knute2
12-01-2008, 02:52 AM
So I’ve been in North Carolina for a month now and every week gets better and better with school, work, and life around here. Well everything except for the money, it seems like there is never enough money and I have been doing my best to spend it wisely of late, somehow that never seems to work out haha, but at least I'm having fun. If I get the opportunity to go out with some cool people I take it, because I don’t just want to sit down doing nothing just to save a few dollars. I’m a people person and I believe as a people person I got to be doing things and meeting new people every chance I get, because somebody always knows somebody who knows somebody and then you just meet like 7 new friends then 2 more and 5, I’m sure you all know what I mean and I’m having a good time so far.
As for school, it was a fun but short week with thanksgiving in the middle of the week. Because of that the school was closed on Thursday and Friday so there was no chance to practice those two days. To make up for that I did show up on Monday and Wednesday in the morning, along with Tuesday to get as much practice in as I could.
Monday it rained, and rained and rained, which wasn’t a problem for class. Instead of our usual warm-up we do outside we went into the weight room and sports exercise room. Coaches split us in half as one group would be on cardio machines and the other group would do quick little feet movement workouts like football players do on the field. We would switch and do everything twice before heading into one of the garage bays for practice.
The garage bay can usually park 3-4 cars, but because of the rain they parked two cars in there nose to tail to give us plenty of room to all do something at once. To start we refreshed what we have done so far as a tire changer would do around the car, so one group would do a lot of pulls and sets on one car and the others would be doing taps on every wheel until we could get 50 taps perfect, then we would switch wheels and do it again. Reputation-reputation-reputation was the key to perfection with the taps.
For the second part of class we would practice working together as changers and carriers. The changer would do their 5 taps then pull and set the tire and the carrier would index the new tire onto the wheel hub, then the changer would do his 5 taps again acting like he was putting the 5 lug nuts on the car. An important part to this was the changer properly placing the gun down between his legs near his left leg while at the same time pushing the button on the gun to change direction from reverse to forward.
If you remember me mentioning in earlier post about when I would first have to try something new and may have struggled a little? Well this is another example of the same thing when it came to indexing the tire. I actually did very well when I was acting as the changer, I hit all my 5 taps without missing any and I was pulling and setting the tire very well. They do really stress the way you pull and set the tire especially on the right side of the car so the tire won’t roll off into the middle of pit road. So I was doing well as a changer but was struggling as a carrier now that a different element was thrown into the mix.
What made the process of indexing the tire so difficult was that now I have my changer sitting there in front of me. I guess it was kind of a psychological thing in my head now that the changer is there that is making me think differently. I wasn’t the only one struggling at this; I just think it all really messed with our heads out there now having him physically there. As coaches continued to say, “we are here to make mistakes and that’s the only way we are going to get better”. Some students were way more frustrated that I was. I actually think I handled it pretty well, I kept thinking of the other times I have struggled and how quickly I got it after trying a few times and taking a few breaks. I think the coaches knew we needed a break too, so they sent us on a break and said to leave the bay, go get water, sit down in the tire bay, do something just leave for a few minutes until they call us back. This was actually a good time for us all to take a break and talk about it. I remember talking to the whole class during our break telling everyone not to get frustrated. I mentioned how I have struggled in everything so far and that a few little breaks and practice me got the hang of it. I think they all cooled down a little after that, maybe they realized that everyone was struggling including me, the guy who everyone picked as the best tire carrier the class before to face-off against an alumni Pit Crew U student, (more on the face-off later, you will like this one).
After our break, the coaches have a little talk, we went back at it and everyone was doing much better, not perfect, but better. I was finally indexing the tire well enough to get it onto the hub without much struggling. Coach mentioned I was doing very well, now I just have to work on slamming the tire there in one quick motion like I was before without the changer in my way. We ended Monday’s class on a high note and feeling good about our self’s, what we needed to do was come back on Tuesday and continue to practice on everything we just did.
If you guys know me well enough yet, you know where I was Tuesday morning. I was at the shop at 9am working on everything we just did the night before with a few other classmates. This time it was easy, everything was just happening for me much smoother and it all felt good. I got faster and smoother, with still room for improvement as in the slamming the tire on the hub part. When one of the coaches want to either show-off they will index the tire and it sounds so cool because of the force they put on the tire and how they hit all 5 studs perfectly. That is where I got to be next; now that I'm getting the whole motion down with the carrier there I just have to work on the quickness.
