The Bicycle Approach to Life

 The Bicycle Approach to Life......& How You can use it to play even better chess as well as enjoy it more....

There was this story about this guy who was ultra-competitive and a real go-getter. When he was young, he started biking down the beach near his house. And when he started he would push super hard. Pedaling as hard as he could. No matter how hard he pedaled, he would never get lower than 43 minutes to finish the trail.

After a few weeks, he started getting less and less excited about going through that slog. He became tired. One day, he thought how about today I just take it easy, and go at a decent pace. He could enjoy the view and didn't need to strain himself. At the end, he looked down and couldn't believe his eyes. He took 45 minutes.

All that effort, strain and pain, just for an extra 2 minutes. It doesn't help consistency because you are more likely to stop doing things when they become tiring and when they feel like a slog.

For chess, its similar, training can be hard but while playing, its best to have an approach like that. You are going to be playing for 3-4 hours or more. Being in a strenuous state all that time is not only unhealthy but might not even be productive for your game.

This story is quite profound.

What thing are you currently doing that you could perhaps apply this idea to?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to do Calculation? VIDEO

  I did some guided calculation training with one of my students a few days ago. He had stopped classes for one year. I had no idea whether he could do this position. But he surprised me by being able to see about 7 moves deep without moving. I mentioned many calculation techniques like CCA, candidate sweeps and also what to do when facing resistance. Click the link and try solving together with us. CLICK HERE TO WATCH!
Read more

Puzzle from Grandmaster Preparation: Attack & Defense

Image
Black to move This link takes you to a video of my friend and I discussing the position. If the audio isn’t clear, below is a gist of the discussion. You will see us move pieces towards the end of the video. The first move I see is Rxe4 because I don’t like Ng5. Also coz the theme is bringing all your pieces into the attack. After 1….Nh4 2.f3, no more attack. You have to take drastic measures, can’t make quiet moves. This Knight can defend the White King. Basically use your Rook to eliminate one defender. Then you have a Knight and Queen against what looks like a lone king. I’m actually looking at 1…..Bb4 now. If 2.Qe2, then I have 2…Nh4 3.f3 forced take, take and win your exchange back with err some attack. But after 1….Bb4 2.Nc3. Don’t see anything. What if 1…Re4 2.de4 Bb4 3.Qe2 Nh4 4.f3 forced, then take on e1, 4….Bxe1 5.Rxe1 Nxf3+ 6.Kf2 Nxe1 7.Kxe1 Qh1 wins e4 pawn. If 7.Qxe1, then simply 7….Qe6 fork the pawns. Black is a pawn up with better winning chances...
Read more

Why I started this Blog? (My story)

This is my first post. Ever! I think a good way to start is to tell you how and why I decided to start writing a blog. I have 2 main reasons. Number 1 is to help you improve as a chess player. I will tell you how I got an IM norm and how you can too (Obviously if you are an IM or GM, I would learn from you). Number 2 is to help people (more applicable to kids) learn good values and lifelong character building lessons (e.g., you only fail when you fall and don’t get back up) by sharing my experiences from chess. This is something most Malaysian children find hard to experience in the classroom. I am going to combine reason 1 and reason 2 with a story now. I found out I was selected to go to Olympiad in early 2012 (around Jan). I was in University in the UK during that time. This was the ‘Opportunity’. I started training (I will tell you how I trained) every day, one session in the morning before 9 am class and another session at night before bed. I did this every day, even while ...
Read more