Road Skills wrap-up & comments

[nick sundberg]

That was WAY fun!:D It was a blast watching the students find and explore the limits of their tires and suspension. These kids learn fast... cross the limit once or twice, the light bulb turns on, then they explore the edge with purpose and control. At least that was the way my student learned. My Brother-in-law worked his way to being a lot more aggressive than I thought he was capable of, had a ton of fun and was able to talk about some of the vehicle dynamics on our ride home. The academic approach will stick with these kids a lot longer than years of messing around illegally on the street.

Thanks for the great organization!

Can't wait until next year!

[914 Dave]

***ROADSKILLS WRAP UP***

First of all, thanks to all who put time in to make this all happen. There are a ton of loose ends that need to be tended to, and per usual, the MAC crew was up to the task.

Thanks to Lee for getting the site set up, entry to the classroom, the stop/go lights working, and most importantly, the skid pad flooded.

Thanks to Dave K and Josh as EM and co-EM. They had food set up and the truck and cones on site. Steve G. had a hand in the food also. Well, not literally, but getting the chips and pop and saving the club a buck or two in the process.

Shane and Nikki- Shane for putting together a super cool side show, wait, these days its a power point, right? And the Queen of fonts for her work on the student manual, fixing my grammar, spelling, and boring type. Having Dave K redline my initial efforts was humbling, as I didn't think it was THAT far from good, but having a kindergarden teacher redline your work, and no smiley face or gold star, well, that's just sad for me.

Alex A. for getting the shirts done on short notice, as well as his promotion efforts this spring. Great job on the shirts, they looked fantastic. And they are still available, so if you didn't help out with the school, buy a shirt at the next event and support the school.

Steve B. for organizing and overseeing the cone heads. Such a crew as we had required much supervision.

Mark Y. for yet again, transportation services for a injured car.

And last but certainly not least, the ConeHeads and in car coaches. Way to step up and get with the show. There were some experienced in car coaches, and several new to the job, but all did great.

All the kids and parents I interviewed getting some video footage for a promo video for next season all commented on the success of the school, that they thought it was a great thing we were doing. Several asked if we did this every month, and if not, why not...

If any of the participants to the school, (classroom teachers, coaches, coneheads) have some comments on how to make it better, PM me. I've already been working on my own to-do list of updates for next season, and would welcome your thoughts of things you noticed that we can be better at. Maybe some of these things will already be on my list, but if not, make me aware of what you're seeing and thinking, and we can consider these suggestions for revision 2011 of the school.

[the tick]

My step-daughter Ashley had a lot of fun today and wanted to say Thank You too everyone involved in setting up, those that rode along with her as well as everyone who lent a hand (and a car) when our Passat had it's troubles.

[914 Dave]

Sucked it up and went and I'm glad I did. Got some good footage.

Thanks for showing up. We need to spend some time together to review the video we both took. Would you be up to working on some promo videos for next season? I've got some great parent and student stuff, and some neat stuff from in car. I expect you have some pretty cool exterior car files we can work with as well.

[Chippy569]

Dave, yeah I just got all the footage off the camera. I put my fun-run vid up for everyone's pleasure:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150177153780430

The in-car and out-of-car footage all came out pretty all right. The water is hard to keep off the lens but when the cars got moving fast enough the wind blew most of the drops off.

I can do the editing if you can get me your footage. I'll PM you my cell #.




Mensch, how did you manage to snap a CV?


Dave, also, the only thing I would have done different was to space out the cars a bit more -- there was quite a line building up before the skid pad, and IMO that waiting time disconnects/interrupts the flow of the learning. The courses were great though.

[TickTack]

My Brother-in-law worked his way to being a lot more aggressive than I thought he was capable of, had a ton of fun and was able to talk about some of the vehicle dynamics on our ride home.
What a great student! It was very rewarding to see him go from a timid 6mph in the slalom to a mildly-chaotic, but controlled 35mph. Serious improvement in skill, confidence and willingness to safely step outside of his comfort zone.

Just a couple of hours of time this morning will likely save much headache, body work, money and very possibly lives. I'd be more than happy to help out again, as often as needed!

[Andres3165]

Some people had a lot of fun....:evil:



http://www.flickr.com/photos/9583961@N06/4631467699/in/set-72157624118475202/

Andres

[aranach]

I had a good time at the clinic yesterday. I wasn't 100% sure about doing the in car coach thing, but both of my students were great, and in different ways. I think it was valuable to my growth as an instructor that they were opposite in many respects.

I was way more tired than I thought I should have been afterward. Something about hours of being in the passenger seat, constantly trying to talk the students through things, come up with questions to make them think, and adapt to what was going on to give them the best experience took it out of me. Count me in for the next one, and I'll plan around it if a date is chosen well in advance.

Also: skid pad - too much fun.

