Lecturing Birds on Flying

Personal news and musings on coaching and performance

Sep 3 • 

Benjamin Portheault

7

April 2025

You are not your rating

Stop treating yourself only as improvement project

Apr 2 • 

Benjamin Portheault

11

1

February 2025

The War on Attention

I’m done consuming chess content

Feb 18 • 

Benjamin Portheault

19

10

Dr Can's Chess Clinic podcast appearance

We had a great, free flowing conversation on Dr Can Kabadayi's podcast.

Feb 9 • 

Benjamin Portheault

6

4

November 2024

10,000 hours? Understanding the conditions for expert learning

An introduction to key ideas about the expert learning process

Nov 30, 2024 • 

Benjamin Portheault

12

2

September 2024

How to Focus

From just-sitting to just-chess, a natural relaxed focus technique.

Sep 22, 2024 • 

Benjamin Portheault

12

3

July 2024

This Substack as a Knowledge Base

Classification of all my previous articles by subject

Jul 4, 2024 • 

Benjamin Portheault

6

June 2024

Losing at chess: an unpacking

Recognising and handling the biological, psychological and social factors contributing to the pain of losing.

Jun 15, 2024 • 

Benjamin Portheault

8

May 2024

Discipline

An operating system to help you align actions and intent: the ICED framework

May 21, 2024 • 

Benjamin Portheault

15

3

Guest Interview #3: Casey Thomas, Esports Performance Nutrition Specialist

How to think about nutrition and leverage it for chess performance

May 12, 2024 • 

Benjamin Portheault

4

February 2024

Guest Interview #2: Ben Johnson

Ben discusses his first book: "Perpetual Chess Improvement"

Feb 23, 2024 • 

Benjamin Portheault

7

Tournament Formats in Professional Chess

Getting the conversation started on the drawbacks of ubiquitous formats

Feb 7, 2024 • 

Benjamin Portheault

7

6