed. I now have that one ingrained as most of the examiners round here are from/influenced by that regional school. I believe their motto was "Attention to detail." Which sounds like good advice to me.
When I did my car instructors course, we had to give a demonstration drive with full start-to-finish instructional commentary, which differs from advanced level commentary in that you should talk about what you're going to do, rather than what you're doing.My local group adopted the local regional school (now of course defunct) one which was rather more impressive and detailed. I now have that one ingrained as most of the examiners round here are from/influenced by that regional school. I believe their motto was "Attention to detail." Which sounds like good advice to me.
The starting drill we had to learn was two full pages of A4 in a small font, incorporating a full description of not only what I was doing, but also why.
I can still remember it now if it's of any interest to anyone...
"I've just completed an exterior check of the car, during which I've checked that all doors, boot and bonnet are secure, all four tyres appear in good condition and inflated and there is no recent damage to the car. I'll now carry on with the interior checks."
"First I'll check that the handbrake is on. I check the handbrake because I'll be putting the car in neutral shortly and I don't want the car to roll."
"Then I'll check that the drivers door is securely closed by first pulling it, and then pushing it - I won't start with a push as I don't want to accidentally open the door into oncoming traffic."
"Next I'll adjust the drivers seat. I'll adjust the seat base so that my leg is still slightly bent when the clutch is fully depressed. Then I'll adjust the seat back and steering wheel so that, with my arms out straight, my wrists rest on the wheel rim."
"Then I'll put on my seatbelt and make sure all my passengers are wearing theirs."
"I'll then adjust my interior mirror. Keeping my right hand on the steering wheel, so that my head remains in the correct place, I'll adjust the mirror with my left hand holding the edge of the mirror so as not to mark it. I'll line up the top edge of the mirror with the top edge of the rear window."
"Next I'll perform a static brake test. I'll press the brake pedal firmly and there should be plenty of resistance in the pedal. If the pedal is spongy or goes to the floor, that could indicate a serious fault with the brakes and I won't take the car any further."
"I'll now press the clutch, put the car into neutral, and start the engine with the clutch depressed. I keep the clutch down whilst starting because this removes the weight of the gearbox from the engine and makes it easier for the starter motor to turn the engine over, especially if it's cold. It also ensures that the car doesn't jump forward or backward if I haven't taken it out of gear properly."
"Then I'll check the instruments and warning lights. I'll make sure there is enough fuel for the journey, check the engine temperature and other gauges, and make sure all the warning lights go out, except for the handbrake light."
"The next items to consider are the vehicles auxiliaries. Starting from left and working across to the right, I'll adjust the nearside mirror, set any heater or air-conditioning controls, consider wipers and headlights, and finish off with the offside door mirror."
"I'm now ready to move off, so I'll check my mirrors, select first gear, check my mirrors again, give a right shoulder check and move off when it's safe."
"I should always remember that no starting drill is complete without a moving brake test. I'll accelerate up to 20MPH, check my mirrors, make sure nothing is close behind and stand by... I'll brake firmly down to 10 MPH, checking that the brakes are pulling firmly and evenly, and it's safe to continue."
The instructors demonstration drive would then continue with full commentary.
A student's starting drill would be exactly the same, but just accompanied with brief or even one-word descriptions...
Exterior check complete
Handbrake
Door
Seat
Seatbelt
Mirror
Static brake test.
Clutch down, into neutral
Start engine with clutch pressed
Check instruments and warning lights
Auxiliaries from left to right
Mirror check, first gear, mirrors and shoulders
Move off when safe
Moving brake test.
Major Bloodnok said:
1) I notice that your cockpit drill above doesn't include a handbrake test. This is something that we've always included as part of the drill in our group, and its purpose was explained to me once, but I can't remember what it was. I usually just tell associates that they're listening for any strange "boings" or other indications that the cable's about to do something nasty, but that doesn't feel right. Any thoughts?
