Page 185 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

I was down three points, and needed to come back. He won anothe r one . I
had to stop the slide now, right now, or I woul dn’t be abl e to catch up. I’d

created a move two months earlier that I tho ught might be deci sive in the
tournament. We called it the bear hug. I woul d allow my oppo ne nt to come
straight in on my chest with a hard attack. My two arms circled fast be hi nd
him and on the push I sank deep while pulling him down with me. I coul d also

crank left or right with it. When appl ied cleanly, it is di stur bi ng to ha ve thi s
done to you because it feels like you’ re falling int o a void and at the same time
your wrist is exploding—no choice but to go do wn. I let hi m in, be ar hug, put
him on the oor—two points.

He was up 5–3 but hadn’t ever seen the bear hug bef ore. I us ed it aga in, and
spun him right. Down 5–4. Now the judge came over and tried to mess with
my head. He told me to adjust my left-han d po sition on the starting po stur e—
just psychological manipulation. I smiled at the ref and kep t fi ing. Bear

hug again, it’s even. Now my opponen t stepped off the mats and came ba ck
with a different feeling. He was beginni ng to under stand. He change d hi s left
arm to trap my right if I bear-hugged . He had answers and I ha d ne w
variations. We were flowing now, moves coming fast like spe ed che ss in

Washington Square Park.
This Fixed Step game is a sublime exper ience. At fi st it feels fast and jolty,
like a painful guessing game, but then the play slows do wn in your mind. Over
the years, as I became more and more relaxed under thi s ki nd of fi e, and as my

body built up enough resistance that the bl ows didn’t bother me, the ga me
became completely mental. It almost always felt as tho ugh I was seeing or
feeling the action in more frames than my oppo nen ts, and so I coul d zoom in
on the tiniest details, like the blink of an eye or the beginni ng of an exha lation.

When our wrists connected, I us ual ly felt exactly what my oppo ne nt woul d
come at me with, and I learned how to appl y the subt lest of pr essur es in orde r
to dictate his intention. But this great Fixed Step fight er impo sed hi s own
reality. I couldn’t get in his head. Or every time I go t in he kicked me ba ck

out.
I tried the bear hug again but he jammed it. He’d fi ed it out . My own
teammates hadn’t learned how to par ry the bear hug in two mont hs of work.
This guy took seconds. I was down 7–5, witho ut much time left in the round. I

faked a hard attack, but then slipped in a right under ho ok and thr ew hi m away.
I was down one point with 1.1 seconds left. I needed to score fast and surge d