Page 137 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

not my turn to move. Instead of feeling obl igat ed to stay compl etely focus ed on
the chess position while my opponen t tho ught , I beg an to let my mind release

some of the tension. I might think about the position in a more abs tract way,
or I might even walk away from the board and hav e a dr ink of water or wash
my face. When my opponent made hi s move, I woul d retur n to the bo ard with
renewed energy. I mmediately I started no ticing i mpr ovement in m y pl ay.

In the coming months, as I became more attuned to the qua litative
fluctuations of my thought processes, I found that if a thi nk of mine went over
fourteen minutes, it would often become repetitive and impr ecise. After
noticing this pattern, I learned to moni tor the effi ency of my thi nki ng. If it

started to falter, I would release everythi ng for a moment, recover, and the n
come back with a fresh slate. Now when faced with di ffi lt chess po sitions , I
could think for thirty or forty minut es at a very hi gh level, be caus e my
concentration was fueled by little breather s.

At LGE, they made a science of the gat her ing and release of intensity, and
found that, regardless of the discipl ine, the bet ter we are at recovering, the
greater potential we have to endur e and per form under stress. Tha t realization
is a good starting point. But how do we learn to let go? It is much easier to tell

someone to relax than to actually do it on the free-thr ow line in overtime of the
NBA playoffs or in the moments before making a career-de ni ng pr esent ation.
This is where the mind-body connection co mes in.
The physical conditioners at LGE taught me to do cardi ovascular int erval

training on a stationary bike that had a heart moni tor. I woul d ride a bi ke
keeping my RPMs over 100, at a resistance level that made my hear t rate go to
170 beats per minute after ten minut es of exertion. Then I woul d lower the
resistance level of the bike and go easy for a minut e—my hear t rate woul d

return to 144 or so. Then I woul d spr int agai n, at a very high level of
resistance, and my heart rate woul d reach 170 again after a minut e. Next I
would go easy for another minute before spr int ing agai n, and so on. My bo dy
and mind were undulating between har d work and release. The recovery time

of my heart got progressively shorter as I cont inued to train thi s way. As I go t
into better condition, it took more work to raise my heart rate, and less time to
lower my heart rate during rest: soon my rest intervals were onl y forty-fi e
seconds and my sprint times longer.

What is fascinating about this metho d of phy sical condi tioni ng is tha t after
just a few weeks I noticed a tangi bl e di fference in my abi lity to relax and