Memory Guy hopes for unforgettable outcome at world competition

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - Ron White gets the questions all the time.

"Do you remember my name?" they'll say, smiling, covering up their name tags. "I met you a year ago at a conference."

As the self-proclaimed Memory Guy and now a record-holding U.S. Memory Champion, the Euless, Texas, man expects to be challenged again and again.

"If I'm going to experience the positives of being the Memory Guy, I'm going to take the negatives," he said.

And, no, he doesn't remember every name from every conference or seminar he has attended. But if he needs to remember a name and face, he will. And, White says, so can you.

"I'm not a genius," says White, 35. "I'm not Rain Man. But I'm a very hard worker."

His efforts have paid off. Besides presenting workshops and seminars through his successful memory-training business, he won the U.S. Memory Championship in New York last month among 52 competitors, breaking two national records in the process.

He's now gearing up for a three-day international competition in Bahrain set for late November.

MENTAL COMPETITION

White won the national championship with record recall of names, faces and numbers.

In one competition, he reconstructed a deck of cards that had been placed in random order after studying the stack for one minute and 27 seconds. That set a new national record.

In another, he was given a list of 1,000 digits. After being allowed to study the list for five minutes, he recalled the first 167 digits, another U.S. record.

The win came after months of intense training that included an underwater exercise developed for him by a former Navy SEAL. By studying cards underwater, he learns to ignore distractions _ which can help when he faces crowds of onlookers and media at competitions. He also had a computer program created that flashes a series of numbers so he can increase his memorization speed.

He decided to step up the training after falling short of the championship in 2008. He said his training for that competition was disrupted during the six months he spent as a Navy reservist in Afghanistan.

"I wanted the confidence and discipline of a Navy SEAL," he said. "If I'm going to say, 'I'm No. 1,' then I better be No. 1 or stop saying it.

"And I have no doubt now that I'm the best in the United States."

FINDING HIS CALLING

White has been teaching memory workshops and doing lectures for more than 15 years, and he will speak free for 30 minutes to a sales meeting or group. His larger seminars are held periodically, including one set for June 3 in Addison, Texas.

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He got into the field after making a cold call as a telemarketer to a man who owned a memory business. The man didn't want the service White was offering, but he did want White: He offered him a job on the spot.

He says his technique is particularly useful for sales representatives and real estate agents who want to remember names and faces and for students and others trying to improve their recall of facts and figures. "When I meet someone today, I remember their name," he said. "I take tests, and it's so incredibly easy."

He even memorizes numbers when he doesn't have to. At a recent baseball game _ a favorite pastime _ he realized he was creating mental pictures of the scoreboard stats.

WHAT'S AHEAD

White is now bracing for the international competition. He said U.S. competitors have not done well on an international stage, and he knows he'll have to increase his training in the next few months to prepare.

"No American has ever done good at this tournament," he said. "It's always been Germans or Brits. We're not even taken seriously."

He's hoping to change that.

"People say, 'Ron, that's silly. Why do you do that?'" he said. "But I'll tell you what's silly. It's silly to sell somebody a $300,000 house, and then see them three weeks later and not remember their name."

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HOW IT WORKS

Mental pictures

To memorize numbers or recall the order of playing cards, White assigns names, verbs and nouns to specific numbers or cards, then creates a mental picture of the combinations. Take the number 6081533, which popped up recently in his computer training program. White has assigned Texas Rangers player Josh Hamilton to the number 60. His verb selection for the number 81 is "sitting." The noun assigned to the number 533 is his alma mater, Richland High School. So when he sees that number, he thinks, "Josh Hamilton is sitting on Richland High School."

Filing it away

To remember groups of numbers, he envisions those mental pictures scattered around his house, on specific pieces of furniture. He might envision Hamilton sitting on the school, for example, on a living room chair. He might stash Emmitt Smith pulling Hulk Hogan on a bookshelf. By scanning his mental files scattered throughout the room, he can recall long strings of numbers. "Just like a computer," he said, "I have files in my mind."

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To recall names and faces, he assigns specific "triggers" to certain names. For the name Steve, he has assigned a stove. He then focuses on a unique characteristic of that person and "stores" the stove there. To remember a man with large ears named Steve, for example, he would envision stoves sitting on the man's ears. It may sound simplistic, but it works, he said. And it's the same technique used by most memory experts worldwide. "Anybody can do this," he said.

Online: www.militarymemoryman.com

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© 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.