GQ How to Win at Life

Home > Other > GQ How to Win at Life > Page 6
GQ How to Win at Life Page 6

by Charlie Burton


  5: COMPASS POINTS

  Check whether there is a notch cut into the edge of the dial, typically at three o’clock. Restorers of early watches, who were about to take all the paint off a dial, would sometimes add this nick as a reference point to guide their repainting. This let them ensure all the new marks were correctly positioned for when the dial was fastened back to the watch. “Otherwise all of a sudden you could realize it was upside down!”

  TIE A FIRST-CLASS BOW TIE

  Style rubes assume that the advantage of a “real” bow tie comes only at the end of the night, when you can unleash it and let it hang from your collar insouciantly. And, yes, that does look great. But it can be a signifier of sophistication from the get-go if others spot that you tied it yourself. So, here’s a foolproof method that will not only help you succeed in knotting it (have faith), but will also give your bow a dishevelled sprezzatura. Never be mistaken for a member of the clip-on club again…

  1: DRAPE AROUND YOUR NECK

  Keep one end slightly longer than the other. Cross long end over short and tie a half-knot.

  2: GIVE IT A TWIST

  Form the short end into a bow shape. Let the other end hang over the centre. Twist it once.

  3: PINCH THE BOW TOGETHER

  Form the second bow shape and push it through the hole behind the first.

  4: FINESSE

  Tighten and adjust, fanning the bow for just the right amount of not-giving-a-damn.

  STEP UP YOUR SHOESHINE TECHNIQUE

  Time was, every man used to know the proper way to polish his shoes. The rise of sneakers, synthetic materials and “instant shine” sponges (shudder) means that today it is becoming a forgotten art. One place where it continues to thrive, however, is George Cleverley. Founded in 1958, this London shoemaker has created footwear for everyone from Sir Michael Caine to Alexander McQueen, Jonathan Ive to David Beckham – and the workshop manager, Adam Law, still uses a traditional technique to achieve a gleaming shine. “The polish on the shoes also makes them more durable,” says Law. “If you have a highly polished pair of shoes and you drop water on them, the water just rolls off.” Here’s how to look sharper for longer south of the ankle…

  1: CLEAN THEM DOWN

  Take out your laces, otherwise they’ll retain polish that might rub on to your trousers, and insert shoe trees so you have a solid surface on which to work. Clean the leather with a soft horsehair brush, then use a welt brush – which looks like a large toothbrush – to get into the seams. “If any dirt is left when you come to polishing the shoe, there’s the potential to collect grit on your cloth or brush,” says Law, “and then you might drag it all over the leather and scratch it.”

  2: FEED ‘EM UP (OPTIONAL)

  If they are shoes that you wear regularly, proceed straight to step 3. But if they are seasonal footwear that you’re about to lay down in the back of your wardrobe after polishing, first apply a moisturizing leather cream with a cloth or brush. “You can be quite liberal with it – do the tongue as well – and give it time to sink in,” says Law. “It’s important because if the leather dries out, then it might crack and become brittle, causing it to deteriorate.”

  3: IT’S ALL ABOUT THAT BASE

  Give your shoes a base shine. Use a round brush to apply wax polish all over the upper, the welt and into any brogue holes. “Using a brush with a smaller head is good, as it makes you work harder to get the polish into the leather.” If the shoe is brown, make sure the polish is a shade lighter, but don’t use “neutral” if you want to get rid of scuffs. Once you have covered the whole shoe, apply a second layer of polish, wait for 30 minutes, then buff with the horsehair brush.

  4: BUST THE CLOUDS

  Wrap your forefinger in a lint-free cloth – Law recommends those made by Selvyt – and apply another coat of polish to the leather in circular motions about 2.5cm (1in) in diameter. This creates friction and helps the polish to melt. “As you’re doing this, you’ll see that the polish starts off looking cloudy. You want to polish all the way through that stage, keeping on with your circular motions until the polish starts to become clear.” Repeat this step before moving on.

