There’s not a lot to tell you about this lesson that wasn’t covered in Annie’s previous lesson.

Annie’s goal was to try each manoeuvre and be ‘comfortable with each one’ The lesson followed a similar theme to the Turn in the Road & Parallel Park lesson.

Again with the reverse corner, I don’t like to put the learners attempt into the Reverse corner(RC) ‘box’. So I just asked Annie to pull over just after a junction & trying to keep the same gap with the kerb go back to the fence at the other end of the bend. Simple as that. She knew it was RC but we didn’t focus on that….just the gap ma’am, just the gap 🙂 🙂

And you know what? She did it first time, while I kept us safe. We discussed how much out of 100% she kept the car roughly the same distance. Did she want it 100% of the time? What percentage would she be happy with? After a couple more goes she had the 90% she was happy with and then a bit more Q&A on where she would look, and why, if she was alone in the car. One more go and Annie felt happy she was accurate & safe.

For the Bay Park we discussed the similarity with RC. Again with some Q&A we filled in the gaps in her knowledge about reversing in and going forward into spaces, and options for each way. We discussed why it was more important for a young lady, especially in dark car parks to reverse in. But ultimately it’s her choice how she parks in space.

We also discussed what might get in the way of her not manoeuvring the car well. Pressure to impress passengers/or people in other cars? Late for the train/college/school/work? Annie felt she could see this happening, and knowing herself she felt she would ‘rush a bit’. So we discussed how she would firstly recognise she was rushing, and what systems she would put in place to try not to. Only time and circumstance would tell her if they worked.

And that’s it. Within 3 hours Annie had gotten to a stage where she was comfortable with each of the manoeuvres. Exactly where she wanted to be with them. In future lessons we’ll have a go at ‘non test’ manoeuvring….you’ll have to wait to find out what they are!

I feel these methods I use now are so much more effective than the ‘traditional’ way of teaching manoeuvers. Before it was all about making sure they were doing everything right and helping them when they did something ‘wrong’ It was all so negative. Now it’s so much more about letting them explore and learn while I just keep us safe…..and I enjoy this much more too!

Thanks for reading.

Until next time…….