EPTAnywho, I've concluded that even after all my practice, I still suck at drift. Well, not exactly suck, but I'm clearly missing some fundamental principle. I think I understand perfect drift, I can double-drift and cut my drifts pretty cleanly, and I've just added chain drifts (3 or more drifts in 1 turn) to my bag of tricks, though I'm still sloppy with chain drifts.... In team speed and single speed I usually come in 2nd-4th (depending on competition) with 1st place finishes vs sloppy players.
So, why do I suck at drift? Hm. The simple answer is that drifting slows me down. I do time trials to gauge where I'm at when there's no one around to bump me and today I decided it would be a fun experiment to do a trial on every map without drifting unless absolutely necessary to avoid ramming a wall on a pin-turn. I did use boosts if I happened to build up a meter. I sorta expected to beat my times on the easier maps, what astonished me was that I beat my times on every single map, including Zig Zag!
The results were staggering and revealed to me just how poorly I drift (using Cotton E2, top speed on flat ground = 186):
Fright Fight -- 1'53'47
Shark's Fin -- 1'55'51
Penguin Town -- 1'59'52
Ice Cave -- 1'58'75
Arc Enemies -- 2'04'92
Rivera Rift -- 1'35'20
Oasis -- 1'49'43
Bizarre Bazaar -- 1'48'93
Woodland -- 2'04'19
Basil Road -- 2'17'90
*Hidden Monastery -- 1'54'50
*Freeway -- 2'28'95
*Pyramid Mesa -- 2'02'05
*Zig Zag -- 3'10'85
'*' denotes a map I didn't expect to get a best time with.
Now, I've beaten all of the above times in team-speed, and the Pyramid Mesa time I know I can beat in single on an inconsistent basis, but I'm so ashamed! What fundamental point am I missing about drift?
I dunno if any of you are in ProTL, A1, or some other gosu clan, but if y'all could point me in the direction of some resources that explain what drifts are bad (net loss in speed) and what drifts are good (net gain in speed), that'd be great.
I'm seriously considering not drifting in my single-speed races from now on... -_-"
J/K... drifting's too fun! ^_^ ....but I would prefer drifts that improved my time, rather than ruined it.
