[FUNDAMENTALS] THREE REASONS YOU’RE NOT IMPROVING

Why directionless laps won’t make you faster

Frustration is part of the process, even at the highest levels of professional racing.

Several times a week in the middle of the summer months, someone grabs me at a racetrack or sends me an urgent message. The conversation usually starts like this: “I’m stuck. I’m doing everything I can think of, but I’m just not getting any faster. Can you help?”

The actual wording might differ, but the problem is always the same. I empathize, because I’ve lived it, both as a competitor and as a coach helping other drivers and riders through the same struggle. Some break through. Others don’t. What’s the difference?

In my experience, the answer almost always comes down to one of three things:

1. You don’t really want to improve.

2. You’re working on the wrong thing.

3. You’re using the wrong references.

Each one of these can quietly, or not so quietly, stall your progress, even if you’re putting in hours at the track. Let’s break them down so you can identify where you’re losing ground and, more importantly, what you need to change to start moving forward again.

1. You don’t really want to improve

“Wait a minute. Yes, I do!” I know. That’s exactly what most people say to me. But wanting to improve isn’t the same as actually being willing to go through the process that creates real improvement.

Real improvement is uncomfortable. It requires humility, repetition, honest feedback, and letting go of habits that feel familiar. This takes time. Most people love the idea of getting better. Far fewer are willing to consistently do the things that getting better demands.

Over the years, through my coaching business, working with professional teams, and consulting in the motorsports industry, one thing has become clear: Drivers and riders who consistently improve share a handful of common traits.

Your coach isn’t your friend

A coach makes you better, not feel better. That means objective analysis, honest conversation, and recommendations that aren’t influenced by protecting your ego. Clear boundaries build trust, because the goal is to lap the track as quickly and safely as possible.

Humility

Improvement begins with humility. If you believe you have all the answers, you’ve already stopped learning. The best athletes maintain a curious mindset because they know there’s always a better way. The best will do anything to improve their lap time.

Feedback

Learn to receive feedback without taking it personally. Honest evaluations can sting and be humbling. But good feedback isn’t criticism; it’s a roadmap. Likewise, your own feedback should be objective and emotion-free. That’s how an effective coaching loop works.

Do what the best do

Study the best in the world and model their process. They’re not successful by accident. If there were a better way, they would be doing it. Your degree of application may differ, but the underlying habits, mindset, and techniques shouldn’t.

Put in your reps

“Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.” The habits and techniques in motorsports aren’t natural. They need to be perfected through training and, because they’re perishable, practiced with appropriate report cards. You can do it, too.

2. You’re working on the wrong thing

My fundamentals and progression for learning the sport were developed by working with thousands of students, everyone from rank novices to championship-winning professionals, in virtually every environment.

Clear patterns emerged: There is a logical order to improve. Ignore that order, focusing on incremental improvements versus fundamental improvements, and you’ll spend your time polishing details while the fundamentals continue to hold you back.

Working on your brake-application point while consistently missing apexes or changing fork and shock springs when you’re still 10 seconds off the pace is the equivalent of trying to perfect your frosting recipe on a cake that you keep burning.

3. You’re using the wrong references

This point usually falls into two categories: lap times and comparing yourself with others. Both have developed as the gold standard in motorsports. While they have their place, they’re poor tools for improvement. They’re excellent scoreboards but terrible coaches.

Lap times

Let’s be clear: A lap time is the byproduct of the many decisions and inputs executed over the previous minute or two. Watching your timer, imagining a better number, or telling yourself to “push” isn’t technique; it’s simply hoping for a better outcome.

We’re obsessed with lap times, which is how it should be. After all, a quick lap time is the objective. But even if you’re half a second off your personal best and chasing a lap to beat it, the lap timer only describes your place in the moment—not how to better that lap.

Lap times don’t improve when you stare at your timer or try harder. You improve the outcome by bettering the hundreds or thousands of actions that make up that lap. The lap time simply spells out in black and white how well you executed everything.

Comparing yourself to others

There’s a time and a place to use another driver or rider’s pace as a reference point. Using it as the primary measurement of your personal improvement on that particular day, however, is a dangerous trap.

Someone else’s lap is another data point. It isn’t the data point. You likely don’t know their experience, equipment, coaching, confidence, risk tolerance, or even what they’re working on that day. All you see is the result.

Study it. Learn from it. Be curious about it. But don’t build your program around it. Build your program around the fundamentals and skills that produce speed. The lap time, and eventually the comparison, will take care of itself.

Conclusion

If you take one thing away from this post, let it be this: Stop chasing the outcome. Stop chasing lap times. Stop chasing other people. Instead, chase the fundamentals in the right order that ultimately produce a winning lap time.

About Ken Hill

Ken Hill is considered the top motorcycle riding coach in the U.S. He bought his first motorcycle at age 30 and began road racing the very same year. Despite the late start, Ken went on to set track records and win class championships before making his professional debut in the AMA Superbike class, where he finished in the top 10 at age 41. Ken’s passion for learning and, ultimately, bettering the sport, led him to retire from racing in 2007 and devote himself full-time to coaching. Learn more at khcoaching.com.