While the process of learning obviously involves gaining knowledge, it’s important to recognize that there are several different types of knowledge; each having its own strengths and weaknesses.
Theoretical/Intellectual Knowledge (Understanding)
Theoretical knowledge is one-dimensional. It allows you to understand:
- What things are
- How things work
- Why things happen
- Cause/Effect relationships
- The process (steps and sequence order) needed to produce a result
Theoretical information is typically gained from external sources; by reading, listening, and to a lesser degree, watching. You can also generate your own theoretical knowledge by combining stored intellectual information to create new ideas and theories.
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.
— Leonardo da Vinci
Strengths
Theoretical knowledge is excellent for naming and categorizing things. It’s also useful for understanding what things mean and how things interact. Theoretical knowledge can also help you predict how things you understand will be affected by different circumstances. However with all the benefits of theoretical knowledge, it has one big weakness…
Weaknesses
Because theoretical knowledge (understanding) is one dimensional, it exists only in your mind; there is no action associated with it. In fact, theoretical knowledge does you no good at all until you act upon the knowledge. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to act on your knowledge.
For Example…
You may “understand” (or the data may be telling you) that theoretically you should be able to go through a turn faster than you are. However, understanding that will not reduce your lap times. To improve, you must do whatever it takes (break through your fear, process and/or interpret information differently, rehearse the change…) and actually drive through the turn faster. Improvement will only come once you convince yourself to act on the understanding that you can go faster.
Empirical Knowledge (Experience)
Empirical knowledge is two-dimensional. It is gained through action (experience). Empirical knowledge is stored as a combination of body memory (muscular instincts for automatically performing complex physical activities) and holistic sensory impressions (stored in your holonomic memory). Empirical knowledge allows you to store your experience and draw upon it as a source of knowledge.
However, even though empirical knowledge is the knowledge of experience, it does not have to be exclusively YOUR experience. You can learn a huge amount about driving from watching other drivers, IF you put the effort in to really imagine how what you’re seeing feels to the driver you’re watching, and/or to imagine how it would feel to you. Likewise you can learn a lot about race craft from watching. I really believe that years of ‘studying’ drivers at Regional, National, and Pro races was a huge advantage in helping prepare me to get fast quickly and to race effectively.
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
– Douglas Adams
Strengths
Empirical knowledge is automatically useful because it’s gained when you take action (unlike theoretical knowledge, which is of limited use until it is acted upon). Empirical knowledge is also a more integrated type of knowledge, being a combination of action and context. Another benefit of Empirical knowledge is that the learning is holistic, that is, the learning is linked to the environment in which you had the experience. In fact, Empirical knowledge is so useful that most “natural” drivers have learned to drive predominantly through empirical knowledge. That is, they try something, learn from the experience, and then try something else. However, while it has many benefits, Empirical knowledge can have some serious weaknesses when it comes to learning to drive a race car…
Weaknesses
Pure empirical knowledge applies only to the context in which you learned it. Therefore, to learn to drive a particular race car at a particular track, you would need to gain a great deal of experience (do many laps) at that track, in that car. Then, if you changed the type of car, or if the track conditions changed, or if you went to a different track, you would have to gain a whole new set of experiences because your stored experiences would not apply, at least not as precisely as you need them to for maximum performance.
Of course, the use of empirical knowledge is not that black and white. If you change cars, you still know a lot about the track. If track conditions change, you still know a lot about where the track goes, and about the car you’re driving. However, with pure empirical knowledge (not that there is necessarily such a thing), you would have to learn all the new things, and/or relearn the things that have changed. Therefore, the more different experiences you have, the more likely you will have a match for your current circumstances.
I think that’s why most instructors believe that experience is so important, and why they all chant “track time, track time, track time.” Obviously track time is important when learning to race. However, the problem with using only empirical knowledge is that track time is very expensive. Also, because empirical learning is gained through doing, it is easy to crash your car “learning” that you can’t go through “that” turn flat-out. Another problem is that when it comes to racing, gaining a lot of Empirical knowledge does not guarantee that you are going to get faster because to really benefit from your Empirical knowledge, you must be able to interpret what your experience is trying to teach you. For example, you may think your experience is telling you that you can’t go through a turn any faster, when in fact it may just be telling you that you need to interpret your tire’s feedback differently, or that you must change your line to go faster.