  5: BUILD UP THE LAYERS

  Pour some water into the lid of the polish tin. Wrap your finger in the same area of Selvyt used for applying the polish, and dip it in. Work this in circular motions over all the leather. Next, add a whole new layer of polish in circular motions, working through the cloudiness as per step 4. Then apply water again. Repeat this pattern of a layer of polish followed by water four more times. “Each time you add a layer, make the pressure slightly lighter.” You should now have an extremely high shine. Lace up your shoes as shown. Step out with pride.

  FASTEN A NATO WATCH STRAP

  The simplest way to freshen up your watch is to switch its standard strap for a high-quality nylon wristband. These are not only more comfortable in warmer months but also look eminently chic. Exhibit A: James Bond’s Rolex in Goldfinger (1964). The best type of fabric strap is a NATO. These come with an unconventional fastening that ensures the watch stays on the wrist even if one of the spring bars breaks. Created in 1973 for official military use (the name comes from its having a “NATO Stock Number”), it has become a classic the world over. Here’s how to deploy it…

  1: NAIL THE BASICS

  Check the timepiece is attached to the strap properly, as depicted.

  2: FASTEN AS USUAL

  Stop once you reach the stage shown. You now have two options…

  3: GO TRAD…

  Fold the strap back against itself. This is the classic “quick-release” method.

  4: …OR GO SECURE

  If length permits, take the strap over the top of the furthest ring – and under the nearest.

  GAMES & WELLBEING

  In sport, it’s often the little things that give you an edge. Small adjustments to the way you run or swim can help you go further and faster with less effort. A tweak to your squash serve can let you dominate a whole rally. Shifting the grip on your bowling ball can up your strike rate. This chapter covers all that and more, including casino games, which require an edge of a different sort. If you thought that blackjack or sports betting was fundamentally about luck, take heed of the advice herein…

  RUN LIKE AN ELITE ATHLETE

  Running isn’t taught as a skill. Unlike tennis, say, it’s mostly picked up intuitively as a kind of advanced walking – and that’s a problem. “We tend to run how we feel comfortable,” says Mike Antoniades. “That’s what makes people slow and gets them injured.” A Cypriot-born former footballer and sprinter, Antoniades has coached performance and conditioning for more than 30 years. In 2007, he set up The Running School to bring his ideas to the world.

  The school now operates across six countries, and has worked with everyone from Olympic gold-medal sprinters, such as Christine Ohuruogu, to Premier League footballers. “Some of them,” says Antoniades, “come without the club knowing.” Everybody requires fine-tuning specific to their own running styles but, he says, there are five principles that everyone should adopt…

  1: DON’T OVERSTEP THE MARK

  Shift your centre of gravity so that your foot lands underneath your hip. “When the foot goes too far forward, you brake, you start collapsing and you repeat the process,” explains Antoniades. The easiest fix is to lift your heels 90 degrees behind you. This creates a cyclical motion, engaging the powerful glute and hamstring muscles to propel you forwards. Also, try landing on the ball of the foot – unless you have especially large feet, which can make this difficult.

  2: MORE POWER TO YOUR ELBOWS

  As your elbows swing back, maintain a right-angle in the joint. This prevents rotation at the shoulders. “I call people who rotate at the shoulders ‘twisters’. It makes their arms tend to come across the midline, and the counter movements put a lot of stress on different parts of their body.” Although your chest will inevitably move a little, you should aim to keep it relatively flat throug
hout. “Not doing this is the most common problem that even elite people have.”

  3: IT’S ALL AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

  Imagine you’re holding a butterfly between your thumb and forefinger but not squeezing. “That relaxes the whole shoulder girdle, so you can get the elbow back easily without lifting and tightening the shoulders. The body needs rhythm and will get it any way it can. So if it doesn’t get rhythm readily from the arms, it will start getting rhythm from the head – you see a lot of people running and bouncing their head – or from the mid-section.” Not good.

  4: TALKING OF THE HEAD…

  Keep an upright posture and look forward rather than down. But what if you’re running on uneven terrain? “Your peripheral vision is actually quite strong. You should be able to glance down and see the ground but also be able to see ahead of you. If you look at experienced fell runners, they don’t look down. They look ahead, their peripheral vision allows them to see where the foot’s going to land and to make changes if they need.”

