Mastering The Basic Skills Of Driving For New Drivers

If you are interested in playing football, you should first of all learn up a few basic skills. Amongst them are:

i) Dribbling.

ii) How to trap a ball with your in step.

iii) How to head a ball.

iv) How to do a throw-in correctly.

v) How to conduct a corner kick.

Should you plan to become a teacher then, amongst the important skills you should learn up are:

i) The ability to write clearly and well on the blackboard.

ii) Have the capacity to teach well.

iii) To be able to draw would be a good asset.

iv) To tell good and interesting stories.

v) To be able to relate humorous jokes.

are some of the skills a good teacher should ideally possesses.

A potential student taking up a driving course should attempt to learn up some basic, good driving skills from his or her instructor.

Most students nowadays undergo a 10 or 16 hour driving course in Malaysia. Surprisingly, a British counterpart intending to take up a driving course has to undergo a minimum 40 lessons by a registered driving institution before he can even qualify to sit for his practical test.

As mentioned earlier, a potential candidate taking up a driving course in our country, Malaysia, has to attain some 8 to 10 skills. This will enable him to drive well, hopefully. All these, to be done in such a short duration, when compared to his British counterpart.

If you were to ask me, as a driving instructor since 1970, this tantamount to a very daunting, if not impossible task to achieve.

Whatever the odds maybe, as 10 to 16 lessons is the only amount of time an instructor has. We have no choice but to impart to the candidate the driving skills he should ideally be taught within this short span of time.

Skills in Bahasa Malaysia would be translated as “olahgerak-olahgerak” for the benefit of those who are competent in the National Language.

As mentioned, there are some 8 to 10 basic skills a student should learn up within a 8 – 16 lessons driving course. What are the skills are we talking about?

The skills are:

i) Entry from the road shoulder into the main road.

ii) Cruising along the highway.

iii) Moving in tandem with the road traffic.

iv) Crossing a junction.

v) Overtaking and being overtaken.

vi) Making a U-turn.

vii) Coming out from the centre of the road into a road shoulder.

viii) Side parking.

ix) Going up a slope.

Permit me to elaborate in more detail with regards to some of the skills that are required to be learnt.

1) Entry from the road shoulder into the main road.

This skill involves getting into a flow of traffic. A driver can be on a road shoulder, attempting to get into the main stream, from a side road attempting to enter the main stream, a car parked on a road shoulder trying to enter into the main stream, attempting to change lanes and attempting entry into a round-about.

2) Cruising along the highway.

Cruising along the highway means driving safely in the correct lane. The driver should be able t control his car well while maneuvering a sharp corner, driving well in all kinds of road surfaces, driving in bad surfaces, driving along road which are in poor condition, and driving on surfaces laden with deep craters and oil spillage.

Besides this, in emergency situations such as vehicle breaking down and accidents.

3) Moving in tandem with the road traffic.

The skill required here is the ability to control a vehicle safely and carefully in comparison to other vehicle. Other similar situations are also expected.

4) Crossing a crossing junction.

How does a driver ideally cross a cross junction?

To cross a normal junction, crossing a pedestrian crossing, a railway crossing, a crossing guarded by a security warden or police amongst some of the required skills expected to be learnt by a driver.

5) When overtaking and being overtaken.

How to overtake safely is one skill expected of a good driver too. Likewise what to do when being overtaken is another skill which a good driver should possess.

6) The skill of doing a U-turn.

The skill required is to drive back to the original position the driver came from. Other similar skills also involves reversing to do parking, doing 3 point turns and U-turns.

A new driver should master all the above skills as quickly as possible, as the ability to perform them will make you a good and proficient driver.