Page 28 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

confused by all this stuff and beg an to wonder if my family was someho w
inferior. I am still ashamed of the memory of aski ng my dad to park around the

corner when he came to pick me up so my friends woul dn’t see our be at-up
green Plymouth that had a shot sus pen sion and an alarming habit of jum pi ng
lanes on the West Side Drive.
I was a mess. My chess life had fallen apart, my teacher di dn’t like me

anymore, I missed my friends, and my family didn’t have a do orman or a fanc y
car. On top of all this a pretty girl I had a crus h on at school had de velope d the
habit of hitting me over the head with her sho es, whi ch I didn’t realize (unt il
she told me many years later) was a sign that she shar ed my feelings . I was a

child in transition, and I needed some help get ting thr ough. A few weeks int o
the fall, Bruce saw that rushing thr ough mechan ical ches s anal ysis was no t
what I needed, and so he took a step back and reconcei ved our chess life. Our
lessons now included raucous speed ches s sessions with breaks to toss a footba ll

outside. We began to laugh and connect as hum an beings as we ha d in our fi st
sessions years before.
I went back to playing in Washingt on Squar e Park with my old buddi es.
The game became less haunted. I was hav ing fun again. Then Bruc e and I went

to work. We plunged deep into the hear t of the art, anal yzing compl ex
middlegame and endgame positions , study ing the classics, dev elopi ng my
technical understanding. We started do ing arduo us visual ization work, pl aying
blindfold chess games and worki ng thr ough long variations in our he ads ,

without moving the pieces.
Chess was different now. During tho se sum mer mont hs when I questioned
everything and decided to come back strong, I arrived at a commitment to
chess that was about much more than fun and glory. It was abo ut love and pa in

and passion and pushing myself to overcome. It might sound abs ur d, but I
believe that year, from eight to ni ne, was the de ni ng period of my life. I
responded to heartbreak with hard work. I was self-motivated and moved by a
powerful resolve. While a young bo y, I had been all promise. I onl y kne w

winning because I was better than all the other childr en and the re was no
pressure competing against adults. Now ther e was the kno wledge of my
mortality. I had lost to a kid, and ther e were other chi ldr en who were also
dangerous rivals.

I was still the highest-rated player for my age in the count ry, and whe n I
went to tournaments there was immense pr essur e. If I won, it was no bi g de al,