Vince, I don't know if Banzai was joking or not! I didn't want to assume it either way! I know Banzai quite well and he's one of the good guys so he's LESS likely to be taking the 'mick' than being honest with you!
I was NOT having a go at you are your son on 'feedback', either. I was saying that it one MAJOR area of improvment for him! We ALL go through it: learning to be able to analyse the problem and then expressing it to our 'mechanic'!
I am suggesting that you need to encourage him to express himself FULLY and clearly! That's not criticism, it's advice!
Race teams will do their best..... but they will ALSO want clear answers if they are to help him.
Not only will it make it easier for your to understand what he means, it will make him THINK about what he wants from the kart!
Be honest, did YOU know what he meant by 'PINGS' out of a corner? I am damned if I know what it means! I am assuming he's youngish as he's still at school and will be using (mis-using!) our our language like all the rest of the kids! I am sure he's no worse than all the rest on this. However, he needs to learn that racing is NOT the school playground and 'looking cool' doesn't help much! You need CLEAR comments from him about what the kart is DOING and 'Pings' may well sound 'cool' but it doesn't help 'Dad' to fix the kart!
If you get him to express himself clearly, it will force him to think THROUGH the problem as he needs to have it clearly in him mind to tell you what he needs. When he thinks it through, he'll often find the answers for HIMSELF.
My profession is being a database consultant. My 'job' is to get the client to tell me EXACTLY what he needs and then to deliver it to him. If the client tells me he 'wants a bit of software to help sell widgets'..... that's what he'll GET..... and it'll be completely USELESS.... but I'll still get paid!! About 60% of my time is spent getting the client to THINK about what they need to and getting me to UNDERSTAND what they need! Writing the program is the EASY bit: it only takes 40% of the time!
Trust me, get him to express what he needs clearly and you'll improve in leaps and bounds....as a TEAM! It doesn't matter if he does it in words, hand gestures, drawings, maths-statements or any other clear method. He just has to EXPRESS what he needs in a way you can understand.
Ideally, get him to use the standard 'terms': oversteer, understeer, turn-in, pitch, roll, yaw, traction, rear/front grip, acceleration, inertia, momentum, etc., etc.. That way, you can BOTH discuss the problem with other racers in terms that everyone will understand. It'll reduce your workload by LOADS! For example, you'll hear LOADS of drivers talking about wanting to 'reduce grip'........ think that through and you'll see why that's really the LAST thing they want..... what they MEAN by 'reducing grip' is that they want to reduce REAR grip...... not OVER-ALL grip.
This is the main part of it! In karting, the word 'release' doesn't seem to mean ANYTHING AT ALL..... because, each person who uses it seems to mean something DIFFRENT by it! When you get them to expand/explain what they mean..... you'll see what they REALLY mean by saying 'release' and you can then FIX it!
Ian
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