Last Updated on February 3, 2014 by James Dziezynski
I was inspired by the sumo wrestlers’ discipline, not so much their outfits.
A few months ago, I picked three activities that I wanted to improve upon in the New Year. With all that is going on in day-to-day life, it’s far too easy to let certain interests go stale. Thus, I made the conscious decision to elevate my skills in a few of my pastimes. I was curious to see which ones would be the most work, the most fun and potentially the most rewarding. Here were my criteria. I needed to select one activity from each category:
- Something I was naturally pretty good at, but wanted to get better
- Something that I enjoyed but never really understood
- Something that did NOT come naturally to me and was difficult, but for some reason I still liked
The first of these was easy: my guitar playing. I’m a fairly good musician (if you don’t take into account my awful voice). Because I haven’t been playing actively in a band for a few years now, I feel like it was a neglected talent, one that may currently be plateaued lower than its potential ceiling.
The second of these was chess. It’s one of those cultural barometers of intelligence and character. But if you can brush away the stuffy side, it’s a fascinating game. The fact it has been played for over 1,400 years means it has been dissected and analyzed to a high level. I never really understood a lot of the logic behind chess – the opening sequences, the traps and eventually, how chess can be a reflection of your own personality. Neat stuff – so that was the second choice.
The third activity, which fills the slot for something challenging and difficult to excel in was rock climbing. I’ve been climbing for about 20 years but the actual total hours I’ve put into the sport are low. It was an accessory skill for mountain climbing. It’s always been a point of frustration and part of that is due to the fact that I’m far from a natural. Hand-eye sports come pretty easy to me, but climbing was more challenging. Balance, mental focus and body movement are all fundamentally important skills in climbing. I don’t have the long, lean body made for climbing. It takes a lot of energy for me to muster boldness on high-exposed places and my head has a lot of chatter, thanks to a relentlessly buzzing inner voice. But I do enjoy climbing, so it was a good candidate for my last category.
After a few months of working on all of these activities, I’ve decided to assess the “phase 1” results. Here’s the rundown:
A lot of hours are going into these guitars. Fremont approves.
Guitar Playing
Though I have lapses in my playing from time to time, I have regularly played guitar since I initially learned in my teens. I’ll argue there’s nothing better for your playing then actually being in a dedicated band but it’s been at least 10 years since I had a regular group. My problem was that I excelled in a particular style — hard-rock progressive stuff — but really wanted to broaden my range. Specifically, I wanted to focus on finger-picked acoustic and playing fast, articulate leads on the electric.
Last summer, I invested in a decent Taylor acoustic for the first of these two tasks. Thankfully, finger picking came relatively easy, at least for the particular style I was pursuing. Rush and a few other bands I enjoy throw out some nice classical, folksy parts and I used those as my lessons. (If you are at all interested, I’m going to be posting a recording on my progress in the next few weeks.)
The second challenge was speedy lead guitar. I had always fancied myself a fast, accurate player but honestly never took the time to really breakdown my playing. Oh, what a humbling experience! A lot of my skill was hidden in distortion and with help from a few lessons from a teacher, I came to the realization that my playing was really sub-par for what I aimed to do. And as with many things, it’s often much tougher to go from “intermediate” to “advanced” than “beginner” to “intermediate”. It’s taken a lot of discipline and a cold, hard look at how sloppy my playing has been but I’m happy to see some very gradual improvement. I feel dedicated enough to stick with the program but it’s getting frustrating to see how long it takes to really do things the right way. Results are coming, just very slowly… so here, I am learning patience.
These chess pieces look good enough to eat.
Chess
This has probably been the most enjoyable enterprise because I knew so little about the game. There is a lot of confusion for the beginning student of chess. Obviously one must understand how the pieces move and the rules of the game but then one must learn the difference between strategy (the plan) and tactics (execution of the plan). Even now, I confess I’m not 100% sure what constitutes an official chess opening. By definition, it is the sequence of moves utilized by both players that can range from 4 – 10 moves per side. There are 20 potential first moves available to white, then 400 different positions that can occur after black has moved. After both sides have moved twice, there are 72,084 possible positions. After three moves each, there are over 9 million possible positions and after four moves per player, there are 288 billion possibilities. So there’s a lot to learn – and that’s only one phase of the game. There is also the mid game and end game.
I’ve been studying using a computer program and the lessons have been really enjoyable. It’s like learning a secret language. There are logical patterns to nearly every position but at the same time, it takes a creative mind to develop the pieces in a way that best suits their game and their personality. While the frustration has been mild at times (higher rated opponents, both human and computer, can mop the floor with me), it’s been fun and I have seen marginal improvement in my game.
Movement climbing gym on a quiet morning.
Climbing
At the onset of my experiment, I figure climbing would be the toughest of the three tasks. For one, it has the potential to inflict the most physical pain, especially since I’m not the most flexible dude in the world. The mental aspect is difficult as well. Leading a climb, even in the relative safety of a climbing gym, is a heady experience. There are some days where I’m just not up for the mindfulness needed to lead with confidence.
On the positive side, I’ve done well to enjoy my time at the climbing gym. Gyms of all types can be intimidating. It doesn’t matter the sport. There’s the mental aspect of putting all those people aside and getting on with. My actual climbing is improving, though I am beginning to see the immediate ceiling, no pun intended. The main problem I have with it is I am wildly inconsistent. Some days, I’m able to ace the tougher climbs in my ability range (11a – 11c) with no sweat. Other days, I’ll be stymied by a 10b and pump my arms out ten minutes into my session. It’s a strange sport with a lot of performance unknowns. Climbing progress has been fun but the few bad days have resonated more strongly than the other activities.
I’m not sure what I’m hoping to extract from these endeavors. I’ve found so much of the focus needed is more mental than physical – obviously with chess but also with climbing and music. It’s not just repetition but how engaged you can be with the task. With all these things, sometimes the hours just float by. Other times, I can’t seem to get my head to the task at hand as I worry about what else the day is to bring.
After another month or two, I hope to look back on my progress and see how it’s gone. I would encourage you to also try and improve or begin something along the same lines. I think as long as people have reasonable challenges to undertake, there’s huge benefits to both mind and body. If nothing else, it’s keeping me off the streets?
