Look down go down? Maybe, maybe not - more than likely not. When you are turning a motorcycle in a tight circle, and look down (depending how far away you look) the ground will blur. You have lost 1/3 of your balancing system. Some can simply use the other two thirds of the balancing system and weed out false input. Some have to put their foot down.

Putting you foot down in the real world, can hurt you. If you are on a 800 pound motorcycle, with saddle bags (hard bags), you can break your own ankle by running over it with the saddle bag or crash bar. That's dumb.

Turning and lean angle faster speeds -Your balance system helps you maintain a proper lean angle. Aside from it's nice to know where you're going, looking at where you are going helps to maintain and judge your lean angle. Contrary to what you may have heard,  You don't keep pushing to keep the motorcycle in a lean during medium speed turns. During high speed turns, centrifugal force turns wants to stand the bike up and pull it to the outside of the turn, so countersteering is applied and maintained. You judge your lean angle, push the handgrip (FORWARD - NOT DOWN) in the direction you want to go - countersteer, and if need be, make minor corrections with your body weight (hip), major corrections are done with counter-steering.  To smoothly go around the turn, the better you judge your lean angle to begin with, the smoother the turn is. It takes a little practice to learn to judge a lean angle for the speed you are going. You'll get it, humans are good at judging this stuff. On their side motorcycle tires roll like a cone not like like a cylinder. I'm not going to tell you - Lean just before you get into a turn (although it's a good practice). For the beginner, I'll leave the timing of your lean up to you. Let's just say, the less input during the turn, the smoother the turn. If you want to get into position before the actual turn (and can judge it), good for you.

How do you hang on? You don't hang on to the motorcycle with your hands and the handle bar while turning. You don't want to put false steering input to the front tire by hanging onto the bars. You hang on with your knees! You've probably seen motorcycles with those pads on the tank. The secondary purpose is to prevent scratches, the primary purpose is to give you knee grip. They're not scratch pads boys and girls, although they'll be glad to sell them to you for that purpose.

So how much of a push do you use? Jab the hand grip quickly and the bike quickly turns on it's side, gently push and the motorcycle goes over slower. That depends on your speed, the circumference of the turn, how the bike handles, center of mass, type of tires and the weight of the bike - it takes practice. Practice and you'll get it. Turn your head and look at where you want to go. Don't fixate on it, look at your surroundings quickly just to be aware of conditions and you don't whine up with target fixation. The lean is is induced by counter-steering and is essentially a controlled fall over to either side.

Guess what, when you come out of the turn, counter-steering will stand the bike back up.

Hey wait, how come you can do it without turning your head or turning your head in the opposite direction? By making use of the other two thirds of your balance system, you can tell your brain you're ok and everything is going as planned. But it takes practice - practice - practice.

Slow speed cone weave and parameter turns - During the slow speed cone weaves (when cones are close together) and parameter turns- you do NOT push the handgrip in the direction you want to go, to turn (although you can, at very low speeds, the bike will lean, but you will will have to recover). You are simply steering the motorcycle by turning the front wheel. Later, as you speed up (10mph + or so), you can push the handgrip in the direction you want to lean the motorcycle. When the cones are close together (and/or offset), the head turn and eye focus works. When they are further apart, you look straight ahead and use your peripheral vision to get through them. CAN you Push at very low speeds? Yes, but the motorcycle will quickly lean in the direction you want to go, then you have to quickly recover to complete the turn. DON'T use counter-steering for slow speed cone weaves, it's silly!

See motorcycle Steering - Slow, Look, Press and Roll method of motorcycle steering.

Confused?   Here's an explanation of the push in the direction you want to go - counter-steering. Counter steering video  counter-steering information

 How come they tell you to keep your head and eyes up when braking?
Go to motorcycle braking

 A ridercoach once asked me,  why motor cops kept such good posture on a motorcycle? As a smart ass answer, I said, "cause it looks pretty". The real answer is, See further, live longer and we want to use all three components of our balance triumvirate.

Too much information? Washington used Fredrich Von Steuben to train his continental army. Von Steuben commented that Americans need to know why they were to do things a certain way. Steuben realized and built his form of discipline around it. If a soldier asked why, and there was a good reason for it, then the soldier would ultimately obey the order.