Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Just watched a video Interview: Josh Waitzkin. He's a nice guy and touches a lot of interesting areas - static vs. dynamic learners - catering to personal learning styles - learning from loss - accepting and learning from all emotions being encountered - analysing random breakthroughs for their technical basis - infinite learning - using someone's strengths against them - creating and taking advantage of micro patterns of behaviour in others - deconstructing and unlearning one's own knowledge and habits - recognising that repeated failures may have a root cause that is manifested both technically and psychologically - beginners mind - less attachment to ego and more focus on the value and struggle of the constant learning process - taking advantage of (as my tai chi school puts it "double weighted") stances in an opponent - about being in the zone blending unconsious and conscious minds - technical prowess integrating into a flow at a higher level.

He was a little abstract throughout but no doubt nails it down a bit more in his book. There is more that he could have emphasised, like the importance of listening. And body posture. He didn't mention relaxation, which is a huge component of my thinking in this area. His mention of yin yang interplay treated "retreat" as a tactical creation of a micro pattern rather than as part of a more postural, positional and Taoist advantage - though no doubt he knows about that stuff.

I'd love to see a video of his push hands sessions to see how much force he actually needs to use, or whether, as we believe in the Cheng man Ching school, that the lightest touch can deflect a thousand ounces.

-Andy

www.atug.com/andytaichi