Here's a review I did after Dietrich and I took the course in Phoenix:
Total Control: Instructed by Lee Parks and Staff
Location: Team Arizona Motorcycle School
Review by: Monster Dave
The Total Control course offered by Lee Parks focuses on just that; total control of your motorcycle. Anyone who's ever ridden a motorcycle knows that developing the skills needed to become a better rider isn't always an easy task. For most enthusiasts, many practical and road worthy lessons may even be completely over looked until a fellow rider points out that a change in technique could make you a much better rider.
Total Control is an 8 hour course that focuses on the mind, the body, and the spirit of the relationship between rider and steed. The union of mind and machine is critical to remaining open to learning new techniques and to being not only willing, but capable of developing a solid connection from which even the most established of road warriors can grow into a new type of rider. Ultimately, having the right attitude is critical to having the greatest amount of success and FUN with this course.
A typical class may include a variety of riders, bikes, rider skill levels and individual rider goals. The course is dynamic, exciting, objective, and focuses on positive instructional techniques. My particular class was made up of approximately 16 riders and included both sport bikes as well as a significant number of dual sport bikes. I was also very pleased to see that the course appealed to riders of all ages as well. As far as rider skill is concerned, Total Control (or more specifically the application for the course) requires at least a year of riding experience or to have a minimum of 12k miles ventured. I personally fell into the latter half with just under a years worth of riding time but with a solid 15k miles of road behind me. Participants for my class included some who had been riding for +30 years, an experienced racer, some weekend road warriors, and even an MSF instructor on holiday here in Phoenix. In the end, regardless of experience there's a huge amount to be gained from Lee’s philosophy and instruction.
The course was broken down into alternating sessions of class instruction and hands-on application. The in classroom experience was engaging, stimulating, and often required some form of physical exercise to apply the philosophies and techniques to real life scenarios; once the in class sessions were complete, we moved immediately to hands on application on the meticulously cleaned course offered by Team Arizona. On our motorcycles, both Lee and his fellow instructors guided us through each exercise and gave each of us immediate feedback regarding our performance making suggestions for improvement on the next attempt.
Much of the course follows along the Total Control book which I highly suggest you read prior to the class as it will help you better understand the techniques that you will eventually put into practice. It will also serve as a wonderful resource for you to reference once you have completed the course. It is certainly no substitute however for actually being in the class and getting 1-on-1 instructor time. In anycase, at less than $30 the book is a resource that you should certainly consider adding to your library on riding techniques.
One of the things that struck me most significantly was that Lee's instruction style was very open and objective regarding your own personal interpretations of the techniques that he was presenting rather than closed minded and pushing the antiquated "just be smooth" psychology that is far too often rehearsed in riding courses and books alike. He and his instructors are very open to complimenting other riding instructors and their techniques. Not once did I hear a negative reference to anyone's understanding or experience with another rider or instructor. So if you've taken a course with Keith Code or Freddy Spencer you won't find this course contradicting what they've offered you in regards to their own experiences either on the road or the track.
There was a considerable amount of both theory practical application taught during the 8 hour course. The following techniques were some of the most significant and most insightful that the course covered:
Tires/Traction
Steering Techniques
Throttle Control - Corner entry and exit
Braking - Trail Braking
Body Position - Movement/Chassis Dynamics/Ten Steps
Mental Health - Fear/Concentration/Meditation/The Right Attitude
Vision - Spotlight vs. Floodlight
Line Selection - Turing Points (single and multiple)/Lean Angle
Suspension - Setup/Tuning
Amongst a variety of areas covered and exercises performed, what I found most impressive was that Lee went so far as to even give a personal demonstration of how to properly adjust the individual suspensions of each of our bikes by clearly covering the often confused areas of preload, dampening, and sag in class and then moving directly out to our bikes for hands-on focus. This proved to be a wonderful and unexpected bonus for us that was very much appreciated.
Later, as can be seen by many of the pictures from our class, some of us we were in fact in a position to possably drag a knee by mid-afternoon. I first want to note that this was achieved through practice and one-on-one guidance from the Total Control staff. Additionally, it's also important to note that these exercises were/are performed on a phenomenally well kept course at Team Arizona and achieving controlled lean angles as we were was easily done without needing to exceed speeds of 20mph at any given time. Personally, I feel that that fact alone reflects very well on the instruction by Lee and his staff as well as the increase in overall rider skill that we were building towards. Ultimately, this reinforces that the main objective behind Total Control which is to be able to train you (the rider) to know how to "put the bike where you want it, when you want it at any given time under any variety of circumstances.
I commend this course for it's ability to offer each and every participant the opportunity to grow in ways that we would never have imagined. I also commend Lee and his extremely able staff for offering both sound philosophy and applications which have made a significant impact on my riding habits, style, and especially my over all union to the road on which I ride. If you are interested in your own personal growth as a skilled rider, I highly suggest that you consider this course; you certainly won't regret it.
For those of you who may be interested please explore the following links for more information on my particular experience with Total Control:
- Pictures from Total Control for Cycle Sports TV and Pics from our course:
http://www.scsportbikes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9996-Total Control (the book):
http://www.amazon.com/Total-Control-Performance-Street-Techniques/dp/0760314039/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226524841&sr=8-1
