Page 182 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

DAY 2

Sunday morning, 8 A.M. We arrived at the stadium in time for an unhap py

surprise. The Taiwanese officials had created a separate tour na ment for
foreigners and scheduled to run it bef ore the cham pi ons hi p rounds . I was
informed that participation was mandat ory. I asked whet her thi s coul d take
place after the main event and was told that it was impo ssibl e. Thi s abs ur d
tournament within the tournament clearly had the funct ion of exha us ting and

injuring foreigners who were still compet ing for medals agai nst the Taiwane se
in the Championship. A time-consum ing protest ens ued with a tremendo us
language barrier eventually being br idged by my teacher, who fortuna tely ha d

some weight. It was agreed, finally, that those of us who were still in the main
competition could take part after our matches.
I had two fights left in each division to win. First was Moving semifi ls,
against the number one fighter from the tough Tainan school. Moving was hi s
specialty and he came right at me, elbows tight in the pumme ling, fast,

persistent, putting the cardio load on me. He attacked early and I circled out
but stepped on the line. My instinct s were off—I tho ught I was well in
bounds, but was wrong. On our mats at home I woul d have been in. Bad move.

Down 1–0. We went back at it. I let hi m pus h me to the edge of the ring,
baiting him, and exploded into a reversal that put hi m inch es from the line ,
but he had a deep root and wouldn’t go out . Then I switched gear s and went on
the offensive, pressuring him, using the Anaco nda techni que I had de velope d
three months earlier—inching hi m out , surgi ng, tight ening the no ose

whenever he tried to squirm away, clampi ng do wn when he exha led. In the
final seconds I caught him with a beaut iful thr ow but my sho ul der go t jammed
on the landing.

I was on my back between rounds , br eathi ng har d. Thi s may ha ve ha d a
telling psychological effect. In preparation the last few mont hs , we di d a lot of
interval training, building sprint time in the ring and worki ng on recovery. We
would play one-minute rounds with one- minut e breaks bet ween, sometimes
going fifteen or twenty rounds like that , four of us playing, alterna ting pl ay

and recovery. My idea was to be abl e to hav e a wild spr int , dr ain myself
completely, and know I could come back in the next round even if I felt like
death baked over.