Page 187 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

Fixed and Moving Step finals ahead, bo th against the Buf falo. We’d be en
measuring each other for the past two day s. We bo th knew that thi s mammoth

international competition would come do wn to our own little war. In Moving
Step, he was a force of nature. He overwhel med his oppo nen ts with bul l rus he s
and highly evolved throws. His pummelin g was incredibl e. Dan and I ha d
broken his game down and saw that he integrated very pr ecise trips and sweeps

into most of his throws. I had to neu tralize hi s footwork and power, no t ge t
steamrolled out of the ring, count erpunch , and look for holes. Tha t was the
plan.
There was a one-hour break before all the final matches. Fi xed woul d be

first, which was good—I’d seen a weaknes s in Buf falo’s struct ur e and was
hoping to get in his head before the Moving. I was ready for war, listening to
“Lose Yourself” on the headphones. I felt myself steeling agai nst the world, like
a freight train that just had its brakes cut.

FIXED STEP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

Buffalo walked toward the Fixed Step ring, stopped jus t sho rt of me, looke d me
dead in the eyes, and screamed somethi ng pr imal, from the gut , one no te. A
chant called back from the bleachers and then the stadium expl ode d. Thi s was
their man. Our wrists touched and he was all aggr ession. Good. I ha d to us e
that. Keep him there. On the first po int he surged int o an attack tha t put me

airborne. Then he came right back at me, but I let hi m in, circled around hi s
elbows with my hands and sank deep. Bear hug. He went right do wn, two
points. At the beginning of every exchange we stood right leg forward, the

backs of our wrists connected, waiting for the ref ’s command to set pl ay in
motion. Those seconds of standoff are psychologi cally compl ex. You can calm
an opponent or challenge his ego, make him lus t for aggr ession. Over and over
I lulled him forward with tiny little open ings . He was like a bul l seeing red,
charging in hard and fast, and I was always gone bef ore he conne cted. I won

two points that the ref waved off. I heard peopl e gr um bl ing abo ut the
officiating, but at this point I didn’t care. I was a bit of a madman, de ep in the
zone. I knew that the only way to win was to win bi g. The bear hug was de adl y

against Buffalo’s power. He kept on hi tting the floor and seemed conf us ed.
Round one was a blowout.