Update

Memory fans,

For those who read this regularly I apologise for not posting for a while. I've been going through a break up and various other issues that has meant I've not done any training for a while and am very demotivated at the moment. I can't focus on my brain right now, however, I will be getting back in to mind sports some time in 2008 I hope.

Stupid brain

For those that know me and read this blog regularly (if there is anyone!) I am feeling pretty crap again. I have lost motivation and can't seem to get my brain quiet enough to do anything, let alone memory training.

I go through these bouts of depression with no rhyme or reason to them. Hopefully it will only last a little while like normal.

It's a bit silly because I have nothing to be down about! My brain is in better form than ever with personal bests becoming a regular thing when I do train, my home life is good and my work is fine. Perhaps there is something missing in my life I'm not consciously aware of...........hmmmmmm

And after only 1 day............

Wow, the exercise I was talking about yesterday is amazing. It has helped me to refine my images so much it's unreal! I have been performing more consistently and I'm really happy. I've picked up on certain errors that I make with certain combinations and working out ways to correct that so the images are more memorable.

I did 2 packs of cards today. The first one was recalled from my mind and memorised in 3min 12sec. I made 3 mistakes on the recall which is pretty good considering I had no cards to refer to. The second deck was in 3min 1sec and I reordered a deck of cards in 2min 49sec. It was amazing. The images were so clear and I just picked the cards up one after the other with no gaps at all. Normally I have loads of gaps that I have to rebuild and that's what takes me over my 5 min time limit.

Very pleased with that and I'm going to keep working hard refining the images, then it's down to some hardcore speed training to perfect it all :)

The quest for perfection

Whist ironing tonight I had an idea that I've started to play with tonight. I was thinking over the couple of decks of cards I was memorising earlier and examining the mistakes I was making. I decided to have a go at another few cards and make a note of certain characteristics on an excel spreadsheet as I recalled to see what aspects of the imagery my brain likes to remember.

It is very interesting and very important I feel for my development. I've always tried to make the best images but never really looked in this much detail at WHY I could remember some things so clearly, and get blanks on others.

I want to put several hundred pieces of data in there to make it a worth while exercise which will take a few days but it will be really interesting to see the results. I have called this my MESS theory. As long as I make a MESS of my images (Movement, Exaggeration, Size and Strangeness) they seem to work well. A higher quality of MESS means I get better images.

I have always believed that there is a perfect system for making images and I think this will go a long way to achieving it.

Not very well :(

I've been ill for the last 2 weeks now. Bad stomach and generally feeling rough so I've got the next 2 days off work and going to see the Dr on Thursday to get myself sorted.

I did some card practice today. It was really good! I managed to do a 2min 37second full deck without error. This was with reordering another deck in under 5 mins according to competition rules. It's the first time I've gone under 3 mins and reordered the deck properly in the 5 min deadline so I'm really pleased with that. It took me 7 attempts with 3 that were only a couple of cards away but I made it! I've just got to get used to going for 5 mins recall and not the 10 I foolishly was working to before.

Even though I'm not going to be in Germany this weekend I'm very excited that it is all happening and can't wait to see the results. Ben must still be on a huge high after his excellent performance at the UK championships so he's my favourite for the day.

Headache + cards = failure

I thought to myself "James, you're not feeling very well, don't expect a world record or anything silly." I wanted to just get through the cards with no errors, which I did no problem is a relaxing 4 minutes. The problem was the recall which again took over the 5 minute limit. That's the bit I need to practice most, not the memorising!

Been feeling rough for a week now, not good for memorising :(

5 Min Numbers

I managed to get some valuable time with Dominic O'brien on Saturday. He suggested that I attempt my 5 minute number attempts on a single sighting. This would give me more time to form good quality images instead of forming a not so good one and having to review it. His 300+ attempt was done this way so he tells me, just one single sighting.

I did a quick practice tonight and managed to do 40 digits with no errors in 60 seconds (nothing amazing). This would mean I could end up with a theoretical 200 digit score at the end if that pace was kept up.

The images were quite easy to form at that speed and the recall on 40 digits was very easy, no blanks, no forced recall. So, I intend to practice this way and see how well I get on over 120 digits. I think it's just about confidence at that amount. It feels fairly easy, but we'll have to wait and see.

I saw it, I saw it with my own eyes!

Just when you need Ben Pridmore to pull out the most amazing world record in front of a huge TV crew from channel 5 he goes and does an absolutely ridiculous time. As in, it's just stupid, I don't even want to write it down......................But I will.

A whole pack of cards in 26.(something not very high) seconds. Amazing. The bar has been raised again and I'm confident it will be a very very long time before anyone else gets close to that.

We had a really good time. Ended up sharing a room with Ben picking up some last minute tips. I broke 5 (maybe six??) of my personal bests on the day so can't complain at that. Improving and finding the events easier every time so very pleased over all. Finished up in 3rd place with a nice trophy and a cheque for £100 which more than covers my costs of getting there.