Cockpit drills vary from force to force, but that's the one my force has used for years. It's altered slightly as cars have changed - the centre mirror section, for instance, used to be all three mirrors, but as electrically-adjustable mirrors became more commonplace, and need the ignition to be on before they work, the side mirrors had to be adjusted with the auxiliaries, after the engine had been turned on.It's slightly different for automatic cars, and I'm sure that it'll continue to evolve as cars themselves evolve.
I was going to suggest that a handbrake failure was too obscure an event to include in a starting drill, but then I read this...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002410000-2007...
...and reconsidered!
Major Bloodnok said:
2) The sequence far-middle-near is fine most of the time, but how do you adjust commentary when you're in fairly heavy traffic, and there's no real far (or even middle) distance view? I find it a particular problem, being low down in the MR2, so how would you adjust the commentary if you were in, say, rush-hour traffic in the Eunos?
When you're in a busy, built-up area, there is so much going on that you'd have to be some kind of freakish speed-talker to fit in everything. Instead, just concentrate on what is the most relevent. Far distance stuff isn't as relevent in city-driving, but it can be useful in identifying junctions or other situations that might cause you problems in the future. Most of your commentary, however, will centre around what immediate hazards you've got to deal with. Which pedestrians are going to step into the road, which van is going to cut you up, which cyclists are going to be a problem, which delivery vehicle is going to stop with little warning, etc, etc.Just identifying observation links, pointing out the immediate hazards and stating what your plans are should keep your commentary flowing nicely.
BOF said:
Reg,
I have 4 good reports about my RoSPA commentary...now thinking about the IAM Special Assessment.
Any thoughts on the expectations of the Examiner?
I realise that you have had a different preparation...but your comments would be welcomed.
BOF.
One thing that examiners certainly appreciate is an ability to "talk system" through a hazard. Take a straightforward left turn into a minor road, for instance.I have 4 good reports about my RoSPA commentary...now thinking about the IAM Special Assessment.
Any thoughts on the expectations of the Examiner?
I realise that you have had a different preparation...but your comments would be welcomed.
BOF.
"I'm planning to turn left into the junction ahead. I'm taking in information by looking at the junction, the traffic and any warning signs for the junction and by checking the mirrors for following traffic. I'm using that information to formulate a plan and I'm giving information by putting on a left signal for the vehicle behind".
"I'm now adjusting my position towards the best part of the nearside, staying out of the grids."
"I'm now on the speed phase, reducing my speed with progressive, smooth braking."
"Now the speed's correct, I'm selecting second gear."
"I'm now turning into the junction, giving a quick mirror check and applying the correct amount of smooth acceleration to leave the junction."
"In the distance I can see..."
It's often good to throw in a quick 5 phase commentary for simple hazards like a parked car. Remember that the 5 phases of the system only have to be considered for each hazard...
"I'm taking in information about the parked car on the left, looking for feet movements underneath it and for anyone who may open a door, and checking my mirrors."
"I'm adjusting my position out to the offside, leaving at least a doors length between the parked car and me"
"I'm considering my speed and gear, but they're already correct and there is no need for any acceleration."
Another nice flourish to commentary is to make some observation links. They don't have to be immediate, either. If you drive into a rural area, mention that you're expecting to see slow-moving agricultural vehicles or animals in the road. 10 or 15 minutes later, if you see a tractor, mention it "ahead is a slow-moving tractor, as anticipated earlier".
If a car joins the road in front of you, mention that it may turn off in the next mile or so. If it doesn't, then there's no harm done. If it does, then remind the examiner "The car in front is now turning right, as anticipated." Junctions are always a good opportunity for a little link, especially if you're in a line of traffic. "Ahead is a primary route board indicating a junction to the right. I'm anticipating some of the vehicles will turn off." A pound to a penny that at least one will turn off and even if they don't, nothing is lost.
On one of my advanced final drives, *Harumph* years ago, I remember seeing some big dusty tyre tracks on the road, which I linked with a quarry entrance and slow moving tipper trucks. Sure enough, there was a laden tipper round the next corner.
Above all, don't bore them - keep them interested, and don't be afraid of introducing a little humour every now and again.
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