Few people even scratch the surface, much less exhaust the contemplation, of their own experience.
— Randolph Bourne
For Example…
Let’s say you’re in a race, and in the process of trying to make a pass you get into a turn so fast you think you’re going to crash. You slide a bit, but you make it through the turn. You have just learned empirically that you can drive through the turn faster than your theoretical knowledge had you believing you could. So, if you interpret the experience as a lesson instead of as a warning, then from this point on you can apply this knowledge and drive through that turn at the faster speed (probably after a little bit of fine tuning). However, you must still drive through the other turn on the track at your previous maximum speed until you have an empirical learning experience at another turn that teaches you whether or not you can drive through the turn faster.
Realization (fully integrated knowledge/understanding)
Realization is the full integration of theoretical knowledge and empirical knowledge; it represents a holistic (physical, sensory, contextual, and intellectual) understanding of something. Realization occurs when you act upon theoretical knowledge or when you learn the theory (and cause / effect relationships) behind something you already do empirically. Therefore, if you have a good amount of theoretical knowledge about racing, you can use it to turn any experiences you have into realizations.
Strengths
Realizations are one of the most powerful types of knowledge because they integrate your mind and body in a synergistic whole body learning experience. Realizations make theoretical knowledge (understanding) useful because it makes it “real,” it applies action to the theory so that your entire brain and body can learn and understand.
Realizations can also expand the usefulness of Empirical knowledge by enabling you to apply your Empirical knowledge over a wider range of contexts and circumstances. However there is one main drawback to realizations…
Weaknesses
Realizations do not come easily! It takes commitment and discipline to either act on your theoretical knowledge, or to gain enough theoretical knowledge that you can turn your Empirical knowledge into realizations. Or put another way, you need to work hard enough at gaining the theoretical knowledge that you will need so that you can understand what your experience (empirical knowledge) is trying to teach you. Another weakness of realizations is that while they apply to a much wider range of circumstances than Empirical knowledge alone does, their range of application is still somewhat limited. That is, if you have a realization about driving through a specific mid-speed turn you will be able to use the knowledge to improve your performance in similar turns, but it will not necessarily help you improve in fast or slow turns.
For Example…
Let’s say you ‘understand’ that if you change your line you can go through a particular turn faster, and the next time on track, you take action and actually make the change to your driving. Assuming you got the result you were after (it’s not guaranteed… sometimes the theory or your ‘understanding’ is wrong) then you create the realization that you CAN drive through the turn faster. However, because you understand why you were able to do it, you can also use that realization to make the same type of adjustment in any similar turns where it’s applicable.
Now, let’s say that you accidentally get into a turn at a speed you think is “too” fast, but you make it through. At this point you can do one of three things:
- Praise the racing gods that you made it through in one piece and then back it down to your previous ‘safe’ limit.
- Apply the empirical knowledge you gained from going ‘too fast’ to improve your future performance in that turn.
- Upgrade your new empirical knowledge to a realization by using (and/or increasing) your existing theoretical knowledge to understand how/why you were able to drive through the turn faster. You can then use your new realization as the foundation for improving in any similar turns.
Note: Conversely, and just as important, would be working to understand how/why you had been misinterpreting your previous experience as being ‘the limit’ when it was not.
Virtual-Realization
Virtual-Realization is not a ‘real’ or ‘scientific’ term; it’s just my descriptor for a learning/training technique that I’ve had great success using. It’s essentially a mental ‘what if’ game of taking a base realization and then using the appropriate bits of your empirical and theoretical knowledge to imagine (visualize) how the realization will change (look/feel) if you change something, or if you try to apply its lessons in a different context (different track, or car, or conditions). So, essentially you’re extrapolating out the cause/effect relationships for future experiences upon the framework of your intellectual knowledge and previous experience.
I believe Virtual-Realization is one of the most powerful types of knowledge for racers, and I believe that all successful drivers use it either consciously, or more likely, instinctively. I used it constantly (instinctively at first and then consciously once I’d figured it out) when planning and rehearsing changes (especially risky changes) to my driving. I would also use it to plan for a range of possible ‘results’ that may not have matched the result I expected from the change I was intending to make.