Dominic O'brien and Tony Buzan were both on hand too with some words of wisdom for us all. Great to see them both again. Dominic is talking about competing next year which will be great to see. I have a lot of practice to do between now and then. I think I'll have a day off, but I'll probably end up doing some training tonight :)

Excitement!

So, not only is my good friend Ben Pridmore going to be competing on Saturday but Dominic O'brien will be there too! Not competing sadly but will be great to see him again.

I think I'm well prepared, using a few new routes for some events so will have to see how that goes. Feeling good about it all, although, I fear excitement will kick in and ruin a good nights sleep.

Will be great to see Boris Konrad again too. Had a great laugh with him at WMC 2006.

Will post results soon memory fans!

The enemy of everyone

I had a few goes at spoken numbers today with a slight variation on the method I was using before. It's hard to explain but it goes something along the lines of holding the image of the last 4 digits in my head whilst the next 2 are being read out (this gains me an extra 2 seconds of visualisation) before creating the next image from the block of 4 digits being read out next. It's too complicated to explain properly but I was please with the following new personal best:

Random spoken digits (1 second per digit) 32 digits memorised without error.

I know most people dread this event, but I'm really starting to like it. It's a great point scorer if you can get anything above 30 digits. Still room to go further but pleased with the new personal best.

Had a bad practice with the random digits. Was trying to go faster than I normally like to try and speed things up but I ended up with very fuzzy images and didn't get very far.

Better get practicing!

It turns out I'm going now thanks to Phil Chambers. He's going to sub me for the trip so I don't have to worry about finances which is a big relief. Just got to get some practice in before the competition now! Will be great to compete with Ben again, well, more watch him than compete with him.

I really want to get a good score on the 5 minute numbers and to be able to get a deck done in under 5 mins now. It's getting annoying! I'm good for 120 digits I think for Saturday and I've done the re-ordering of the cards in a good time too so pleased with all that.

Really excited now!

UK Championships

I'm a bit up in the air about going to the competition on Saturday next week. I haven't really done much practice and I'm not feeling too good at the moment either. Got lots on and don't really fancy spending cash at a time when I have none either. I'll see how I feel closer to the time..........

German Competition simon reinhard + new personal best

Wow........Simon Reinhard has been working hard! Very impressive and congratulations to him for beating the still very impressive World Champion.

Like Ben, I have really got the competition bug and am really looking forward to the next UK competition. I've got my sights set on 200 digits in 5 minutes now. Not for the next event, but I've worked some times out and I don't think it will be long until I can do it. Over 300 though is just crazy!

..............................................

Didn't want to write a second post so tagging this on to the first! Just set a new personal best in the numbers:

110 digits in 5 minutes - No errors.

I memorised 120 quite comfortably but memorised a 57 instead of a 27 and ended up with 110 which is OK.

New personal best on 5 minute numbers

Using my new review system today I thought I'd have an official crack at my 5 minute number personal best. It is so much easier, and although it didn't go 100% according to plan (I had to check 8 digits on paper to make sure they were right) the end result was as follows:

108 random digits, memorised in 5 minutes, no errors.

It felt really quite easy and I'm looking at a realistic 120 with no errors in the next couple of weeks. I can relax so much more because I just keep going up to when the clock stops, no re-reading of anything.

Card reordering

I have been working today on the fastest way to reorder a deck of cards after they have been memorised. Those in the know will remember my annoyance at thinking I had a leisurely 10 minutes which turned out to be 5 minutes at Cambridge.

So, I memorised a deck as normal and got on to the ordering of the deck. I found the fastest way for me by a long way is to put the cards in front of me in strips i.e. all the hearts then in another line all the diamonds etc. and then pick the cards from that. The shuffling through the cards lost so much time it wasn't practical.

For the first time I managed to order a deck I had memorised previously in a little under 3:40 seconds which was satisfying. Enough time to go through again and spot any errors.

Germany this weekend

I'm going to be in Germany when the championships is happening! However, I will be 5 hours away at the Nurburgring so won't get to see any of it :(

I hope that Ben can go as I'm really keen to see how much his hard work has paid off.

I need to get my head down more before the UK Championships in July if I want to get moving up the rankings. I'm confident in the new ways I'm doing things which has involved changing the way I recall things mostly, not the actual memorising itself. Doing my first recall when I've filled one of my roman rooms in my head is working very very well and increasing my confidence greatly. I can picture being able to go through 2 rooms (80 digits or 40 cards etc) in one go and then doing a mental review of both rooms very soon and being accurate. So much of getting this right is about belief and trust. I'm learning now to see each challenge as a series of rooms for me to fill, not "oh my god! I've got to use 20 rooms for all of that!" and talking myself out of it.

