Interview with a Memory Expert: Memory Athlete Brad Zupp

I had a recent chat with Brad Zupp, a 47-year-old vet of the memory competition circuit and one of America’s best memorizers. Brad helped Team USA pull in the 2nd place team prize at last year’s World Memory Championship. At the 2014 event, he broke his own national record in the spoken numbers event, recalling 150 digits after hearing them spoken aloud at 1 digit per second. Brad’s at the top of the pack among those who’ve adapted their memory expertise to help students, businesses, and more. Check out his website BradZupp.com for more about his fun memory empowerment presentations. He’s a friend, a fierce competitor, and a real memory expert. In a quick chat, we delve into his entry into the memory world, his motivation, and some of his favorite memory memories...

"I think my biggest motivation is always to show people that no matter how old one is, a better memory is possible. Exercising our minds is essential, but it can be easier and more fun than people realize!"
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2016 XMT Qualifying: Cards Attempt

After three weeks of break, I eased back into a little training earlier this week. With a few rusty days behind me, I decided to give the XMT Cards qualifying a go. Thankfully I'm already qualified for this year's XMT, having been in the top 8 in 2015, so this one was just for kicks. Cathy and I were just heading out of the house, but I wanted to knock out a quick attempt before we left. 17.08 seconds! That's a huge personal best for me (previous PB was 17.59). Speed cards PBs don't come often. Here's the video (unfortunately my phone ran out of space about 20 seconds before I hit submit, although I'd already finished recalling the cards; the photo below shows the final screen):

Interview with a Memory Expert: Memory-Sports.com's Florian Dellé

If there’s anyone who knows the competitive memory world, it’s Florian Dellé. Since his first competition back in 2003, the 36-year-old German has worn just about every hat imaginable: competitor, coach, arbiter, commentator, memory website developer. The list goes on and on. Florian’s generally on the other side of the interview table (check out his 16 interviews here), but I managed to snag him for a conversation about his own history with memory, his new systems, a few of his favorite memory memories, and his new competition: the Memo Games...

“My best advice is always that there are a million ways to memorize anything ... In the end each student must learn how to use the memory on its own and even develop new techniques. When my students leave, I want them to feel confident enough about their memory to handle anything.”
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Interview with a Memory Expert: 2x USA Memory Champion Ron White

I’m very excited to be able to share with you an interview I did with Ron White, the ’09 and ’10 USA Memory Champ. The now 42-year-old Texan has done much more than dominate the American memory scene, however. As a memory speaker and coach, Ron has done a hell of a lot to spread memory techniques far and wide. I got in touch with him to discuss his memory origins, regrets, successes, advice for aspiring mnemonists, and goals for the future. 

"Overall my experiences in the memory tournament world were some of the best of my life ... Winning the tournaments was an incredible high in my life but the person I had to become in order to compete (disciplined, organized, determined) was an equally powerful reward."
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