Saturday, October 10, 2009

Another day in the life of... Chess Coach Sean.

I was once told that lazy state or city workers would do as little work as possible and still find a way to make it fill up an entire shift. You know the type... E.G. The Phoenix Park guys that all stand around while one of them is actually doing something etc., As if one fellow was so incompetent that he actually needed eight self appointed supervisors standing around watching him. People have a way of allowing very little work to fill up an entire days allotted work shift or time period. I do not believe in that kind of "job security" at all.

I, however, have the opposite problem. I am always creating ever larger loads of work for myself! I want my students to all do well so I am always trying to annotate their games, set up problems for them, work up my private lessons that are tailor made just for them, prepare for Super Groups etc., There really are not enough hours in the day for me.

When I get sick that is when the wheels really fall off my apple cart! Then I get buried in work as I fall behind. This week was a classic example. After months of not getting a solid eight a night I finally caught a cold - and it slowed me down. Both at the gym - where I have been doing really well with sculpting the body of "Chess Coach 2.0" and in doing my lessons at my schools and in staying on top of all my dedicated work for my dedicated students. I feel like I am just getting over the worst of this cold - here is hoping!

This Semester has been the best of the three that I have worked for the Chess Emporium. I still get frantic in a class when I feel like I have all this information that I want my students to learn for that day but we do not - ta-da - have enough time to go over. I am still learning the art of "chilling out"! Some coaches may not care about how much they can offer their students - but I really do. Too much actually! To the point where I create so much stress on myself... but this Semester I have been dealing with it much better. Hopefully by my 4th Semester I will be Chess Coach 2.0 - but I still have a lot of self improvement work to do.

Have a great weekend and always play your best moves in the great game of life!
-Coach Sean Tobin.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Cody ... POLGAR FAN!


A CLASSIC PHOTO
Straight from the same vault as the "Zapruder" film!