Page 141 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

CHAPTER 17

BUILDING YOUR TRIGGER

One of the biggest roadblocks to releasing the tension dur ing breaks of int ens e

competition or in any other kind of chal lengi ng env ironm ent is the fear of
whether we will be able to get it back. If get ting focused is hi t or miss, ho w
can we give up our focus once we’ve final ly go t it? Condi tioni ng to thi s
insecurity begins young. As children, we might be told to “conc ent rate” by

parents and teachers, and then be reprimanded if we look off int o the stars. So
the child learns to associate not focusing with bei ng “bad.” The resul t is tha t
we concentrate with everything we’ve got unt il we can’t withs tand the pr essur e
and have a meltdown. While later on in my career, I sometimes bl ew myself

out with intensity during a game, in my early scholastic ches s tour na ment s my
dad and I were very good at preserving my ener gy. Most of my young rivals ha d
coaches who treated tournaments like military camp. Teachers and pa rent s
would make kids analyze their games extensively bet ween rounds , trying to

wring a chess lesson out of every moment, whi le I woul d be out side ha ving a
catch with my dad or taking a nap. Maybe it is no accident that I tende d to
surge at the end of tournaments. M y po p i s a clever guy.
This tendency of competitors to exhau st them selves bet ween rounds of

tournaments is surprisingly widespr ead and very self-des truct ive. Whe ne ver I
visit scholastic chess events today, I see coaches trying to make the mselves feel
useful or showing off for parents by teaching studen ts long techni cal lessons
immediately following a two-hour gam e and an ho ur bef ore the next round. Le t

the kid rest! Fueling up is much more impo rtant than last-minut e cramming
—and at a higher level, the ability to recover will be pi votal. In long che ss
tournaments that may last for over two weeks , one of the most de cisive factors