Wednesday’s class was probably the only class where we did a lot of standing around and watching with the exception of the first class. This was because we were learning how to use the jack and jack the racecar up, not something we can all do at once. We had 2 cars sitting on pit road with 2 jacks. We split into 2 groups (big guys and little guys) I was in the big guys group. Our jack was more difficult to use and the car we were on was much heavier than the jack and car in the little guys group.
As for school, it was a fun but short week with thanksgiving in the middle of the week. Because of that the school was closed on Thursday and Friday so there was no chance to practice those two days. To make up for that I did show up on Monday and Wednesday in the morning, along with Tuesday to get as much practice in as I could.
Monday it rained, and rained and rained, which wasn’t a problem for class. Instead of our usual warm-up we do outside we went into the weight room and sports exercise room. Coaches split us in half as one group would be on cardio machines and the other group would do quick little feet movement workouts like football players do on the field. We would switch and do everything twice before heading into one of the garage bays for practice.
The garage bay can usually park 3-4 cars, but because of the rain they parked two cars in there nose to tail to give us plenty of room to all do something at once. To start we refreshed what we have done so far as a tire changer would do around the car, so one group would do a lot of pulls and sets on one car and the others would be doing taps on every wheel until we could get 50 taps perfect, then we would switch wheels and do it again. Reputation-reputation-reputation was the key to perfection with the taps.
For the second part of class we would practice working together as changers and carriers. The changer would do their 5 taps then pull and set the tire and the carrier would index the new tire onto the wheel hub, then the changer would do his 5 taps again acting like he was putting the 5 lug nuts on the car. An important part to this was the changer properly placing the gun down between his legs near his left leg while at the same time pushing the button on the gun to change direction from reverse to forward.
If you remember me mentioning in earlier post about when I would first have to try something new and may have struggled a little? Well this is another example of the same thing when it came to indexing the tire. I actually did very well when I was acting as the changer, I hit all my 5 taps without missing any and I was pulling and setting the tire very well. They do really stress the way you pull and set the tire especially on the right side of the car so the tire won’t roll off into the middle of pit road. So I was doing well as a changer but was struggling as a carrier now that a different element was thrown into the mix.
What made the process of indexing the tire so difficult was that now I have my changer sitting there in front of me. I guess it was kind of a psychological thing in my head now that the changer is there that is making me think differently. I wasn’t the only one struggling at this; I just think it all really messed with our heads out there now having him physically there. As coaches continued to say, “we are here to make mistakes and that’s the only way we are going to get better”. Some students were way more frustrated that I was. I actually think I handled it pretty well, I kept thinking of the other times I have struggled and how quickly I got it after trying a few times and taking a few breaks. I think the coaches knew we needed a break too, so they sent us on a break and said to leave the bay, go get water, sit down in the tire bay, do something just leave for a few minutes until they call us back. This was actually a good time for us all to take a break and talk about it. I remember talking to the whole class during our break telling everyone not to get frustrated. I mentioned how I have struggled in everything so far and that a few little breaks and practice me got the hang of it. I think they all cooled down a little after that, maybe they realized that everyone was struggling including me, the guy who everyone picked as the best tire carrier the class before to face-off against an alumni Pit Crew U student, (more on the face-off later, you will like this one).
After our break, the coaches have a little talk, we went back at it and everyone was doing much better, not perfect, but better. I was finally indexing the tire well enough to get it onto the hub without much struggling. Coach mentioned I was doing very well, now I just have to work on slamming the tire there in one quick motion like I was before without the changer in my way. We ended Monday’s class on a high note and feeling good about our self’s, what we needed to do was come back on Tuesday and continue to practice on everything we just did.
If you guys know me well enough yet, you know where I was Tuesday morning. I was at the shop at 9am working on everything we just did the night before with a few other classmates. This time it was easy, everything was just happening for me much smoother and it all felt good. I got faster and smoother, with still room for improvement as in the slamming the tire on the hub part. When one of the coaches want to either show-off they will index the tire and it sounds so cool because of the force they put on the tire and how they hit all 5 studs perfectly. That is where I got to be next; now that I'm getting the whole motion down with the carrier there I just have to work on the quickness.
Wednesday’s class was probably the only class where we did a lot of standing around and watching with the exception of the first class. This was because we were learning how to use the jack and jack the racecar up, not something we can all do at once. We had 2 cars sitting on pit road with 2 jacks. We split into 2 groups (big guys and little guys) I was in the big guys group. Our jack was more difficult to use and the car we were on was much heavier than the jack and car in the little guys group.