Radio 4 programme on racing drivers psychology

[SamHH]

There was a short piece on racing drivers' psychology during Radio 4's All in the Mind programme this afternoon. I thought some of Button's comments were interesting.

It can be re-played on the Radio 4 website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/allinthemind.s...

As usual, I apologise if there has already been a thread about this subject.

[woof]

very interesting - thanks, enjoyed that

[F.M]

Nice ..R4 can still deliver the goods...

[Eric Mc]

R4 is the BBC's remaining "jewell". I listen to it most days.

[RobbieMeister]

Thanks very much for posting this link. It is of great interest to me as it's a subject that has long been close to my heart. As a matter of fact I am currently developing a course to teach racing drivers the very thing that these "experts" are talking about or to be more accurate "not" talking about.

I find it fascinating that none of them will come out and say exactly what they do but rather allude to some magic formula that they and only they know how to re-create.

Thaks again.

[SamHH]

RobbieMeister said:

I find it fascinating that none of them will come out and say exactly what they do but rather allude to some magic formula that they and only they know how to re-create.

Not exactly surprising though. I guess it's only natural for people to try to mystify their work and make it appear more difficult than it is in order to protect their livelihoods. That Spackman couldn't or wouldn't describe more exactly what he does with drivers did somewhat spoil his contribution to the programme.

I'm not a regular radio listener so was lucky to tune into this programme half way through when driving. It's very good to be able to re-play it on the Internet. It's just a shame that scientific shows like this aren't more commonplace on television. I used to like BBC2's Horizon but recently the topics seem to have become less interesting and the presentation more 'dumbed-down'.

[RobbieMeister]

SamHH said:

......I'm not a regular radio listener so was lucky to tune into this programme half way through when driving...........

It's a funny thing, luck!



PS. Agree totally about Horizon.

Edited by RobbieMeister on Friday 29th June 10:11

Edited by RobbieMeister on Friday 29th June 10:12

[Eric Mc]

Horizon only seems to be interested in programmes that talk about the destruction of the earth or the ending of the human race. Not science at all, a lot of the time.

Radio 4 is very strong on science. I would recommend a listen to Melvyn Bragg's "In Our Time" this week which was talking to "real" scientists about the changeover from the Permian to the Triassic geological periods - 250 million years ago. Ironically, it was about a mass extinction event but treated in a pure scientific form rathar than ranting on about "apocalyptic" events or trying to extrapolate too much to how the world is today.

Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 29th June 10:24

[F.M]

I read an article where Patrick Moore was lamenting the demise of a large portion of BBC programming...cookery,chat,60 sec makeovers etc...trash really...He seemed to suggest it was the women high up in the BBC who were the driving force for that sort of programming...Attenborough would never have let the trash outgrow the old guard educational shows that they were the best in the world at......we need another guy high up in the Beeb of the same calibre...

[TheOriginalGT40]

Same goes for Tomorrows World. I used to love that when growing up, then the beeb dumbed it down with Carol Vordaman and it never was the same again. Kept changing slots and audience figures fell away before the beeb dropped it

Mind you, the discovery channels on Sky offers some fantastic programs that my son enjoys watching, so I guess there are still some programmes out there that require you to think, rather than pick up the phone and vote!!

[ewenm]

RobbieMeister said:

...I find it fascinating that none of them will come out and say exactly what they do but rather allude to some magic formula that they and only they know how to re-create.

For me it's not surprising at all. I used to compete at top level athletics in the UK (not internationally sadly) and friends/family/training partners used to try to get me to describe how I mentally prepared for and then executed races, what did I do when things didn't go according to plan etc.

I found (and still find) it incredibly difficult to put anything into coherent words over and above plan well, remain calm, focus hard, handle off-plan incidents calmly and react quickly.

If a driver is able to articulate what they do, I suspect they don't less to keep it from the general public and more to keep it from their competitors - if everyone knows how you mentally prepare and race it's easier to distract you.

[RobbieMeister]

ewenm said:

RobbieMeister said:

...I find it fascinating that none of them will come out and say exactly what they do but rather allude to some magic formula that they and only they know how to re-create.

For me it's not surprising at all. I used to compete at top level athletics in the UK (not internationally sadly) and friends/family/training partners used to try to get me to describe how I mentally prepared for and then executed races, what did I do when things didn't go according to plan etc.

I found (and still find) it incredibly difficult to put anything into coherent words over and above plan well, remain calm, focus hard, handle off-plan incidents calmly and react quickly.

If a driver is able to articulate what they do, I suspect they don't less to keep it from the general public and more to keep it from their competitors - if everyone knows how you mentally prepare and race it's easier to distract you.

Well I'm not surprised either, what I said was "fascinating". Bearing in mind the information is out there in the public domain if you do a little digging.

I would add that, with all due respect, if you are concerened that "if everyone knows how you mentally prepare and race it's easier to distract you" then your mental preparation in not as good as it could be.

[JWB]

Very interesting but nothing new.

Read Drive To Win by Carroll Smith and the books he recommends ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Driving-Techn... ) and you will learn a lot.

John