Excited to see the results from Germany so roll on weekend :)

New Idea

I've not been posting a lot recently. I've been very busy with various things and memory training has fallen by the wayside. However, I did play around with a new idea I had based on my problems reordering a deck fast enough in Cambridge.

I had no problem remembering the cards, I just couldn't get them in order fast enough so I needed a new method. I've come up with a way which is much faster for me.

What I'm doing is memorising the deck as normal and then on the recall take each card one at a time and put it in place instead of going from the start and finding the first card. So, I'll go - Ace of hearts, near the end, 2 of hearts at the start, 3 of hearts just after that etc. until I've built up the basics of the deck order. I should end up with 26 pairs of cards that are basically in order then it's a simple matter of picking up the 26 pairs in order to build the complete deck.

My other idea was to take the first 26 cards and lay them out and then match the pairs in any random order then then put the whole deck together at the end based on the 26 pairs.

It's very hard to explain but I can move through the cards a lot faster this way and will be able to put the deck back together much faster I believe. I had a spare 5 minutes (literally!) before work this morning and memorised a quick 20 cards (1 room for me) and then flipped through an ordered deck to find the pairs and put the deck together as above. It worked really well.

Birthday tomorrow

It's my birthday tomorrow and I wanted to have one last rant whilst I'm still 27. I came to the conclusion last night that I hate most people. I was driving through town to pick my girlfriend up and was chased down the road by 2 pikey chavs shouting abuse at me! Of course, I stopped and put the car in reverse with the full intent to run them both over to teach them a lesson but thought better of it. I'm not sure if they would let me memorise cards in jail for 20 years.

On the way home, on the same corner, another guy yelled at the car again, this time with his top up exposing his lard. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that most people are shit and deserve to be hated until they can prove themselves worthy of being liked.

What happened to being nice and helping old ladies across the street and listening to their stories of how they rationed in the war? The youth of today........guilty until proven innocent I say.

I'm off to go and start random fights with people in hoodies for looking at my girlfriend, or if they didn't look at her, ask them why they didn't and start a fight anyway.

Intital practice with mental review

I had a go at a quick 80 digits this morning followed by a 40 digit burst to test how long it takes for me to do the mental review and not re-read any of the numbers I was memorising. I can safely say It is a much better way for me to be working. My error rate was perfect and my speed (had I carried on at that pace) would have allowed me to get a fairly comfortable 166 digits in 5 minutes.

I could recall the number (all 120 digits) after 1 mental review 15 minutes later which gave me great confidence too for the longer events. I need to get a new review plan together now to accommodate the new system as I think I will need a lot less time than I used to.

Learn and remember

I'm working my way through Charles Garavan's book - Learn and Remember for Leaving Certificate which he generously gave to me in return for some feedback on the contents. I'm only 2 chapters in and I'm already thinking about how it can help me with not just regular day to day learning but also my training for competition.

There is a very interesting section on reading information and remembering it. The short version is that if you read information it is not as good as remembering it from your brain i.e. don't keep re-reading information, test yourself on it from your memory. The theory goes that your brain will remember this much clearer and make it more relevant and consequently you will have greater recall.

I'm going to play around with this on the different events we do in competition. I'll try reading through the first 40 digits as normal and instead of going back over the numbers, just close my eyes and see all the images in their location again before moving on to line 2 and repeating. I'm excited to see how this will impact my results.

More soon memory fans

Just how much did Cambridge take out of me?!

After my post this morning I had to go back to sleep and didn't get up until 3pm. It's not like I got back late either, I was asleep last night by 11!

I only hope that this is pushing my brain to new heights and not destroying it :)

Great work by Simon Orton getting the results up so quickly. I've only moved up 2 places though! If I'd scored 80 on the 5 minute digits I would have jumped quite a bit. It seems there isn't much between in terms of points between positions 140 and 100. I'll get there next time.

The morning after Cambridge 2007

I'm so tired. On the drive home last night I could have just stopped in the car and slept all night at the side of the road. It was even more tiring that WMC for some reason. We did have time issues so we were back to back on some events which didn't give much time to relax.

It was a great day all in all though. It was filled with some moments of great happiness and deep disappointment for me. I performed very well on some events and very poorly on the ones I'd practiced most which was a bit strange. That's the way it goes sometimes though but at least I now have something to build on and some great ideas to change my training at home.

I also realised that I've been pushing myself too hard. I'm expecting to get excellent scores in a comparatively short amount of time which generally doesn't happen. I'm looking to put steady progress markers in place so I don't jump from 100 digits to 400 overnight and get very annoyed making mistakes along the way.

I can't remember any of my scores but they will be posted soon somewhere so I'll have to scrutinise in more detail in the next few days. I said I'd take a few days off but what did I do first thing this morning? Started reviewing some parts of books I've got on memory and planning to do a few decks of cards this afternoon. When will I ever learn to give my brain a break!

