Commentary driving

 

This unit introduces the concept of commentary driving and explains why it is beneficial to the development of your driving and teaching skills.

You will complete four commentary driving projects in this unit. It's important that you learn to walk before you try to run, with this in mind, follow each of the projects as directed.

Commentary driving is widely used in police pursuit training and other emergency services driver training to help develop concentration and observation skills. The ability to translate what's happening ahead into words is a key skill for driving instructors.

Note that this unit will give a good start to your commentary driving but we suggest that you continue to practise as you progress through your driving course.

In this unit you will:

  • Learn what commentary driving is and why it's important
  • What makes a good commentary
  • Commentary and forward planning

    Complete three specific projects

  • Project 1: See it, say it... The first step in developing a commentary
  • Project 2: Making sense of what you see
  • Project 3: Developing a 'teaching commentary'

    and...

  • Learn more about structuring your commentary

Commentary driving benefits

Commentary driving will help with your advanced training in three ways.

  • It will help you to develop a selective system of hazard observation. This means that you will learn to better identify the critical hazards ahead.
  • It will help with your planning of the drive as you consciously process critical information on the road ahead.
  • It will help develop one of the most important skills of all required for giving practical tuition, i.e., the ability to communicate verbally with your pupils while the car is moving.

Thinking about teaching...

You may feel that the third point raised above is a little obvious and that you will have no problem communicating – after all most, if not all, of your customers will speak the same language as you and have good hearing.

The truth is that many student driving instructors, perhaps most, have difficulty reading the road for their learners and then conveying the information in a coherent manner; developing a good commentary will help you to eliminate this problem. With this in mind it's important to get as much practise as possible.

Next: What is a commentary drive?

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