Page 154 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

Now that changed. I had an issue to work on and Fr ank woul d be the ide al
training partner. The first step I had to make was to recogni ze that the pr obl em

was mine, not Frank’s. There will always be creeps in the world, and I ha d to
learn how to deal with them with a cool head. Getting pi ssed off woul d ge t me
nowhere in life.
Once I started training with Frank agai n, I qui ckly realized that the reason I

got angry when he went after my neck was that I was scared. I didn’t kno w
how to handle it and thought I woul d get hur t. He was pl aying out side of the
rules so a natural defense mechan ism of mine was anger and right eous
indignation. Just like with Boris. So, fi st thi ngs fi st—I had to learn to de al

with neck attacks. There was a period of mont hs that I asked a few trus tworthy
training partners of mine to target my neck in Pus h Hands class. I go t us ed to
neutralizing these attacks. Then when ever Frank came int o the school, I sought
him out and we worked together. When ever he felt me cont rolling hi m, he

predictably started going after my neck. When thi s di dn’t work, he ’d expa nd
his target area, sometimes aiming at an eye, knee, or the gr oin. My go al was to
stay cool under increasingly bad condi tions .
After a year of this training, I went back to San Diego to def end my title at

the Nationals. Predictably enough, in the final s I faced off with the same guy as
the year before. The opening phase of the match was similar to our pr evious
meeting. I began by controlling hi m, neutralizing his aggr ession, bui ldi ng up
a lead. Then he got emotional and started thr owing head- but ts. My reaction

was very different this time. Instead of getting mad, I just rolled with hi s
attacks and threw him out of the ring. His tactics didn’t touch me emotiona lly,
and when unclouded, I was simpl y at a much hi gher level than hi m. It was
amazing how easy it all felt when I di dn’t take the b ait.

There were two components to thi s work. One related to my appr oach to
learning, the other to performance. On the learni ng side, I ha d to ge t
comfortable dealing with guys pl aying out side the rul es and targe ting my
neck, eyes, groin, etc. This involved some techni cal growth, and in orde r to

make those steps I had to recogni ze the relations hi p bet ween anger, ego, and
fear. I had to develop the habit of taking on my techni cal weaknes ses whe ne ver
someone pushed my limits instead of falling back into a self-pr otective
indignant pose. Once that adjustment was made, I was free to learn. If someone

got into my head, they were doing me a favor, expo sing a weaknes s. The y were