Learning from Josh Waitzkin's Mental Game
What Iowa Sports Prep students learn from the master of learning itself
The 60-Second Story
Josh Waitzkin became a chess prodigy at age 6. By 16, he was a national champion, the subject of the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, and widely considered one of the greatest young players America had ever produced.
Then he walked away from chess and became a world champion in tai chi push hands—an entirely different discipline. How does someone master two completely unrelated fields at the elite level?
Waitzkin's answer: he didn't master chess and tai chi. He mastered learning itself. He developed a meta-skill—the ability to learn anything—and then applied it wherever his curiosity led. His book The Art of Learning became a manual for how excellence is achieved in any domain.
What Your Child Will Learn
| Lesson | The Principle |
|---|---|
| Investment in Loss | Waitzkin deliberately put himself in losing positions to learn from them. Growth happens fastest at the edge of your ability—where failure is frequent. |
| Making Smaller Circles | Instead of trying to learn everything, Waitzkin would deeply master a tiny principle until it became second nature, then build from there. Depth beats breadth. |
| The Soft Zone | High performers don't block out distractions—they incorporate them. Waitzkin learned to maintain focus despite noise, using chaos as training. |
| Building Your Trigger | Waitzkin developed pre-performance routines that reliably put him in optimal mental states. The trigger became portable—usable in any situation. |
| Growth vs. Entity Mindset | Before Carol Dweck popularized "growth mindset," Waitzkin was living it—viewing mistakes as information rather than verdicts on his ability. |
The Story Behind the Lessons
The Child Prodigy Problem
Being called a "prodigy" nearly destroyed Josh Waitzkin.
When adults labeled him a "natural genius" at chess, it created a psychological trap. If he was a genius, then his worth was tied to winning. Losing meant he wasn't actually smart. This "entity" view of intelligence—the belief that ability is fixed—made him terrified of failure.
Waitzkin's mother intuitively pushed back. She praised his effort rather than his results. She celebrated when he took on tough opponents, regardless of outcome. This shifted his self-concept: he wasn't a genius who should always win; he was a learner who grew through challenge.
This distinction—growth mindset vs. entity mindset—would later be validated by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. Waitzkin was living proof of the research before it was published.
Investment in Loss
Most competitors avoid positions where they're likely to fail. Waitzkin did the opposite: he deliberately sought them out.
In chess, he would play against stronger opponents using unfamiliar openings. In tai chi, he would spar with bigger, more experienced fighters. The goal wasn't to win these encounters—it was to learn from losing them.
This "investment in loss" accelerated his growth dramatically. By constantly pushing beyond his comfort zone, he accumulated learning experiences that safer competitors never accessed. The short-term pain of losing created long-term gains in understanding.
Making Smaller Circles
Waitzkin's learning approach was the opposite of trying to learn everything at once. Instead, he would choose one tiny principle—a single chess pattern or tai chi movement—and practice it until it became completely automatic.
He called this "making smaller circles." By reducing a skill to its essence and mastering that essence, the skill became reliable under pressure.
The smaller circle principle: don't try to learn 10 techniques at 80% proficiency. Learn 1 technique at 100% proficiency—then add the next.
The Soft Zone
Early in his chess career, Waitzkin was disturbed by noise, opponents' body language, and other distractions. His coach told him to build a "bubble" and block everything out.
Later, he realized this was wrong. What happens when the bubble breaks? You're helpless.
Instead, Waitzkin developed the "soft zone"—a state of focus that incorporates rather than excludes distractions. The noise becomes part of the environment. The opponent's fidgeting becomes information. Nothing can disturb you because everything is already included.
He trained this by practicing in noisy environments, with music, with interruptions. Eventually, focus became independent of conditions.
Building Your Trigger
Waitzkin developed a specific pre-performance routine:
- Eat a certain meal
- Listen to specific music
- Do a specific movement sequence
- Enter competition
Over time, this routine became a "trigger"—a reliable way to enter an optimal mental state. Then he condensed it: from 45 minutes, to 20 minutes, to 10 minutes, to a single breath.
The breath became the trigger. Anywhere, anytime, one breath and he was in the zone.
The Waitzkin Challenge
This is a 14-day commitment to learning how to learn. Your child will develop triggers, invest in loss, and build the soft zone.
| Day | Challenge |
|---|---|
| 1 | Choose one tiny skill element in your sport. Just one. This is your "smaller circle" for the week. |
| 2-4 | Practice only that element until it's automatic. Resist the urge to add more until this is mastered. |
| 5-6 | Put yourself in a "losing" situation—against a better opponent, using unfamiliar techniques. Focus on learning, not winning. |
| 7-8 | Practice in suboptimal conditions—with noise, distractions, or discomfort. Build your "soft zone." |
| 9-10 | Create a pre-performance routine. Eat something, listen to something, do a specific movement. Practice this sequence. |
| 11-12 | Begin condensing your routine. Same mental state, shorter time. Can you reach it in 5 minutes? In 1 minute? |
| 13 | Assess your "smaller circle" skill. Is it automatic now? What would you add next? |
| 14 | Reflect: How did focusing on learning itself (rather than just performing) change your approach? |
| Final | Create a 60-second "You Teach" video: What Josh Waitzkin taught you about the art of learning. |
Earning:
- 🏅 Waitzkin Badge on your MyPath profile
- 📈 +5 Mental OVR boost
- 🎬 Content for your personal portfolio
In Their Own Words
"The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity."
"Investment in loss is the path to growth."
"We have to be able to be creative, to move fluidly, to think on our feet, to have a beginner's mind."
"Making smaller circles: deepening the simplest of skills until they become second nature."
"The soft zone is a state of mind that is resilient. It can absorb the challenges rather than break from them."
FAQs
Q: What is "investment in loss" and how do I teach it to my child?
A: Investment in loss means being willing to lose now in order to learn for later. If your child always plays it safe to avoid failure, they never discover their limits or develop new skills. Encourage them to try things that might not work—the learning is worth more than the temporary loss.
Q: What are "smaller circles"?
A: It's Waitzkin's term for deepening fundamental skills until they're unconscious. Instead of learning many techniques superficially, master a few completely. A perfectly automatic jab is more valuable than ten flashy moves you can't execute under pressure.
Q: My child gets frustrated when they lose. How do I help them see it as learning?
A: Change the post-game conversation. Instead of "Did you win?", ask "What did you learn?" and "What will you try differently?" Over time, they'll internalize that growth matters more than immediate results.
Related Athletes
- Steph Curry — Repetition and mastery of fundamentals
- Kobe Bryant — Cross-disciplinary learning
- Dan Gable — Obsessive practice and visualization
Why Waitzkin Matters for Iowa Kids
Josh Waitzkin proves that excellence is transferable. The skills he developed in chess—focus, learning from failure, building triggers—transferred directly to tai chi. And they transfer to any domain your child chooses.
This is the deepest lesson: learning how to learn is more valuable than learning any specific skill. The child who masters the meta-skill of learning will outperform naturally talented competitors who don't know how to grow.
Iowa kids can apply Waitzkin's principles to any sport, any academic subject, any craft. The "smaller circles" approach is especially relevant—focusing deeply on one thing at a time rather than trying to learn everything at once.
That's what ISP teaches. That's what your child will learn.