Page 180 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

take double outside position in training to avoid damaging the sho ul de r any
further. While I initially felt at a disadvantage giving Dan the unde rho oks ,

over time I became increasingly comfortable. I came up with some subt le ways
to crimp his leverage and I found that I coul d m ake the angl es work f or me.
In my final ten weeks of preparation, when training with any one othe r tha n
Dan, I felt completely dominant from the out side po sition. My weakne ss ha d

blossomed into a weapon that woul d prove critical for me in Taiwan. You see,
the Taiwanese are lightning-quick with thei r pummelin g and I made the
decision early in the tournament no t to fi it—do n’t pl ay the ir ga me. By
giving them that first position they were so used to fighting for, I mitigat ed a

large part of their training: the pum meling war. Then we woul d do ba ttle in
the setup I had become expert in, and that they hadn’t studi ed as de epl y. Thi s
happens all the time in chess at the highes t levels; top pl ayers di scover hi dde n
resources in opening positions that had been cons ider ed theo retically weak.

They become masters of a forgotten or undi scovered bat tleground and the n
guide opponents into the briar patch.
So my first opponent was very aggr essive but no thi ng he brought felt
dangerous. His pummeling was excellent and he came at me with tremendo us

confidence, but once I locked down on hi m from the out side his struc tur e felt a
little unsound, like a grand house with a flawed foundat ion. I kne w tha t if I
weathered his early attacks, I’d be fine. I crimped hi s attempt s to us e the
underhooks and edged him out of the ring a coupl e of times. I went up two

points in round one and just held the l ead.
Then I watched the Buffalo. Wow! Fi rst he bl ew the other fight er out of the
ring. Then, lightning-quick, he trapped both of the oppo nen t’s arms unde r hi s
left armpit, took the guy’s back, and flipped him over a deep leg. He

manhandled the guy, and looked unbeat able. At one po int after a thr ow it
looked as if he would fall but he somehow did a full spl it, caught himself, with
heel and toe, and just popped back up, get ting the full two po int s. Thi s was
my man. I had to nd a weakness but di dn’t see it.

My next match was Fixed Step. Not much pr obl em, except for the judge s.
Many points that I won, the scorekeeper didn’t record. Thi s was infur iating but
also hilarious. Imagine, the referee woul d signal that I’d won the po int but the
scorekeeper would neglect to write it do wn as if he’ d forgo tten or ha dn’t

noticed. This happened again and agai n. My teammates and father were
screaming about it, but nothing was done except that offi als woul d no d to