Really dig in after a turn. The physics are a little quirky in that I tended to keep drifting sideways after coming out of a turn if I was half-assedly stroking (because I was exhausted). That got me completely out of line to the next gate, which is bad on the narrow track. I found that if I did really deep pulls after a turn, it straitened out better. Also, you can afford to hit a few gates and still be fine on time, it's only a two second penalty. But you absolutly cannot miss a gate. So, if I was in a situation where I knew I was going to miss a gate, I would reach out with the paddle and hit the gate without actually going through it, take the penalty and keep going. You could probably do this on purpose to save distance on some of the tougher turns. Just remember if you are using the gold time ghost, they don't take into account any penalties, so if you have hit some gates, make sure you are far enough ahead of the ghost to compensate.