Part 6 of our series on Targeting is all about targeting while backing the vehicle. Now, some of these modern vehicles today have cameras that assist with backing up the vehicle that display what’s behind your vehicle on a little screen, either in your review mirror or in your dashboard. Personally, I’m not a fan of these, since they get you focusing on a little screen, which kills your peripheral vision. Also, they only show you what’s going on about 15 to 20 feet behind you, and really, that’s not enough. Sure that parking space is right behind your vehicle, but ideally, you need to be aware of what’s going on in the traffic scene all around you whenever the vehicle is in motion. That’s why, no matter how sophisticated those rearview cameras get, I’ll always prefer to turn around and look through the rear of the vehicle when I back, which leads right into today’s coaching tip.

How do you target when you’re backing the vehicle? As you may imagine, it’s pretty similar to how you target in any other situation while you’re driving (that’s why this stuff works so well; it’s never that different from the basics you learned earlier in the course!). The big difference is that now you’re looking through the rear window of the vehicle. You’re not just turning your head to look behind you, either, you want to turn your body, too, so that you get a good, clear view through that rear window. Now that you’re turned enough to see clearly, targeting is pretty simple. You just pick that target at eye level or above that’s in the center of your intended path. You’re probably not going to use the entire path that you draw in your mind; after all, your imagined path should extend all the way to the horizon, and I doubt you’ll ever need to go that far in reverse! Now, when you imagine the vehicle tracking over the path, remember that it’s the rear pivot-point tracking over the path (the rear pivot point sits in the middle of the two rear wheels). There you have it, folks: how to target while backing the vehicle. It’s really only different from the targeting you already know in two ways. One, you’re turned in your seat so you’re looking through the rear window of the vehicle, and two, the pivot point has moved from the center of the wheelbase to in the middle of the two rear wheels.

Watch this video for further explanation of Targeting while Backing.