One training tool that has long been used in professional sports is visualization. In its minimal form, visualization is the act of creating a mental image of something you'd like to happen. Envisioning the task, such as a successfully completed football pass or arcing through a corner on the perfect line, can condition your mind and body to complete the act for real. Visualization and mental imagery is especially important for motorcycle riding, as many aspects are counterintuitive. Steering right to turn left, for example, or not chopping the throttle when the rear tire slides to avoid a highside. If you can "program" your mind to perform the correct action in a given situation, when you are confronted with that situation you'll be much better prepared to react properly rather than panic or make the incorrect, intuitive decision.How do you visualize something? It's best to practice in a quiet environment, with no distractions and a clear mind. Yoga meditative practices are a great basis for visualization, and the freer your mind is of daily clutter the better your mental image will be. Start with something fairly simple, such as riding along a familiar straightaway. Try to picture in your mind as much as you can about the situation: Feel the wind on your body. Hear the engine. Note if the road or track is rough or smooth, what's on the side of the road and any distinguishing features. Add to the image as much as you can: What's the weather like? Are there other bikes or cars around? What gear is your bike in and how fast is the engine spinning?
It's worth pointing out here that visualization and reference points go hand in hand. The more reference points you have, the more complete your mental image will be. Ideally, on the racetrack you'll have enough reference points that at any given point you will have a marker in sight-if you don't, your imagery is discontinuous and you'll have trouble putting corners together in your mind. Even on the street, reference points help: A certain tree that tells you a decreasing-radius corner is coming up, or a mark on the road that reminds you of the driveway around the next corner.Digging deeper into visualization, the next step is to picture going through a certain corner-again filling out the image with as much detail as you can. Once you've mastered the basics, you can try putting together a full lap of a racetrack, or a section of your favorite road. Now, the benefits of the process can be explored: Say you wanted to change the way you negotiated a certain turn, either using a different gear or moving your turn-in point. In your mind, you can visualize the change and how you would accomplish it. Run through the exercise several times until the imagery is smooth and continuous. The next time you're on the track you'll find it much easier to use the new gear or turn-in point, because you've already thought the process through and prepared your mind. Note here that the process has both physical and mental aspects: The act of physically changing gear, or how your attention should shift from braking to front tire traction at a different point in these examples.