[Chippy569]

I have a few photos up for you guys: http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk223/Chippy569/RoadSkills%202010/


Oh, another suggestion. I don't know if it's entirely impossible or not, but I feel like we could get a lot more people if it didn't start at 8 AM. I feel like starting at more like 10 is more fair to everyone else, and since we only went 'til 3 or so it seems fair to me.



http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk223/Chippy569/RoadSkills%202010/DSC_4815.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk223/Chippy569/RoadSkills%202010/DSC_4787.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk223/Chippy569/RoadSkills%202010/DSC_4831.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk223/Chippy569/RoadSkills%202010/DSC_4784.jpg

[aranach]

I feel like starting at more like 10 is more fair to everyone else, and since we only went 'til 3 or so it seems fair to me.

I think we were kicked out of the room at 3, so that's why things didn't start later.

Also, nice pictures of the body roll on the Blazer. I don't think we were in any danger of tipping at any point, but it points out why somebody decided to remind me and my student that the vehicle could roll.

[MNbiker]

I was out of town last year, so this was my first time instructing at this particular school. Overall, I thought things went very well. The students seemed like a great bunch, and seemed to learn some valuable skills while having a good time finding (and exceeding) the limits of their vehicles. I had a great time instructing. Kudos to everyone who spent time planning, organizing an running the event! 8)

-Steve

p.s. While I thought the school turned out well, we can always improve things. Lets make sure we also use this thread to capture suggestions for improvements we can make so the 2011 Road Skills event is even better. Here are a few things I thought of or heard mentioned by others:

-Start the event 60-90 minutes later. Since we were finished by shortly after 3:00 PM, I see no reason why we couldn't move the start time back a bit. Quite a few of the students (and instructors) looked a bit sleepy at registration.

-tighten up the schedule, so parents know when to show up at the end of the day. Of particualar note, changes were made to the process/number of runs for the 4th session, without informing all the instructors.

-Provide better online instructions where to come for day of event check-in and have signage & people in place to help everyone arrive in the right place. Finding the classroom was a bit of an adventure for many.

-Create an informational packet specifically for the course setup workers, with the full-page maps for each session, plus detailed cone placement diagrams for each element. There seemed to be a fair amount of completely avoidable confusion about exactly how cones should be placed. I can help create this packet and turn it into a single PDF file.

-Change the "Chicago Boxes" used in sesisons 3 and 4. The boxes were very visually confusing, and using autocross-specific cone placement and terminology for this section felt odd, as compared to the other elements. Instead, I suggest we set up a series of 4 car-sized walls/boxes, to simulate real-world lane change/avoidance maneuvers.

-Clarify/refine our intent and cone placement for the "panic stop and avoidance" element. It seemed like many course workers and instructors were a bit fuzzy on the intent of this exercise, and cone placement didn't seem to force a dramatically different approach from students than with a standard panic stop.

[Chippy569]

-Clarify/refine our intent and cone placement for the "panic stop and avoidance" element. It seemed like many course workers and instructors were a bit fuzzy on the intent of this exercise, and cone placement didn't seem to force a dramatically different approach from students than with a standard panic stop.

When we were setting up cones in the morning we thought "Avoidance" was the element with the lights. A new name for the brake-and-turn element should be devised.

[JCN]

Maybe also clarify with parents that their kids need to bring cars with them.

[MNbiker]

Maybe also clarify with parents that their kids need to bring cars with them. No kidding! I was pretty surprised to hear someone showed up without a car. I'm just glad we found a way to accomodate him.

[aranach]

Maybe also clarify with parents that their kids need to bring cars with them.No kidding! I was pretty surprised to hear someone showed up without a car. I'm just glad we found a way to accomodate him.

So why don't we just have a bunch of high performance loaner vehicles laying around? 8)

On a serious note, I'm impressed with the selflessness of those who just offered up their vehicle to be driven. Way cool that the day didn't just end right there for the carless. I don't even remember, whose vehicle ended up being used?

[awsumb]

Thanks to everyone who pitched in, and well done! I think the execution went much better this year. Steve has some solid points, I would also like to add a registration deadline to the PR materials as well as get an earlier start planning for next year(January). We have several school principals and PTA groups on board to send students next year. We also hope to get a corporate sponsor to contribute to some of the costs, Prokart and KDWB both expressed interest.
A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who went beyond the call of duty and offered their cars for students to use. We had two students show up without cars and one on course failure!

[JCN]

Jason Zais really stepped up. So did Andres and others.

[zaisaroni]

Jason Zais really stepped up. So did Andres and others.

Thanks guys! The way I saw it, the DSG has an auto mode, and we wouldn't have many options for someone who's had a total car experience of one automatic Accord. The twitchy/tail happy/wear bar dunlops/FWD car sure kept Elizabeth on her game, by the end of the day she was doing the double lane change in one move FAST without any overcorrection. She was totally digging all the power, handling, and most of all.... Turbo noises 8)

My Suggestions:
1) Definitely ensure that cars will be there. If we didn't this year, we should have them register vehicles they plan on using so we can be sure they're appropriate for the maneuvers we plan on running.

Name tags, for both the students and instructors. Can be just a sharpie/"hello my name is" sticky kind.

I'll echo the better maps/description comments. Incorporating the maps within the information packet at their corresponding area would help a lot... e.g.
Map 1
Write up 1
Map 2
write up 2