I spent a whole lotta time this spring working on tight u-turns. When I first got my bike (last may, about a year and a half ago), I just couldn't do it at all.

One thing I found helpful when I was having trouble **thinking** that I could make a turn was to reach my knee out into the turn. This is something you still see people do, but much of what I've read lately advises against it because it decenters your weight (I took careful notice during the TDF and almost everyone DID do it, and also took careful notice at a local crit that had cat 1-4 riders (in different races of course), and maybe 30% of riders did and 70 did not...). Anyway, I find it helps initiate the turn more quickly.

As I've gotten a bit better at turning (it's still a skill I really need to work at), I find I'm using my shoulders a lot more -- not to "steer" the bike per se, at least not in the sense of "turning" the handlebar, but sort of weighting and unweighting either the inside or outside to control the line, if that makes sense (I may not be describing this clearly but it's not the same as turning the handlebars... if anyone gets what I'm trying to say perhaps they can explain it better??? ).