Thanks to everyone who was at the event. The helpers were excellent and got the marking done in record time which is always great for the competitors. Big thanks to everyone who competed. Everyone is so supportive and helps everyone out so lets get training for the next one guys!!

The day before Cambridge 2007

I've been going through the routes I'm going to use for the different events tomorrow. All of my goals are in place and I know what I'm going for so I shouldn't be too nervous on the day. I think I'm more excited than anything. Hopefully it won't affect my sleep too much like it did at WMC last year. I had to struggle through day 1 with only a few hours sleep which was horrible.

I still think there should be lots more competitions. I'd love to do one every couple of months really so I can get used to the format and competing with others under pressure. I think because there are only a couple of competitions per year the pressure is so much more because you have to wait ages until you get another go to make up for any mistakes.

Hopefully mistakes won't come in to it this year though. I've been doing well in practice and if I can perform up to that standard I should get along fine. I'm quite relaxed about it all at the moment, which is strange for me. I normally get all worked up for no reason about anything at any opportunity!!

Results will of course be posted here but they will be on the WMC website before probably.

Not long to go!

Got a bit of practice in today which went OK. Did the 5 minute numbers in true competition style and got a fairly respectable 92 digits correct. I read through the first 80 digits 3 times and then the last 12 twice. I took it fairly slowly to try and account for nerves in the competition so I think a score of 90-100 is achievable for next weekend. If I've read through the first 80 fast, I'll go for 120 and see how I get on. As long as I get better than 66 though, I'll be happy.

Henry Hopking (my brain training guru) has started a blog which will be full of useful information as time goes by so drop by and take a look http://thebraintrainingblog.blogspot.com

USA Memory Championship

I've finally managed to find a video of the 2007 competition to watch and wanted to make my observations of it. I don't know how well a competition in this format would work in the UK. I just don't think there is enough to keep the interest of people who aren't involved in the memory scene. I found myself getting a little bored which I was really surprised about. I mean, I must be one of the most addicted memory geeks in the universe so that says a lot. There wasn't enough to capture my interest. There is only so much fun to be taken out of watching a line of people read out what cards they have memorised or a long list of words.

Memory competitions could become a great area of interest for TV but I can't see it going far, certainly not in the UK, in the format it is in. It needs to be more visual somehow.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert on how to get people to watch the events on TV but I don't really like the format personally.

Perhaps I had built it up in my own mind too much? Perhaps I'm not the best person to be commenting because of my connection to the events? Anyway, I didn't want to upset anyone with my comments but I just think more needs to be done to get it to a UK audience.

New rooms

I finished off most of my practice yesterday with some of the memory rooms I use that I'm not 100% familiar with. It all went pretty well, no real changed need I think.

I'm still unsure as to what to go for in my speed numbers round in Cambridge. I did a couple of attempts yesterday for 100 digits and made 1 mistake on one and 2 on the other. Not bad, but not good enough! I think I may go for a safe 80 digits and then build that score up in Germany in a few months.

It was very inspirational to hear Ben getting to the 25 second mark on the speed cards. It seems like an impossible feat but as I practice, I see seconds come off my times so if I keep it up I hope to be somewhere near him one day!

Sprint practice today

I thought I'd mix it up a bit today and go for some sprint times i.e. How fast can I memorise 40 digits and keep doing that until I got to a good time. I was very surprised at what 6 goes at this could achieve.

The first 2 goes were a bit poor, around 45-50 seconds each with up to 8 errors. Third and forth goes were much better with only 2 digits wrong in each and in 40 seconds. The last effort was 40 digits, no errors in 34.65 seconds which I was really surprised with. I didn't think I could go that fast and have any quality of recall at all. So, it makes me wonder if I should go through 2 lines at that sort of speed and then do a good review and keep going that way?

Going to study in the sunshine :)

Lunch time practice

I've been trying to work out what is a good time for me to memorise each block of 40 digits on a line in the random numbers event. It has to be quick enough to get a good score but slow enough to register the images properly.

I managed to do 40 digits in 60 seconds with no problems at all on the recall. This was a single sighting so no review going on. That should be fast enough to get a half decent score if I did the second line at the same pace and then reviewed quickly over them a couple of times.

I'm still unsure about what to go for at Cambridge. My brain is saying "go for something sensible like 100 and then get the better scores in Germany when you get 2 attempts" but my 'big kahuna' part of my brain is saying "go for it! go for 200 digits you big fairy!" I'll have to see how confident I'm feeling on the day. As long as I get more than 66 (previous best in competition) I'll be happy that I am progressing.

Cambridge Prep

Finally got around to figuring out exactly what I'm going to attempt at Cambridge and get my routes sorted for each event. I went through it last night and it feels nice to know what event will be going where in my head.

I'm still not sure if I should sleep over in Cambridge the night before so I don't have to drive an hour that morning to the event or not. I don't think it will make a huge difference, I'm normally up at stupid o'clock every morning anyway.

