Page 168 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

The beautiful thing about this appr oach to learni ng is that once we ha ve felt
the profound refinement of a skill, no matter ho w small it may be, we can the n

use that feeling as a beacon of quality as we expan d our focus ont o more and
more material. Once you know what good feels like, you can zero in on it, search
it out regardless of the pursuit. On a large scale, thi s is ho w I trans lated my
understanding of chess to the martial arts. On a smaller, more focused scale,

this is how I trained for the 2004 World C ham pi ons hi ps .
While this principle of penetrating the macro thr ough the micro is a critical
idea in the developmental process, it is also an absolut ely pi votal founda tion for
a great competitor. At the highest levels of any kind of compet itive di scipl ine ,

everyone is great. At this point the decisive factor is rarely who kno ws more,
but who dictates the tone of the battle. For thi s reason, almost witho ut
exception, champions are specialists who se styles emerge from pr ofound
awareness of their unique strengths, and who are exceedingl y ski lled at gui di ng

the battle in that direction.
With this in mind, my training for the 2004 World Cham pi ons hi ps woul d
have to be built around my core strengt hs . Sur e, I am a good athl ete, but
frankly there would be many fighters in Taiwan who were more gi fted tha n me

physically. Some would be stronger, some woul d be faster, some woul d ha ve
more endurance. But there would be no other fi er who coul d ke ep up with
me strategically. To win in the Chung Hwa Cup, I woul d hav e to br ing water
to their fire. I wouldn’t be successful making the fi s a test of spe ed and

acrobatics. I would have to read oppo nen ts and shut them down, conf ront the m
with strategies and refinements they coul dn’t imagine. To hav e any cha nc e in
the ring with him, I would have to dictate the tone of battle and make Che n
Ze-Cheng play chess with me.

I had one good thing going for me. As I des cribed in the end of Part II, my
main training partner in my preparations for the tour nam ent was my friend
Dan Caulfield. Dan is an incredible nat ur al athl ete and a lifetime martial artist.
Since childhood, a huge part of Dan’s life has been dev oted to expl oring the

outer reaches of his physical potential. As a boy growing up in rural New
Hampshire, he taught himself to jump from higher and higher sur faces unt il
he could comfortably leap off a thi rty-foot roof, land in a roll, and come up
running. If you point to a car, if he is in the mood, Dan will jump over it. If

you look at a steep cliff or a brick wall, Dan can fi e out ho w to climb it. If
you go hiking with Dan, he leaps from bo ul der to bo ul der up the mount ain