Braking point
The braking point is the spot where you first apply the brakes before a corner, usually tied to a fixed marker like a board or crack.
Also called: brake point, brake marker
Your braking point is a promise you make to yourself: at this marker, the brakes go on. It is usually tied to something fixed, such as a distance board, a curb joint, a patch in the asphalt or a shadow, so you can hit it lap after lap rather than braking whenever it starts to feel scary.
Move it in small steps. Experienced coaches will suggest moving a braking point a car length at a time, never ten, and only once you are braking hard, settling the car and still arriving at turn-in with speed to spare. If you are coasting off the brakes before turn-in, you braked too early or too gently.
The common trap is chasing a later braking point while braking more timidly, so the car still slows in the same place and you have only made entry harder. A later point is only faster if you reach full braking quickly and release it cleanly into the corner.
Consistent braking points make the rest of the corner repeatable, and moving them in small, verified steps is one of the safest ways to find time.
Threshold braking finishes braking in a straight line, then turns. Trail braking releases the brake progressively as steering comes in, keeping the front tires loaded. It's an advanced skill: learn the straight-line version first.