Recognizing And Fixing “Double-Braking”

If you find yourself over-slowing before corners at the end of fast straights, you might be creating an unforced error known as “double-braking.” Double-braking occurs when you brake too early, realize you over-slowed the car, reduce brake pressure or coast, and then reapply the brakes a second time before initiating the turn-in phase. It’s common in HPDE drivers and some racing and Time Trial drivers. Surprisingly, the root cause of this issue stems not from the way drivers use their feet, but the way they use their eyes.

Drivers who “double-brake” tend to fixate on a target, gazing for too long at fixed landmarks, such as the braking markers. Consequently, they don’t ingest a varied enough tapestry of visual information to allow their brains to predict rather than to react. The fastest drivers use their eyes differently. Their eyes move in saccades, jumping quickly from one target to the next, scanning back and forth in abrupt movements to capture the entire visual field. To retrain your brain to avoid target fixation and nail your start-of-braking point, try the following exercise:

• When you begin accelerating down a straight, briefly look so far ahead that it almost hurts. Try to identify the apex of the upcoming corner. It might appear light years away, but capture the shape of the corner and record a mental snapshot.
• Then, quickly focus “through” the apex of the corner and try to “see” the exit. You likely won’t be able to see it, but visualize it for just a split second. This will be tough, but try to give your brain more time to predict what’s coming. Steps 1 and 2 occur in about 1 second, combined.
• Next, dart your eyes across the track to pinpoint your estimated turn-in point. This is not the spot where you’ll initiate braking, but rather the spot you’ll begin to turn in.
• Next, immediately shift focus to the brake markers. Don’t stare. Things will be coming fast now, but your brain will splice it all together. Just give your processor a chance to compute the rate-of-change of the upcoming 4, 3, 2, and 1 markers.
• As you get closer to the braking zone, keep making rapid, ballistic movements with your eyes to move between the exit, apex, end-of-braking, and then beginning-of-braking, making sure not to fixate on any given focal point for too long. Absorb the information and then refocus elsewhere.
• Immediately before applying the brakes, you’ll want to refocus one last, brief time on the brake markers, just for an instant, and take note of where you think you should begin braking. Record that mentally.
• Once you begin braking, get to threshold and point your eyes immediately to the apex and then quickly “through” the corner. Force yourself to get your eyes soaking up information that’s coming next, not that’s currently happening.
• Like magic, your brain will better predict when to apply the brakes. Wait one more lap and notice the immediate improvement.

By rapidly scanning the track – exit, apex, turn-in, start-of-braking – you’ll train your brain to predict, not react, and nail your braking every time. It is like helping your brain more easily solve the high-speed puzzle of when to apply the brake, resulting in a confident, precise, single brake application.