 The second phase is maybe the most fun — and we believe the most important. The kids are learning the skills they will need for a lifetime of driving. It is composed of two full days of in-car training at a MasterDrive private facility — in as safe a place as possible — learning about car control in various conditions and situations. The primary components of the training include:
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 Precision Car Control: Precision and accuracy in the placement of the vehicle. Precision is learned in a controlled training area with cones and exercises designed to accomplish those skills. The street is obviously not the place to learn precision with the car.
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Simple and Complex Dynamics: What happens with the massive weight of a vehicle, 4,000 or 5,000 pounds, transfers to the front, or the back, or to the side. It is especially important when weight is transferred in two directions at the same time (complex dynamics, as in braking and turning to the side in the same movement). Learning to control the vehicle’s dynamics is perhaps the most important skill. |
 Crash Avoidance Maneuvers: How to execute an avoidance maneuver instantaneously — in a nano-second — without losing control. In a crisis situation, most teens have a tendency to focus on the “crisis” or “problem”, and drive right into it. In this exercise teens learn how to focus upon the solution rather than the problem, and to take the vehicle to the open area. At the age of 16 or 17 the brain’s communication to the body is lightning fast. The biggest problem is that teen’s will often do the wrong thing “quicker”, because they don’t have the programming (skill) to do the right thing. |
 Skid Recovery and Skid Control: What to do to avoid a skid, but also what to do to correct a skid — without panic. Imagine what it will be like for your teen to drive in their first slick road condition … and they begin to hydroplane, or skid on ice or snow, and don’t know what to do to handle the situation. Do you think your son or daughter needs to know what to do BEFORE it occurs for real on the street?
We teach this on a “skid pad”, like you see on television commercials. A skid pad is a large open area of paving which has a sealed surface, with a sprinkler system around the edges. We can get a car to hydroplane at 15 to 20 miles per hour, and practice skid recoveries safely — year around. |
Braking and Handling: How to brake the car at the maximum level in a crisis situation. In a crisis, most people panic, slam on the brakes, lock up and go out of control. A new teen driver must learn to use what we call “threshold braking” — squeezing the brake up to the maximum level, just before lock up. |
 Backing: Almost 50% of teenagers’ first crashes occur while backing; in most cases, it is just because of the lack of training. When a car is going backward, including backing out of a parking space, maintaining directional control of a vehicle is very different from going forward.
It is very important for a teen to become proficient at controlling the car while backing.
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 Driving Recital: For the last hour of the second day of the Survival Skills Training program, we invite the parents out for participate in what we call a “Driving Recital”. It is kind of like a piano recital, after a student has taken piano lessons for a while. Except that this is a Driving Recital, where the teens have an opportunity to demonstrate to their parents what they have learned. Not just to watch, but for the parents to ride with their kids through a very difficult course which includes a crash avoidance maneuver, dynamic control, and crisis braking.
We conduct a short briefing with parents about what they are going to experience, and then they get to ride through a couple of times. Following the recital, we hold a short graduation with the parents and kids.
This is a very meaningful and exciting part of the process, and really is a bonding experience between the parents and their child.
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