I've been practicing a lot over the last few days, particularly with the cards and recorded a new personal best today of 3mins 36seconds with 2 errors. Far from a world record but pretty good. I'm practicing with just my brain, as in, when I do the recall I am not re-ordering another pack of cards, just saying them out loud and then turning over to see if I was right. I know I would have got 100% right if I had re-ordered another pack as there were only 2 left over that I couldn't place.
I'm going to play around with things as they are at the moment and then go for a quick time with a re-ordered deck at the end. I'm sure I'll shave a few valuable seconds off that way as I will have other cards to remind me when there are blanks.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
2 Brain wave training sessions later
I completed my second session of brain wave training with Henry Hopking today and am feeling really good about it. It's hard to describe how it makes you feel exactly, but some of it's kind of out of body weird, some is like deep meditation and other bits make you feel totally euphoric!
My initial EEG showed a problem with my brain being stuck in a certain frequency. You get all wired up and then they monitor what your brain does in different situations. Basically, your brain waves should change depending on what you're doing. Mine were fine, apart from a 9-10hz range that was fixed no matter what I was doing which is quite abnormal. Goes a long way to explain my poor concentration and mental chatter so I hear. After the initial session, 2 home sessions and the one today it appears that my brain is now starting to move in the right direction and correct the abnormal pattern, which is good news :)
I have just practiced 5 packs of cards (not memorising, just viewing images in my head) and felt much better with it. Didn't have the mental noise going on like I normally do and found the images were coming to me easier. I was also able to focus more on the task and not keep thinking about how well I'm doing, how fast am I going etc.
So over all, very very pleased and have a lot of work to do, but can see good results coming in the future.
My initial EEG showed a problem with my brain being stuck in a certain frequency. You get all wired up and then they monitor what your brain does in different situations. Basically, your brain waves should change depending on what you're doing. Mine were fine, apart from a 9-10hz range that was fixed no matter what I was doing which is quite abnormal. Goes a long way to explain my poor concentration and mental chatter so I hear. After the initial session, 2 home sessions and the one today it appears that my brain is now starting to move in the right direction and correct the abnormal pattern, which is good news :)
I have just practiced 5 packs of cards (not memorising, just viewing images in my head) and felt much better with it. Didn't have the mental noise going on like I normally do and found the images were coming to me easier. I was also able to focus more on the task and not keep thinking about how well I'm doing, how fast am I going etc.
So over all, very very pleased and have a lot of work to do, but can see good results coming in the future.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Update by request
To he who requested this update.................you know who you are :)
Well, it's been a while but I have a very good excuse....................I really couldn't be arsed to write anything.........but now I can!
I've been training pretty well for a week or two. Going through a pack of cards at least once per day but aiming for more like 5 times per day. I'm getting a lot faster at seeing images and not doing any conversion in my head but there are still a few cards that aren't quite there yet.
My binary is getting pretty good too. Working through those most evenings in the same way as the cards and starting to see them pretty quickly. Still don't like looking at them in blocks though. I think i'll have to draw lines down my sheet in the next competition to break them up in to manageable blocks of 6 digits.
Looks like I'm meeting up with Darren Denholm from South Africa in January at my place in Stamford which will be a blast! Can't wait to see him. For those that don't know him, he's a great laugh and so hungry for knowledge it's unreal! We are talking about holding a free memory talk at a local school which could be good. Get a bit more interest in our unique sport :)
I'm having my first session with Henry Hopking on Friday this week. He is a mind guru and developed an AVE (Audio Visual Entertainment) machine with Dominic O'brien. I spoke to Dominic and he swears by the machine so I'm going to have 3 sessions to help balance my brain waves and help me get in to an optimised state for memorising when I need to. I have huge problems with my attention span and ability to focus so I know if he can help me with that my performances will improve dramatically. I've always thought that if I could just sit down and focus on a pack of cards properly I could cut a huge amount of time off my personal records.
I'll probably update some time after Friday and let you all know what the machine is like and if it starts to make any improvements.
Well, it's been a while but I have a very good excuse....................I really couldn't be arsed to write anything.........but now I can!
I've been training pretty well for a week or two. Going through a pack of cards at least once per day but aiming for more like 5 times per day. I'm getting a lot faster at seeing images and not doing any conversion in my head but there are still a few cards that aren't quite there yet.
My binary is getting pretty good too. Working through those most evenings in the same way as the cards and starting to see them pretty quickly. Still don't like looking at them in blocks though. I think i'll have to draw lines down my sheet in the next competition to break them up in to manageable blocks of 6 digits.
Looks like I'm meeting up with Darren Denholm from South Africa in January at my place in Stamford which will be a blast! Can't wait to see him. For those that don't know him, he's a great laugh and so hungry for knowledge it's unreal! We are talking about holding a free memory talk at a local school which could be good. Get a bit more interest in our unique sport :)
I'm having my first session with Henry Hopking on Friday this week. He is a mind guru and developed an AVE (Audio Visual Entertainment) machine with Dominic O'brien. I spoke to Dominic and he swears by the machine so I'm going to have 3 sessions to help balance my brain waves and help me get in to an optimised state for memorising when I need to. I have huge problems with my attention span and ability to focus so I know if he can help me with that my performances will improve dramatically. I've always thought that if I could just sit down and focus on a pack of cards properly I could cut a huge amount of time off my personal records.
I'll probably update some time after Friday and let you all know what the machine is like and if it starts to make any improvements.
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