My main goal at the event is to beat all of my previous scores in all of the events. I'm not really competing for a place, just against myself. I know I'm capable of doing significantly better that I did at WMC so as long as I don't make any silly mistakes I'll be happy.

5 minute numbers

I'm getting much better at this event now. I did 116 digits with only 1 error in the first row of 40 tonight. I was really annoying, I thought I had everything perfect but I memorised 43 instead of 73 but hey. At least I know now that I can form good images at that speed.

I memorised the first 40, then reviewed it, then went on to the second line and did the same again. I did a third pass on the first 2 lines and then when through the last line twice pretty fast.

It worked well, felt confident and I was reviewing much faster. Not really looking at the numbers (hence the mistake!) more flipping through the digits at speed and seeing the images on the route than doing the conversions again.

Onwards and upwards. 120 should be on the cards soon enough but I don't know what I should go for at Cambridge with only 1 attempt. I may practice 120 and then just go for a fairly safe 100.

Trying something new

I was thinking last night of how to improve my 5 minute numbers scores and came up with something I'm going to play around with over the next few days.

I seem to have pretty good recall after 2 reviews and great recall after 3, so, I'm going to play around with the idea of going through the first 80 digits (2 lines) three times and then going for the last line in a single sighting. My cunning part of the plan is on the recall sheet to write the last line FIRST as this should still be fresh in my memory and then go back to the start of line 1 where my longer term memory should have stored everything OK. This should ensure I get a fairly safe score of at least 80.

It's a bit controversial but I guess if it works, who cares! I'm not sure if anyone else does it this way but I think it's worth a crack to see if it makes any difference. Once I get faster I can use the same system with 3 lines, then 4 etc always seeing the last line only once and writing it down first.

I'll let you know memory fans

(Slightly) New 5 min numbers personal best

I got in from work and had 2 attempts at the 5 minute numbers round. First attempt wasn't too good. 104 digits with 6 errors but the second attempt was much better:
104 digits - 5 minutes - no errors

So it's an improvement of 4 digits on my previous best of 100, but an improvement all the same. I'm pleased with that, it took me a while to get past 100 digits and now I've done it 3 times with no errors on my last 4 attempts.

Don't tell anyone but.........

I've just spent the last 40 minutes at work looking at http://web.archive.org

It takes a snap shot of websites from years ago and when you put in the site you want, it goes all the way back to 1996!
I've been looking at www.andibell.net from every update he's ever done! Some great stuff on there, lots of tips etc. and I really hope he puts something back up there full time. The Java bits don't work but the text is more than enough to keep interested!

Good morning practice

Started with a 100 digit attempt in 5 minutes which I did without error. Only the second time I've done it but this time was a lot more comfortable. The recall was easy, had no gaps I had to come back to. I think I recalled the number back in 2.5 minutes.

Also, did a great, but slightly annoying deck of speed cards. Would have been a new personal best of 2:38 but I had one reversal. King of Clubs/Jack of Spades was the correct order, but I had them the other way around. Other than that, there was only 4 gaps that were quickly filled so very confident I can go under 2:30 in the next few attempts.

New personal best on speed cards

Did a really good speed cards practice tonight. First attempt was 2:20 but had lots of gaps, second attempt was 2:40, which has fewer gaps, but still got about 9 cards wrong, final attempt was a new personal best of 2:58 with no errors which I'm so pleased about! First time under 3 minutes!

The recall was very easy too. I think only 3 cards in the end weren't placed which were easy to track back to their locations. Very happy tonight :)

I attempted 104 digits in 5 mins too but had 6 errors on both the attempts I made. Not too fussed about that, I know I need to practice more so it's just down to hard work now.

Time for a curry I think.

Finally!

Had a practice today at the 5 minute numbers event and cracked the 100 digit barrier for the first time with no errors. It feels good to have finally done it! So the new personal best is 100 digits in 5 minutes with no mistakes.

Had a pretty good go with the cards too. Did a good time of 2mins 49 seconds but made 2 errors. Very encouraging though. I can see getting down to 2mins 30 seconds with no errors pretty soon. Hopefully by the time Cambridge comes around I should be somewhere around the 2:30 mark with the cards and 120ish digits on the random numbers.

Bahrain you say......

"Next years World Memory Championships will be held in London!" Hooray the crowd roared as these beautiful words rolled of the Buzan tongue!

Hmmmm, the last time I checked, and things might have moved a bit, but I'm sure Bahrain is not in London. In fact, I was shocked to hear it wasn't even in England! Hear my yells fellow memorisers, we have been mislead! They will tell you it's in London, put you on a plane, then fly you to a far off country and force you to memorise under lock and key....................It's the truth.

I for one am not a good flyer at all and will also not be able to afford to go so it looks like this years WMC is out for me. Damn them all!

I am gutted, but at least I get another years training in and a couple of Cambridge events.