For example, if there was a fast (dangerous) turn for which I’d been ‘breathing’ the car before turn-in, but the traction I was feeling mid-corner was telling me I could do the turn flat, then I would use virtual-realization to take my current realization of the turn and extrapolate how all the various elements of the turn would be impacted by going flat out instead of breathing the car. I would consider (and most importantly imagine – experience in my imagination) things like:
- How will the car’s ability to turn in be impacted by having less load on the front tires.
. - To compensate for the additional time it will take for loads to build on the front tires when I turn in, will I need to turn a bit earlier, or will I need a slight ‘pre-turn’ (or maybe a touch of left-foot brake) as a safety net the first time I try going flat out.
. - How will the camber profile of the turn impact the loading on the front end? It may push wide on entry, but that may be compensated for by the higher speed/load when the front tire ‘leans’ into the turn’s positive camber area.
. - If the front end pushes wider than I expect, will I have time to roll out of it to put some load on the front tires.
. - How will the increased speed impact the polar rotation’s location and rate of rotation.
. - If things go completely haywire, and I’m going to lose control, how do I want to do it? For example, if there is run-off room on the outside, I would want to get out of the gas as soon as I know I’m going to lose it, which will cause the car to spin to the outside. However, if there is room on the inside, I would want to stay on the power as long as possible to try and force the car to the inside when it spins. Or, perhaps there is no run-off room on either side, so maybe the potential benefit of going flat vs. breathing is not worth the risk.
. - And so on until I feel fully prepared and rehearsed.
The critical thing is, you don’t just ‘think’ it; you DO it in your mind (and/or with Race Walking). The whole idea is to extrapolate out how the car is going to respond, and most importantly, how it’s going to FEEL.
“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”
— Joel Barker
Strengths
To your brain and body, a properly created virtual-realization is as real as an actual realization. Therefore you can use virtual-realizations ahead of time to prepare your mind and body for the realizations you must create to improve your performance. That is, you experience the virtual-realization ahead of time so the actual realization is easier to attain. However, to create the widest range of virtual realizations from your experience, you must have a very good matrix of theoretical knowledge about racing and vehicle dynamics; you must understand the task completely.
Virtual-realizations are inexpensive to create (unlike Empirical knowledge), they just take a little time, concentration, and discipline. With a good matrix of theoretical knowledge, and a little experience, you can use a single realization to create a huge amount of virtual-realizations; effectively reducing the amount of seat time you’ll need to improve your performance.
Virtual-realizations (whether you create them consciously or instinctively) are often the only way you will be able to make changes to your driving. As mentioned in the Concentration for Racers, Confidence for Racers, and Sensation of Speed sections of this website, behind the scenes there is a constant interaction going on between your intellect and your intuition. Intellect is always trying to protect you (from yourself/intuition), and it does not like changes to your driving when what you are doing is already perfectly adequate and SAFE. But we are RACERS, so ‘adequate’ is not acceptable. Therefore, in addition to allowing you to work out how to make a change to your driving, virtual-realizations serve the secondary (and equally important) function of introducing your intellect to the change. This allows your intellect to experience the change, along with the plans for mitigating any possible unintended results, so you can get ‘buy-in’ from your intellect, which you must have to make any type of potentially ‘risky’ change.
Put another way, if you KNOW you can go through a fast/dangerous turn faster (you can feel it, and the data confirms it) but lap-after-lap, session-after-session you can’t seem to make the change, then you probably don’t have buy-in from your intellect… it still views the change as new and dangerous. Using virtual-realizations can help your intellect understand that the change is not foolhardy; it’s a well thought out, well rehearsed plan for incremental performance improvement.
Lastly, if you spin, and especially if you crash, there are many obvious and subtle lessons hidden within that experience. You can make the most out of a mistake by using quasi-realizations to learn the more subtle lessons hidden within the experience and/or to apply the lessons to other circumstances. That is, you’ve had the ‘experience,’ now tear into that experience with your intellectual knowledge until you understand everything (the What, Why and How) that led up to the incident. I cannot over emphasize the value in this exercise, but I will tell you from personal experience that being honest with yourself when answering the tough questions can be difficult.
