I am excited to be a small part of a show coming out on the Science Channel July 15, 2013 called – Memory Games 2013. It covers the 2013 USA Memory Championship and the lead up to the event.
I haven’t made it official yet, but I anticipate the 2013 USA Memory Championship to be my last as a competitor (most likely). In 2008 I was kind of well trained. I had spent 2007 in a deployment to Afghanistan and because of that my training wasn’t intense, plus I didn’t know what to expect. After getting my feet wet in 2008 my training for 2009, 2010 and 2011 was intense for 90 days prior to each event. 2012 I trained about a week and 2013 I trained about an HOUR! I’ve lost the drive for it but more importantly as a businessman I have to focus on money generating activities or my passion of the Afghanistan Memory Wall
When the Science Channel originally contacted me about being on their new show ‘Memory Games 2013’. I declined. I told them I wasn’t going to do well at the USA Memory Championship because I wasn’t training. All my time was spent on the Afghanistan Memory Wall. But the Science Channel believed that me being the 40 year old former champion added something to the story line going against the younger generation. I accepted and I am glad I did, but as I predicted I didn’t do that well.
In the speed cards event I flip flopped 2 cards and that led to me missing the top 8 (playoff round) by a hair, combine that with the fact that I write in block letters and that impacted my poetry score so I missed the top 8. With that said, every single competitor can say, ‘I made this dumb mistake here________.’ So for me to say it is just being a wimp. And I am no wimp. I made the mistakes and didn’t deserve to win.
I had a TON of fun in the tournament though as well as the show. The Science Channel took me to a swimming pool and filmed me memorizing cards under water. That is always fun to do and finds it’s roots in coaching with my Navy SEAL coach TC Cummins back in 2009. http://www.brainathlete.com/tag/cummings/page/7/
Check out this video of the upcoming Science Channel Show. I am excited to watch it. It should be fun
