Riding Skills: Wide Vision
Mar 26th, 2009 by Leo
Here’s something that I’m no good at, but it intrigues me… There’s a chapter in TWOTW2 that talks about Wide Vision. You can think of it as the opposite of Target Fixation. The way it works is, when you “fixate” you’re scared of something, and as a result your eyes lock onto it and can’t look away. It’s our body’s natural survival reaction to predators; when something scares us we pay very close attention. Great for surviving mountain lions, not so good for motorcycling. The typical scenario is you go into a turn too fast (too fast for your particular skill level) and you see the wall or a car fast approaching…and you can’t look away. You want to avoid that…obviously. The best way to avoid that short-term is to SLOW DOWN! But what if you want to be able to go faster? That’s where wide vision comes in…
Wide Vision is like the opposite of target fixation. So look straight ahead and instead of focusing on one central object (which we normally do), try to mentally shift your focus from one object in your field of vision to the next without moving your eyes. Right now I see my computer monitor, and if I think about it, I can see the mouse, and my cel phone next to it, and my coffee cup from this morning. Pushing my attention even further out (without moving my eyes) I can see a receipt next to a stapler and a box where I keep my staples… You get the idea. When you “fixate” on an object you only see that one thing. But when you relax and start taking in more of the big picture, you begin to “see” things that were already in your field of vision.
The purpose of this is: you can actually take in more visual data quickly this way than if you simply looked around. On the road if you were to shift your eye focus every time you looked at a pothole, then a car, then the bicyclist up ahead, then the light, etc – you will either have to slow down to process all of this as you look around or miss important details like manhole covers and gravel or pedestrians getting ready to cross the street. But to move your mental focus (without moving your eyes) takes only a fraction of the time it takes to shift your eyes.
So give it a try…tell me what you think.
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“I’m usin’ my peripherals!”
This really helps – thanks!
Just being aware of something in your peripheral vision, even if you’re not focussing on it, is often enough to prevent target fixation (or at least nip in the bud).
I’ve also had success with physically ’snapping’ my head round to look at something – anything – else. It works in a pinch and shakes you out of the single-mindedness that tends to go hand-in-hand with target fixation.