However, there is one main drawback to Virtual-realizations…
Weaknesses
Virtual-realizations are only a preparatory tool; they do not take the place of actual realizations. Instead, they make it easier for you to recognize and/or formulate the realizations that you need to create to improve your driving performance. They also provide the opportunity to rehearse the changes so you will be better prepared to implement them. While virtual-realizations are easy to create, they do not come easily! You must study racing and vehicle dynamics so that you have enough theoretical knowledge that you can extrapolate virtual-realizations from your actual realizations. You must also be open-minded enough to do the mental exercises that create virtual-realizations, you must trust in the power of your brain, and you must take action.
For Example…
If you are driving through a mid-speed turn, and you realize that you can stabilize your car by inducing a little understeer at turn in, then you can use that realization to improve your performance in any turn that is relatively similar. However, you could also use that realization to improve your performance in a much wider range of turns by first understanding how/why you were able to stabilize your car, and then by using that understanding to create virtual-realizations (based on the original realization) that would allow you to use the same techniques in turns that are much faster or slower, or in other mid-speed turns that have different characteristics, for example turns with different camber profiles, etc.
Intuitive Knowledge
Intuitive knowledge is the least understood, but most powerful, type of knowledge. The origin of intuitive knowledge is unclear; however it appears to be the result of complete integration of the brain and body, along with all the other knowledge types. Intuitive knowledge is complete as is; intellectual and/or physical actions are not required to understand it. Instead, intuitive knowledge simply flows from deep within; as an absolute certainty or confidence about something, or as remarkable, instinctive physical skill.
“Thinking, understanding, reasoning, willing, call not these Soul! They are its actions, but they are not its essence.”
— Akhenaton (d. c.1354 BC), Egyptian king
This is just conjecture, but I believe that if you spend enough time, energy, and attention on something, it eventually becomes an integral part of YOU (and/or you become it). While this is happening, I believe your brain rewires itself to support your self-image, and that creates the conduit from which the related intuitive knowledge/abilities emerge. Intuitive knowledge may come in the form of intellectual abilities (as with the intuitive insights of Einstein), or physical abilities (as with the physical instincts of an elite athlete), or both. For racers, intuitive knowledge takes the form of blinding speed, incredible car control, the ability to pull off unbelievable passes, the ability to make great saves or avoid trouble, and the ability to do all this while rarely making a mistake.
Strengths
Because intuitive knowledge is both spontaneous and complete, it is the most powerful type of knowledge. Another strength is that once you get to the point where you have access to intuitive knowledge, it does not require any effort on your part to use it; it simply flows from within you.
Weaknesses
The only drawback to intuitive knowledge is that it requires a great deal of time and effort to gain access to it. Unfortunately, you can’t rush intuitive knowledge; it will come when you are ready.
For Example…
You enter a high-speed turn at the limit only to discover someone spread oil right through the line. Instantly everything speeds up and you become just a passenger, but the wheel is being steered and the pedals are being operated. You see the two cars in front of you go off into the barrier, when suddenly you realize that somehow you “saved it” even though YOU weren’t really doing anything. You take control of the car again as you drive away from the turn. The “save” was a gift from your intuitive ability…. Or, maybe it was just luck.
Knowledge Interaction and Optimization
While we have looked at each of the individual types of knowledge, it’s important to recognize that they do not exist discreetly. Instead, think of knowledge as a continuum with theoretical and intuitive knowledge at its ends, and empirical knowledge, realizations and virtual-realizations in-between. All of the knowledge types can interact and blend with the others to meet the needs of the moment.
For example, when you have an experience, hopefully you will try to create a realization from it by searching your theoretical knowledge to try and understand the experience. The amount of applicable theoretical knowledge you have (or apply) determines the quality of the realization. Another factor that determines the quality of the realizations you create is the amount of effort you put into their creation. For example, if you create only the most obvious realizations from an experience, then you may be using only a part of the learning potential the experience could provide. But, if you delve into the layers of cause/effect relationships that brought about the obvious realization, to extract the subtle lessons, then you will reach your potential much more quickly.