When I started writing this Motor School column, I promised that I would, at some point, present some tactical thinking exercises that you could apply to your riding process. No, I’m not talking about teaching you combat reloads with your clutch hand. I’m talking about shifting your on-bike strategic thinking from what you assume is going to happen based on past experiences to what outcomes are possibly coming your way.
For all the cops and military reading this, just allow me to push on here; I’m on a roll. In police work, one of the most useful tools we have in our bag of tricks to stay safe is a mental process we call “what ifs.” In short, when you find yourself in a bad situation, you want to have already applied some hypothetical strategy to a similar situation to reduce the gap between encountering the problem and executing a thoughtful response. In other words, being confronted with a life-threatening situation is not the ideal time to begin burning the clock with questions and confusion about what to do. Make sense?
When most of us ride our motorcycle, our brain is thinking about speeds, right-of-way questions, traffic conditions, road hazards, navigation issues, and maybe 50 other things related to our current situation on the bike. But that’s just it: These are only the things going on around you at this precise moment in time. Our game of “what if” demands that you go to the land of make-believe and challenge yourself to imagine all the things that could happen at that given moment and all the moments thereafter.
Is it exhausting? Yes, especially if you really push yourself to conjure up some sketchy situations. But from there, it’s simple, because with a little time and forethought, you will come up with a cohesive response to every single one of them.
Now comes the big question: Are you going to simply dismiss the “what if” game because, dammit, you’ve made it this far without some scrawny punk telling you what’s what? Or can we discuss this concept further to help you gain maximum benefit the next time you’re out on the road and faced with a real-world situation? Hey, great! Thanks for sticking around. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
To become proficient at this game, you need to practice it regularly, and not just during those times when you ride your motorcycle. That means we’re going to start now, in the comfort of your lounge chair, so get ready to spin your brain up. But before we start, I’ll offer you a little cheat time to look around the room. Take a moment to recognize, identify, and catalog everything in your environment, because these things will soon become your escape routes, your weapons, your tools, and your solutions to the “what if” I’m about to throw at you. Here goes:
You are alone in the house, and you hear a small explosion in the garage. Oopsy, looks like that pesky gas can was stashed too close to the water heater again, and now you have a garage fire.
What do you do first? Do you try to extinguish the fire? What other flammables are in the garage and what might happen next? What route makes sense to safely navigate the environment?
Walk through what this would look like. Where do you go? What do you take? Where are your clothes, phone, wallet, legal documents, car keys, etc.? Are they staged for a quick exit? What notifications do you make and with what? Do you have kids? Pets? An elderly family member? Do you have a neighbor whose home shares a common wall? What about them? Where is your vehicle – in the garage where it might catch fire, or out in the driveway or street? Does it need to be repositioned to speed the load-out and escape? Where do you go? Do you even have fire insurance?
In the above example, our goal is to think slowly and methodically through each question and visualize the scenario so that if at some point something like that or similar happened, you would spend less time wondering and worrying and more time executing a plan.
Here’s the important piece: The more of these “what ifs” you work through, regardless of the scenario you choose to explore, the better and faster your brain will come up with solutions. I get it; I provided limited information, and depending on this, you might do that. But I’m asking you to accept this limited information as a jumping-off point. From there, imagine as many conceivable outcomes as possible and generate responses for them. The more you do, the better you get, and the easier it is to start generating ideas. Just keep working on it.
Work through this next one when you go for your next motorcycle ride: Suddenly and without warning, a wrong-way driver looking suspiciously like Ricardo Montalban comes speeding towards you in a 1978 Chrysler Cordoba with a lustrous Coffee Sunfire paint job. He’s approximately 50 yards out.
What actions do you take? What are your possible escape routes? Is anything in the way of you taking any of them? Are you boxed in by parked cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, or construction? Does it make more sense to brake hard and cut down an intersecting street or accelerate across the road and onto the dirt shoulder? How does it change if you have a passenger or are with a group of other riders? Can you predict what the other vehicles might do as this scenario unfolds? How can you counter their probable actions within the execution of yours? Is there anything with your bike setup that might hinder evasive actions? Any preexisting injuries or conditions that need to be addressed?
Of course, your particular set of riding skills, your environment, and the type of motorcycle you ride will all contribute to answering some of these questions. Still, I want you to pull off the road, park in a safe place, and really take some time to run through your options here. Then do it again. And once more when you get a few miles down the road. Listen, this stuff should mentally drain you and will undoubtedly frustrate you. But that’s how you know you’re doing it right.
I could generate a third scenario, but I think you get the point here. Mentally work through wild and unlikely scenarios so the unthinkable gets some deep thinking and you can execute a plan if and when it reveals itself. Over time you will gain experience (and readiness) without having to actually go through the experience.
A word of caution and an apology: Once your brain starts playing this game, it becomes next to impossible to stop. In fact, don’t be surprised when you start taking different routes home, start sitting with your back against the wall at restaurants, regularly exhibit the thousand-yard stare, and automatically strap half your tool chest onto the passenger seat just to grab some groceries.
For more information on Total Control Training and available clinics, go to the Total Control website. Quinn wears Lee Parks Design gloves exclusively. Find Quinn at Police Motor Training.
See all Motor School with Quinn Redeker articles here.
The post Motor School with Quinn Redeker: What If? appeared first on Rider Magazine.
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