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..........