TripleS wrote:TR4ffic wrote:I would hope/trust that Associates are picked up for/actively discouraged from using hand-over-hand ('knitting') and crossing the arm over the wheel to grip the inside of the wheel rim (Not sure what that's called...). I view these as bad habits. Am I correct in thinking that they would be picked up for this?
IMO, if an Associate’s steering is poor (hurried, jerky, inaccurate, unsafe, etc) I would imagine that getting back to basics with PP, with Fixed Grip up to an agreed angle, would be a good starting point and allow other techniques to come in later. Reasonable?
Personally, I wouldn’t like to see anyone letting the wheel slip through their hands but each to their own…
Why not? It doesn't surprise me to find AD people disapproving of it, but if it is done with care I find it works perfectly satisfactorily
On my first drive with an IAM Observer I got picked up for the way I held the steering wheel, and the position of my hands. I had been trying to be reasonably well behaved, holding the wheel at somewhere around 9-3, but he wasn't happy with that, so I moved them up a bit, but that still wasn't good enough. I moved them up another three quarters of an inch, and only then did he pronounce it acceptable.
....and to think I'd been driving for about 48 years and never realised what a complete hash I was making of steering.
Now I'm sure that isn't typical of all IAM Observers, but clearly there's sufficient of that mentality in the IAM for a lot of people to be put off going to them. Just as a matter of interest, do the RoSPA AD people suffer similarly from this, er, anality? (That word may not be strictly appropriate, but I expect you know what I mean.)
Best wishes all,
Dave.
I have no problem with 9-3 - i would suggest that it is more balanced than 10-2 and my RoSPA examiner and I agreed on that as I recall on my last re-test. (He is also an IAM examiner.) I can't recall ever having this discussion with anyone at RoSPA HQ, on any course or supervision.
Same old, same old ... Individual trainers, observers, examiners do not sing off the same hymn sheet and I'm not sure whether that is ever likely to be achieved. After all, the HQ's have only spasmodic, irregular, very rare oversight of the local groups' activities on-the-ground. By contrast, there's far more oversight of us as RoSPA trainers but uniformity of training delivery and messages given from the body of trainers is immensely difficult to attain and is a full-time job for the QA Manager.
If the uniformity of paid professionals can't be assured, what chance unpaid, volunteer observers?