Great practice tonight

Tonight must have been the most satisfying training session I've ever done. I broke my speed card personal best twice, back to back. I had 3 attempts at 52 cards and re-ordered a deck afterwards and produced the following results:

Deck 1 - 0 errors in 3:27
Deck 2 - 0 errors in 3:09 (Personal best)
Deck 3 - 0 errors in 3:04 (Personal best)

I was over the moon with that. 3 perfect decks in 3 good times. I'd be happy with 3 mins in competition any day with no errors. I can start to feel things getting a lot easier now. Things are flowing a lot better and I'm starting to get a very quiet mind when I'm doing it now. I'm not narrating as much, just letting the pairs of images take their place and moving on. I'm making a point of not skipping back and checking that I've memorised something, just keeping going and trusting my brain.

All in all, very happy and getting more and more confident as the days go by. I'm going to try and do 3 decks every night but in reality, I'll probably end up doing it about 3-4 times per week.

Remember the routes!

I've been working on my routes today. I have a lot that I use for practice but I want to get to know lots of them very well. That's what I'm working on. Getting to know all the routes in my head so I can just pick one, and go for it! It will help my practice too as I'm planning to go for 3 packs per day using alternating routes.

Using the roman room system it makes things easier because you only have to think of a room you know to get 10 stages, not 10 stages including the room if that makes sense so it's not been that hard really.

Onwards and upwards..........

All rested, back in the game

After a few days off I've come back fighting fit and more determined than ever. I did some card practice last night which went pretty well. Did a deck in 3:27, 10 seconds over my personal best without much difficulty. After that I went for a crazy 2:20 just to see what I absorbed and what got left behind. I made 25 errors! But hey, I got half right, so I'm doing something right on some of them.

I've got to get working on these speed numbers again. I'm sure I'll make good progress once I defeat my mental barriers and finally believe in my memory after so many years of it failing me.

Not long until Cambridge now. Really looking forward to it and getting some new figures next to my name in the rankings. I hope to be able to double most of my WMC scores, but we shall see.

The break

I've had a few days of memory training as I've felt like my mind was getting a bit too filled up with stuff and my routes getting a bit tired. Feeling good now about getting back in to it. Went through a pack of cards quickly this morning forming images in pairs as normal and did a pretty good job of it. I'm going to go for the legendary 100 digit barrier again over the next week or so. Stay tuned for all my new personal bests! The cards should be under 3 minutes pretty soon too which will be a landmark for me.

Number practice and cards

I've found that from practising the longer digit events my card memorisation has improved too. I did a comfortable pack at lunch today in 3:30 which is only a few seconds over my personal best. I was going for 100%, not speed and was surprised when I saw the time. I think in the next month or so I should get that down to under 3 minutes.

I just can't do it!

The 100 digits in 5 minute barrier is just not going to be beaten tonight. I've run out of steam and need to sleep. I had 2 goes at it, one with 4 errors and the other with 2 errors. It's so close and I'm comfortable with the time. There is just the odd occasion where I go blank and I know I haven't formed my images right. Apart from the errors, on both goes, the recall was simple and fluid up to those points. No checking needed, I was 100% I'd got them right. I just came up on the blanks and had nothing there!

Oh well, I'm sure I'll crack it tomorrow :)

So close!!!!

Last night I went for 100 digits in 5 mins and was very confident that I had made it perfectly. All but 2 of the digits came to me very easily and clearly so I was pleased with that. I was very quick on my association with one character right near the end and it ended up being a complete blank but I know where I went wrong.

I've been practising larger numbers than 100 so when I dropped down to that again it felt like I was going much faster and the images were clearer. It's a good tactic going for more digits in a longer time and then going back to the 5 minute event.

I'm so close to the 3 digit barrier! Give it a couple more days and I'll have it cracked...................then I'll be going for 200!

Finished work early so.......

I thought I'd give the 5 minute numbers another crack to see how I've been getting on. I've been doing as Ed recommended which is to go for twice as many as I think I can do in the event in twice the time. It's supposed to help me when I drop down to lower amounts of numbers and a quicker time................and it does!

I had an attempt at 160 digits in 8 minutes earlier, was a bit crap with 24 errors and the other attempt was 100 digits in 5 mins which ended up with 4 errors. My final effort is below:

90 random digits (no errors)- 5 minutes - NEW PERSONAL BEST!!

So I'm getting there. Up from 66 in the World Championships last year which is a pretty good percentage increase.

For now I'm doing 40 digits, then reviewing them, then the next 40, then review them and so on which seems to work pretty well for the amounts I'm attempting at the moment.

160 digits in 8 mins attempt

First time trying to push myself further by going a longer time and a greater number in order to increase my 5 minute numbers. Went pretty well, considering. First attempt went as follows:

Attempted 128 with 10 errors and one reversal (2016 instead of 1620)
Wasn't very happy with the first attempt but went for another go using another route and did as follows:

Attempted 144 with 4 errors.

