We pretty much worked on u-turns most of the day. Starting at 30 foot radius, down to 20, then 18. The 18's were hard. That's what I gotta practice. We did some emergency braking. For those of us that ride non-ABS bikes, they call it threshold braking. The idea is to get just to the threshold before the tires lock up. On ABS bikes it's a non-issue.
It's amazing how true it is that keeping your eyes up at the horizon and where you want to go (not at the road where you want to go) and turning your head far gets those u-turns nice and tight. When I was out there practicing, and the instructor is hollering, "look at me! look at me!" my eyes went to him, and I fell right into that u-turn with ease. Amazing! I've always known the importance of looking where you want the bike to go, but I really, really experienced it today.
If nothing else it has shown me what I need to practice more of, and that's really the point of taking these courses. We don't always know where our weaknesses are and a course like this can help shed some light on areas that need more practice.
I started to become a better and safer rider today, but I really become a better and safer rider when I go to an empty parking lot and practice!
If there's anyone in SF that's up for some parking lot time drop me a line!
...and if this thread needs to be moved, I'm happy for a mod to move it...