Time for a brain DYNO!

Time for a brain DYNO!
by Tami Eggleston - DrivingSecrets.com

Many racers have either thought about or actually taken their engine to the Dyno room. At the dyno room you can put your engine to the test and learn all sorts of great information about horsepower and even try changing carb settings, timing, intakes, etc. etc. to get the best performance out of your engine. In other words, you get to learn a lot of information about your engine, the performance potential, and ways to fine tune your setup.
How I wish there was a dyno room for your head, but in a way that is exactly what sport psychologists try to do. Of course, we can't quite hook you up to a machine and get some great print outs about your behavior, but you can use this analogy to think about your own brain and your own head when it comes to racing and life in general.

1.) Be honest and think about the strenghts you have when racing and in life in general. It might be good to even write them down (just like the Dyno printout). Maybe you are competitive, hard working, and really love racing. These are your strengths and should be capitalized on. Even in the engine Dyno room we find out some information that shows where the engine has the maximum horsepower. So where do you have your maximum horsepower?

2.) Most of us like to "toot our own horn" at least a little, but for many of us it is harder to be honest about our weaknesses or drawbacks (on the Dyno report this is where the engine dips or plateaus in perfomance). So where are your dips? What things hold you back on the track or in your life? Maybe you procratinate and don't always get things done, maybe you can't manage your money to get the most out of your life, maybe you can't control your anger and have a bad temper, etc. So write down the things that need to be fine tuned.

3.) And finally, start tweaking with your brain. Look at your list of weaknesses and start working on them one by one. Just like in the dyno room, you can't change everything all at once, instead you make one small adjustment, take a dyno pull, and see what happens. Look at your racing and your life as a series of dyno pulls, you just keep tweaking until you reach your maximum horsepower!