Much better and my goal of 160 digits in 8 minutes looks possible by the 15th of this month.

On other memory issues, I'm driving in the morning to Derby to see Ben for the first part of the documentary we're filming. Very excited and should be a great day all round!

Numbers are my enemy

Well, not really, but I'm not getting on with the number 29 at the moment. It seems to want to become Denis Norden when it is clearly a mountain climber! Agggahhhhh! It messed up a personal best tonight so I don't think I'm going to acknowledge the number 29 for a few days.

I did 84 random digits in 5 mins with what I thought were no errors until the evil number 29 reared it's ugly head. It was pretty good all round though, only a couple of moments when I had to stop and think what I'd put in a couple of locations. The recall was pretty easy.

I'm going to soon be working with Ed Cooke to figure out a program to steadily improve my results. It's very exciting, Ed has done some amazing things and to have him coach me is a real honor.

The idea of getting to 100 digits by the weekend seems a long way off now and I fear I may be beaten. This is only a short term problem of course. Next week I'll be on binary and then cards again the week after so in a month or so, I'll have the 100 digit barrier well and truly broken.

New Personal Best

I was annoyed with myself last night. I've been working far too hard at this memory lark to be making silly mistakes like that so I thought I'd give 80 random digits a crack at lunch time today. I got 100% right in 4mins 1 second which I was really pleased with. Had I been in competition I could have used the last minute to squeeze another 20 digits in I'm sure.

I read through all 80 digits first and then had a second pass at them on a review. I was pleased at how well formed my original images were on my first pass. I would have made mistakes on the recall if I'd only looked at them once, but not many.

I'm so much happier today that I was last night. I really annoyed myself but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I want to crack 100 digits in 5 mins by the end of this weekend and then I think I'll move on to binary for a bit. I think It's a good idea at the moment for me to be spending time on events in week blocks until I start to get a bit quicker. Then I can mix things up a bit :-)

Numbers practice

I've not practiced numbers for ages, and it shows! Thought I'd go for an easy 80 digits tonight to get back in to the swing of things and only got 74 of them right, which isn't very good at all. Mind you, it's a few more than the 66 I got in WMC.

I know I can do 120+ comfortably when I'm in the right frame of mind. Really forced myself to practice tonight so wasn't in the right mood for it at all. I'm going to lay off the cards for a week or 2 and just practice numbers to see how much better I can get.

I'll crack 120 by the end of next week :-)

Rant

Here is the last few days of my life:

1) Someone drives in to the back of my car and drives off without leaving any insurance details. Total cost to me - £150 insurance job

2) Mac laptop dies and needs to be re-installed

3) Other mac hard drive dies

4) Someone drives in to my girlfriends mums car (that she's borrowing) and drives off

5) We both had a Chinese last night and both feel very sick today.

So I've done no memory training at all which I hate and life just seems to be working against me! Damn to everything I say! On a final note, if the person who keeps driving in to our cars and driving off is a memory person and happens to read this I hope all your dendrites fall our of your arse you evil person!

There, that was all I needed to do :)

Lunch time practice

I memorised 3 packs of cards at lunch today. Results are as follows:

Pack 1 = 2 errors
Pack 2 = 1 error
Pack 3 = No errors!

All from memory, no re-ordering decks at all.

The time was about 40 mins which included re-shuffling the 1 pack I had 3 times and the recall period.

Pleased with the clarity of the images. Worked hard on linking the first card to the location and the second card to the first card. I discovered that almost all of my errors were on the second card of a pair, not the first indicating that I wasn't linking the 2 well so I was easily forgetting the associations. Making a conscious effort to sort that out seems to help a lot.

Random Numbers

Why they don't just put them in order I don't know, but it's an event I need to work hard on until they decide to do that.

I had a very quick look at a sheet of numbers last night and got some good work done on it. I think I'm going to have a go at 5 minutes with no review tonight and see how that goes. I want to find where my natural "breaking point" is. I did a pathetic 66 at WMC and have done 80 in practice the 1 time I've tried it since then but I'm sure I can go in to the early 100's now with no reviews and perhaps up to 150ish with the right strategy.

Another new card technique?

I was messing around with some cards last night and thought of a way that I can review what I've memorised without having to go right back to the start.

As I use the Roman Room method I go in a circle of 10 items in a room, normally putting 2 cards in each location using person/action. If I was to put a single card in each of the 10 locations and then go back to the first location and link a second card to the first one I'm getting a little review of the first card in each location. Also, I could go around again for a third time to the start and see the first 2 cards in their location and link a third card to them getting a nice little review of the first 2 cards in the process. This would allow for 30 cards per Roman Room which would be quite nice.

I've tried it out and it works, although it's a bit strange but could have some good possibilities.

I'm not sure if anyone has done it like this before so I'm going to give it a name................."The Roman Room go round and round 3 times putting cards there each time" or for short.......simply "The Roman Route system"

Let me know what you think!

