Are You Always in The Rough?

Like a dog licking its wounds you pause to suck at the fresh droplets of blood rising from the scratch on your forearm, inflicted by the mass of bramble into which you are convinced your ball disappeared. Yet no amount of beating from the club you have clenched in your fist seems to reveal the hiding place of that small illusive object.

Whilst pausing to make an examination of this, the latest of many such injuries, you try to find reason in the situation. It should all have been very straightforward. The fairway is wide and the shot simple. The lie of the ball was good, and what should have been an easy iron shot up to the pin has ended in sheer frustration and torment.

Although you do not realise it at the time, all your mutterings of curses seek only to make the reminder of your game no less arduous. It has not been a good day. Now with two balls lost, several strokes down, the prospect of defeat is beginning to seem a stark reality.

Training is What’s Needed

You may look to your opponent in the vain hope of some form of sympathy or support, but although he makes an effort to respond in the desired manner, you can clearly detect the glint of glee in his eye as he senses another easy victory.

The problem is this is not just a one–off, and when you reflect upon your lack–lustre performance you realise that your game never really did have that sparkle. No, things are not good, and because you have been found wanting, it perhaps explains why your manners were not all that they should have been when declining to join your opponent for a drink at the clubhouse after the game.

Upon analysing your situation you decide that something has to be done in order to correct this latest entry in your catalogue of humiliation, and that remedial action is needed if success is to be achieved. This is perhaps the point where you swallow your pride and make an approach to your local club pro for a spot of coaching?

You Are Indeed Reading About Driving Cars

If you have just double checked to make sure you were reading this piece where you thought you were, with the idea that you may have looked up some other publication by accident, be assured that you are indeed reading the Ride Drive web pages. So why all the stuff about golf?

What is happening here is to show a parallel between the club swinging activity and driving a car and that both actually have a great deal in common; even those who do not play the game must surely understand where this is coming from?

You see, making a golf shot requires several technical elements to be employed, as when used together in the correct sequence, and with the correct timing, all culminate in that special something that delivers the perfect shot.

You may know how to address the ball, understand the concept of poise, balance and swing, but as the face of the club connects with the ball you instantly know how the shot is going to fair, even before there has been time for that infuriating object to reveal its directional intentions. It is that indiscernible sixth–sense feel that can make the difference between elation and dismay, but nonetheless, sense it you do.

You May Gaze in Awe At Another’s Performance

Some may view the act of delivering the perfect golf shot as an art form, and they are right to do so. Those who do it professionally, and who have achieved some recognised acclaim, make it appear easy with remarkable regularity, leaving those lesser mortals to gaze on in awe. But if you felt you were lacking in your game in some way you would quite readily seek the services of the club pro for some training.

So, what of driving a car? Most people are car drivers these days, and that must include you, as why else would you be reading this page? With that in mind, this article is addressing a captive audience of like–minded people.

Like the golf swing, driving a car well is all down to poise, balance, technique and timing; coupled with a sound understanding of what you are doing and why. That is to say effective road driving is conditional upon the many elements needed to achieve your goal and being employed at the right time, in the optimum sequence and to the exclusion of any actions irrelevant to that particular endeavour.

After all, you wouldn’t contemplate using a No.2 wood to get yourself out of a sand bunker any more than you would intentionally attempt a hill start in fourth gear. However, when you do get it right you know it is right, because it feels right. And where do you feel it? Normally through that much ridiculed part of the human anatomy – your back–side. It’s instinct that tells you.

That Magical Moment When You Connect With The Car

It may have been that last bend, the overtake or even a particular gear change, and yet it felt so different to the many other similar actions that preceded it. "That was good – what did I do then?" you may well ask yourself.

You possibly don’t really know the answer to your own question, but nevertheless, whatever it was, it was special. You made that magical connection for brief fleeting moment where you and the car were at one.

Imagine if you could go for a drive in a car where every manoeuvre or procedure you carried out was that good all the time. Perhaps it is too ambitious for anyone to think of doing exactly that, but there is no harm in using the criteria as a target at which to aim.

There can’t be anyone who can consistently deliver the perfect drive, and it would be so arrogant as to lay claim to having achieved that. For those who have not had the benefit of being shown anything else further on from the driving test, there is a vast difference that can be made if you can develop the skills that will take you somewhere towards achieving it.

Perceived Level of Ability is Far From Reality

Everyone has a driving skill, and that has got to be respected. Everyone has their own perceived level of ability, which is nearly always greater than their level in reality. However, to criticise that ability is almost to criticise a person’s status as a human being, and it is with this in mind that our methods here at Ride Drive take on a more pleasant approach. We replace doubt with encouragement, timidity with confidence, culminating in a great sense of personal pride and achievement.

You can get a tremendous kick out of experiencing the moment when a driver becomes at one with the machine – when that definitive moment occurs. It’s a bit like seeing that sunrise in blazing colour at the end of a dreary damp night, and indeed it has that same beauty.

There can be no denying that a high performance car, such as the TVR, is an awesome beast, and if there is anyone reading this whose senses fail to be aroused by the sight or sound of nicely tuned sports car really does need to get out more often!

Talking of TVR’s, there is a certain European car manufacturer that makes the rather dubious claim to have produced the ultimate driving machine. What they do not have is the ultimate driver’s machine. That accolade has to go to the company that used to build cars in Blackpool.

Connecting With The Car is So Sweet You Can Almost Taste It

A TVR deserves to be driven well, and when it is the experience is so sweet you can almost taste it. We have a long list of clients, who have been assisted in fulfilling their full driving potential, and who have responded so positively to the experience. Certainly there is not one amongst them who has reviewed their Ride Drive advanced driving experience in a negative manner.

Pure excitement and pleasure seems to be the underlying tone, but how, as a company offering advanced driver training, do we reach more of those who stand to benefit? In much the same way as the golfer approaches his club golfing professional to find a whole new golfing experience. A driver can find a whole new driving experience by turning to the driver training professional, but the desire to progress has to come from within the individual.

The remarkable difference that is made to the driving style of our customers during their Advanced Driving Experience is difficult to put into words. When you consider how long in terms of years many have been driving, it gives all of us much pleasure to note how well they develop, even in just one day. So, what’s the difference to be made? Well, training means fewer ball losses, less thrashing around in bushes, a more satisfying game and certainly a whole lot less stress. It is incredible what can be gained from consulting the right people.

First Published April 1999

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Thursday, 27-Jan-2011

Are You Always in The Rough?