Page 54 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

CHAPTER 6

THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Beginning when I was eighteen years old, I spen t four years coachi ng a gr oup

of talented young chess students at Publ ic School 116 in New York City. The
class usually consisted of about fifteen childr en, but the core of the team was a
group of six second-graders, all friends , all ent hus iastic, spi rited learne rs who se
rowdiness was offset by a passion for chess. I loved tho se kids . We ha d

wonderful times as I watched them grow, and eventual ly the team be came city
champions, state champions, placed second in the ki nder garten thr ough fi th
grade National Championship in 1999, and two of them won indi vidua l
national titles. I’m sure that over the years I learned as much from tho se ki ds as

they learned from me. There was somethi ng so refreshi ng in seeing the ir
innate, unsullied curiosity in cont rast to the material ambi tion tha t moved
most of my older chess rivals.
One idea I taught was the importance of regaining presence and clarity of

mind after making a serious error. Thi s is a hard lesson for all compe titors and
performers. The first mistake rarely proves disastrous , but the do wnw ard spi ral
of the second, third, and fourth error creates a devastating chai n reaction. Any
sports fan has seen professional footbal l, basketball, and baseball games won

and lost because of a shift in psychologi cal adv antage. Peopl e spe ak abo ut
momentum as if it were an entity of its own, an unpr edictable pl ayer on the
field, and from my own competitive exper ience, I can vouch for it seeming tha t
way. The key is to bring that player ont o your team by ridi ng the psycho logi cal

wave when it is behind you, and snap pi ng back into a fresh presence whe n your
clarity of mind begins to be swept away.
With young chess players, the do wnw ard spi ral dominat es compe titive
lives. In game after game, beginner s fall to pieces after making the fi st