New personal Best

Well, I'm calling it that because I did a perfect recall apart from reversing the 47th and 48th cards which I got stuck on for ages whilst I was memorising! Did a good time of 3:17 though so I'm pleased with that. All apart from about 10 cards were straight from memory with no working out to be done with another deck which was also very promising.

I'm pleased with that. I'll be under the 3 min barrier very very soon. The images felt (for the most part) very fluid, not much actual thinking to do to get the links etc. so I was a lot more relaxed. Made an effort to REALLY exaggerate the images which helped on some of the cards I've been known to get a bit stuck on in the past.

All in all, heading in the right direction and very happy, especially after my poor attempt last night! We all have bad days I guess.

I think I'm annoyed with my memory!

I practised some cards last night and did a whole deck in 3:25 which would have been a personal best for me, had I not made a complete arse of the recall. I had some huge gaps followed by some moments of absolute clarity.............followed by a gap, followed by clarity! It was very annoying and I came away feeling very frustrated with myself because I know I can go faster than this. Like Dominic says though "there is nothing wrong with my memory, just the way I shot the film!" and he's right. My memory is fine, I just need to get used to shooting a "good movie" in my mind at speeds higher than this and I'll get there.

Strangely enough, on another attempt later that evening I clocked a 3:44 perfect deck which isn't particularly fast, but is consistent with what I have been achieving for the last few weeks. I had perhaps 4 gaps which were easily filled when re-ordering the second deck so was fairly easy. I keep reading about the benefits of making mistakes. It teaches you where your boundaries are and helps push you further so I guess I shouldn't be too upset. In the quest to go faster, I should expect to make mistakes and learn how to get positive future results from them.

I think I'm addicted to memory

Seriously, it's getting really bad now. I've just noticed that almost every phone number I dial I convert the numbers in to images, I practice cards/numbers every lunch time and every evening, I form images for every name I read or hear, most evenings I go through my card images in my head as I'm going to sleep, I use a brain wave balancing machine every other day, I convert number plates of cars in to images and numbers on all road signs................................I think I'm crazy!

I have to say, I do love it though. There is nothing quite like going through a pack of cards and memorising them all. Something very satisfying about getting them all right, always makes me grin :)

My times are coming down and down for everything as well. I've got some acetate sheets of A4 that I'm drawing a grid on in permanent pen so I can print off 1,000 digit sheets and fill in my answers in non permanent pen over and over again.

I need to practice a lot more on the numbers. I'm looking ahead to the WMC this year and trying to work out what I should go for. "As many as you can you idiot!" I hear you cry but hark, tactics must come in to play. I need to go for an achievable number that I can get good scores on, not something so huge that I only end up memorising about 40 digits. I'll have to see how the training goes but I did 400 last year and I hadn't ever practised a number event longer than 10 minutes prior to that which was encouraging. I didn't make any errors either which was even more encouraging!

I really want to do 1,000 digits to get that part of the grand master done but I think I'll need a bit more practice before that. Hopefully have enough time before WMC this year to get it nailed. I know it can be done, but I want to do it a bunch of times before doing it in competition where things always seem to be harder.

And now I ask myself....................why aren't I the world number 1 with all this going on! Perhaps my brain is overloaded and I just need a week off :)

More card practice

I did some practice today with the cards at lunch whilst at work and managed to visualise all images (i.e. pairs of cards) in a whole pack in 1min 40sec. I didn't memorise anything other than the 26 pairs individually but I'm confident I can go under 2 mins for Cambridge this year after this performance. The images were clear and I wasn't rushed. Felt good!

Grand master here we come!

Goin' bak to the old skool, like the old fool........

I practised several decks of cards last night in a way I used to do when I first got started. I pick up a shuffled deck and time myself to see how long it takes to take each individual card and form an image out of it before moving on to the next one. When I stopped doing this I was at about 1min 10 seconds but after about 15 goes last night I was averaging about 40 seconds for the whole deck with my quickest being 38seconds.

This is just the time to form images, not to memorise anything but I think it's good practice and will revisit it perhaps once a week or so. If I can get down to about 40 seconds and be doing my person-action images and not just a single picture then I would be getting very very excited!

Moving house hurts

It's awful, just awful. Moving house has got to be the most stressful thing I've ever done. I'm never going to do it again!

On a plus note, our new place is nice and quiet so I can concentrate better on my memory training. I think I've prepared enough routes for Cambridge already so shouldn't have to re-use anything like I had to at WMC 06.

Did a very comfortable pack of cards yesterday using an ordered deck I put back in the order of the cards I memorised. Felt a lot more confident doing it this way as I had lots of reminders for the 3 blanks I came up against. They were easy to track down as I only had 3 cards left when I'd put the pack in order. I'm going to keep training like that I think and try to get the times down to around 2.5 ish minutes or so for Cambridge.