Wassup with Blind Spots!
Not only are humans with their blindspots God’s creations, we are the most amazing inventions EVER!
I think you’ll agree that it’s pretty amazing that we can design and build marvels like the Calabash Soccer Stadium, yet find picking up a single brick a challenge. We’re also the only ones to get worried and/or scared about stuff that doesn’t exist – like the future – specially since we’re not THERE yet…we are in THIS moment, we’re HERE…
… and so are our blindspots
Interesting things…these blindspots, specially in motion – those things that cause dings on cars or, at worst, wipe out complete families…
The first time your instructor said you should check your blindspot over your shoulder you thought he must be totally insane if he thought you would dare to take your eyes off the road, right? The first time you attempted it, you gripped the steering tighter than The Hulk and whipped your head around like that move from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, right?
Yeah, I know, it felt TERRIBLE!!!
It was meant to feel terrible – how else do you explain your body screaming out “Oh…My…GOD!!! Where the hell am I going?…I can’t SEE!!!”? That’s just it! Your body’s used to seeing where it’s going, since pretty much you were born. Now, you’re asking it to look in a completely different direction than what you’re travelling in, go figure. It does get better with more practice…and it has a specific purpose! ;-D
Method to the Madness…THIS is a typical application of this metaphor. You need to actually SEE properly when you’re gonna do certain manoeuvres, and you need to see how SAFELY you can execute those manoeuvres. Simple. Many learners, in fact, believe a blindspot is simply a word in a K53 procedure.
Trust me – it’s a PLACE, a real place where you can’t see; a place where you’re blind, just because that’s the way we humans are designed. Our eyes help each other, compensate for each other…but they can only do that much.
Now check this out and see how it happens that people get hooted at for erratic lane changes – they CAN’T see that [red dot] car, unless they LOOK!
Here’s how:
You close your right eye and with your left eye, look at the + sign. Now you should be able to see the red dot in your peripheral vision. Keep on looking at the + sign with your left eye and the red dot that moves from the left to the right will disappear and reappear as the dot moves into your blindspot and out again.
Then there’s some more questions… discussed in the video.
Follow this experiment and see the relationship between blindspot size and difference of gender. Boring, maybe, but GOOD to know!
TIPS:
When your car is in the region of the rear bumper of the car next to you, you are in THEIR blind spot – Remember that, before you call them a Chop.
When another car is in the region of YOUR rear bumper, they are in YOUR blind spot – Remember that, lest YOU be called a Chop.
It’s really simple – ALL of us has blind spots and THAT is one thing that K53 is good at teaching us.
If it’s the ONLY thing you keep from all your training, you can never go wrong.
I say this many, many, many times… If only everyone did that single blindspot check before they turned; before they did that U-Turn, untold lives can be saved.
Keep ‘em peeled now, you hear!
