How to combat target fixation?

[Fifteen15]

I have just come back from a good few hours riding. I went with some friends up to Oliver's Mount. If anyone knows the track there, it has some very sharp corners. The first time I went round it, the first sharp corner caught me off guard and I ended up taking it wide. Luckily there were no cars coming the other way. I wasn't speeding in anyway, far from it, I was taking the corner at about 15 mph. I could have easily made it but because I wasn't expecting it, it made me panic and my automatic reaction was to look where I was going (what I was going to hit instead of where I wanted to be). Anyway I ended up riding onto the grass and stopping just before a steep hill, much to the amusement of a couple of dog walkers.

I wasn't too bothered about that, I knew what I did wrong and I thought I had learned from my mistake. Carrying on with the circuit (again, not speeding, there were leaves covering almost every bend and people/kids walking their dogs on the side of the road etc) I came around a sharpish bend, took it a little bit wide, mainly due to not wanting to slip on the leaves. I was roughly in the centre of the road (no white markings) and there was a car coming the other way. Looking back it seems so daft how easy it was to go back to my side of the road but because I was staring at it, I started to drift towards it. Anyway I ended up missing it by about a meter, which felt like an inch when it happened. This shook me up a little bit and made me realize I need to do something about this target fixation.

Right now I'm reading some articles online about it but would like some other opinions. Can you teach yourself not to target fixate when in a state of panic? Or will it just come with experience?
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"Pain is weakness leaving the body, and blood makes the grass grow faster...but I'll wear my gear anyway"

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

It sometimes happens to the very best racers. Lead rider runs wide and following bike does likewise.
You could argue that normal road riding is more taxing on your survival instincts.

This article is quite interesting.

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.
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[Dazbo666]

[Pedro]

I used to have quite a bad problem with target fixation. All I did was to notice when I was doing it and force myself to look away from it. Eventually, it didn't become a problem at all as I wouldn't fixate on anything out of habit.
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RX-50 > Varadero 125 > Er-6f
CBT - May 2010 <> Theory test - July 2011 <> Mod 1 - July 2011 <> Mod 2 - August 2011
Restricted to 33bhp (I'm 17)

[Alex_B]

It's human nature to 'fixate' on the thing that might hurt or kill you and totally alien to ignore that and look where you need the bike to go.

Couple that with instinctive breaking (which brings the bike up when you really need to be leaning ) and about 5 or 6 other things and the odds are against you/us

As alluded to above, get Twist of the Wrist vol II (search on the Pirate Bay for a torrent or buy it<<< better ) It goes over this stuff in great detail.
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My Lane Position is always AWESOME!!

[ElliotReidMD]

During the road ride part of CBT during my DAS, I was leading down a country road, 60mph, and as we came to a zig zaggy bend, denoted by the zig zag sign, and a 25mph max speed sign, the instructor said that the first bend was very tight so to make sure we slowed right down.

As leant into it a truck, carrying a large skip, was entering the bend from the other direction.

It got my attention and for a fraction of a second I thought I was going to hit it but suddenly thought to myself

"fuck the vehicle, look round the bend"

and I did, getting round the bend with no issue.

It was a bit hairy as I really thought I was going to hit it till my brain, which usually hates me, stepped in and saved me

Thanks brain
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Current Bike: Kawasaki Versys

[Alex_B]

[Pete.]

Ride with your eyes shut - I guarantee you'll never suffer target fixation!
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[whitedevil]

All you have to do is look where you want to go and your body and bike will automatically go there.
Problem is its alot easier to say than do, especially when you panic and your survival instincts kick in.
Its covered quite well in TOTW and explains ways to help your body overcome its natural survival reactions which are actually the opposite reactions that you need to survive in a panic situation on your bike.

If you find yourself going into a corner to fast and dont think you'll make it, instead of freezing up or breaking just counter steer round the corner and 99% of the time you'll make it, all you need to think and do is push on the inside bar and the bike will drop into the corner and take you safely round, believe me it works, ive done it a few times when ive been caught out on track.

But the best thing you can do is learn to never get into that situation in the first place which involves reading the road, looking as far ahead as possible and planing your route and lines, picking your breaking point, your turn in point, your apex and your exit point.

Make sure you accelerate slightly as you corner to keep the bike settled and stable and make sure you are going slow enough to stop in the distance you can see.
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GPZ500 sold ~ CBR600FS-2 sold ~ ZX6R sold ~ Street Triple R