Ron White, a Texas native and Navy veteran prepared for the U.S.A. Memory Championship by snorkeling. How does snorkeling improve your memory? Well, when you can memorize shuffled decks of playing cards while hovering under the water in snorkel gear, memorizing a deck of cards on stage seems like child’s play.
White also memorized cards and strings of numbers, the two tests the Championship is based on, while jogging and doing jumping jacks – anything to make the process more challenging. All that work paid off when White won his second U.S.A. Championship in a row. White didn’t have the best school record – he was actually suspended from college for earning a 0.9 GPA, but he says his time in the Navy taught him the discipline he needed to train his memory for competition. He also brought in a friend, a former Navy Seal, to help him train.
“I am beyond happy because I had to prove that (last year’s victory) was not chance, so now I am totally at peace. I love to compete against myself and getting better and better.” White says.
White holds the U.S. record for memorizing a shuffled deck of cards – one minute and twenty seven seconds. That feat, in combination with memorizing a one hundred and forty digit number in five minutes was enough to earn his title. Now White will continue on to the August World Memory Championship in China.
