seriously, this guy's great

from waitzkin's account on winning the Tai Chi Chuan World Championships

Now I’m sinking on my attacks, playing with feints, tight combinations and misdirection. I’m using his skill against him. I noticed that if I fake inside, without even moving, he feels it and responds. He is incredibly sensitive to intention, so I start unbalancing him with invisible attacks that I pulse into but don’t actually manifest physically. I’m getting in his head. He feels it and gets aggressive, attacks hard and blasts me away. But now I’ve got him attacking, and I know I have a deeper root. I start receiving his blow and bouncing him off. Win a bunch of points. Then I make the mistake of coming in hard and he throws me on the floor—2 points. If I lower the sophistication of my game a hair, he destroys me. He slips into a zone and attacks hard.

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i especially like the idea of being sensitive to intention. to be able to fake somebody out completely you really have to be there in the moment. you can't fake left if your intentions are to fake left and then go right. you have to actually believe that you are going to go left. somewhere deep in your head you have to have the intention to go right after faking left but then that intention has to disappear, it can't be conscious, you must trust that when the time comes you'll remember. the other benefit this has, and i was thinking driving with a basketball, but now thinking hitting holes as a running back, is a better sense of patience. maybe when you fake left, if you are presently intending to go left, maybe he has left left open and now you can go left. had you planned to fake left go right, nothing would have happened.

you can liken this to lying as well. you must believe what you say.* in the back of your mind you are planning to change your mood, but first you must forget that and trust that you will remember it when the time comes. so you must have a lot of trust to lie well, i guess is what i'm saying, heh.

*i can lie perfectly if there is nothing behind my lie, if there's no pressure. if i have no reason to lie, then my conscience doesn't inhibit me like if i try to lie in order to hide something important. i always lie to my mother for fun, and then come clean again right away. but it's just the same concept of intention.