  5: FINALLY, PRESS PLAY

  Don’t run holding a music player, as it interrupts good body movement. But it is useful to carry one on your belt: Antoniades says that listening to music can boost performance by around 20 per cent. Well, up to a certain level. “Elite athletes don’t use music when they’re going on a long run, as they want to focus. If you look at Mo Farah, he uses music only before and after as a relaxation process.”

  UPGRADE YOUR WORKOUT ROUTINE

  The easy part of working out is not getting injured. A little experience and a good dialogue with your body is usually enough to keep the physio away. What’s harder is working out effectively. Walk into a weights room and you’ll typically spy even the most fitspo gym bros fluffing it – either opting for inefficient exercises or making errors that work unintended muscles. In the long term, that can cause problems. As renowned personal trainer Jonathan Goodair puts it, “Whatever you do to your body, that’s how it’s going to look.” Goodair has trained Madonna, Cate Blanchett, Ralph Fiennes, rugby internationals and a host of others for whom getting the wrong body is not an option. So, next time you hit the gym, here’s how to perfect five simple exercises you’re probably getting wrong.

  1: BICEP CURLS

  The mistake: Doing bicep curls. Do underhand-grip pull-downs instead. These work the biceps and much more besides. Sit comfortably with a straight posture. Grab the bar but don’t raise your shoulders – keep the shoulder blades down and the collarbones wide. As you draw the bar down to the top of your chest, allow your elbows to move slightly backward. When you release the bar, do so slowly, allowing your arms to reach full extension, without elevating your shoulders, before pulling it back again. Crucially, never pull it down behind your neck.

  2: BENT-OVER BARBELL ROW

  The mistake: An overhand grip. “I do an underhand grip, so I work the lats, middle back muscles, and I can muller the biceps, too.” Combining all those muscles in one exercise can save you at least 15 minutes in the gym. The other things to avoid are letting your arms hang from their joints, rather than holding the shoulders stable, and pulling the bar up into your chest. “We don’t want all the focus on that upper-back area, we want to keep that wide as we work. So, instead, bring the bar into your stomach.”

  3: ABDOMINAL CRUNCHES

  The mistake: Sitting up fully. “A lot of people do abdominal crunches, and a lot of people do them wrong.” If you sit up all the way, your abs only work through half of their range, then your hip flexors kick in to bring you upright. An ideal crunch, instead, isolates the abdominals. “Put your hands behind your head, supporting the weight of your head – chin down slightly, elbows just in your peripheral vision.” Drop your shoulders away from your ears. Inhale to prepare and, as you exhale, curl forward, looking toward your belly button, then slowly come back down.

  4: BARBELL SQUATS

  The mistake: Leaning forward. If you put your shoulders and head forward, you’re lifting with your lower back. “That’s very, very typical of so many people.” The correct form is as shown. Push your hips backward to go into the squat. “Ideally, get down to a position where your thighs are pretty much parallel with the floor but you’re maintaining the same neutral shape in your back.” Your thighs and feet should be aligned and your knees shouldn’t come forward any farther than your toes.

  5: PLANK

  The mistake: The wrong goals. “Some people will say the correct plank position is when your ears, shoulders, hips and heels are at the same height. But I think you’d need quite big feet for that, somehow. For me, I focus more on the ears, shoulders and hips being aligned.” Once you’ve refined the position, you could just hold it – but that’s quite tedious. Instead, try changing up the exercise with moves such as toe taps or moving from a plank to push-up position and back again. “I would do a whole sequence of variations that takes about six minutes.” Now that’s a workout.

  HIT AN EVIL SQUASH SERVE

  When serving in squash, it’s rare to hit an outright winner. That can lead players to neglect the importance of the shot, viewing it simply as a way of starting a rally. But be under no illusions, says Nick Matthew, “the serve is crucial”. Matthew is one of the greatest squash players that Britain has ever produced. He is the first Englishman to have won the British Open three times, and one of only six players on the planet to have won the World Championship three times. To him, serving is the best opportunity you have to gain an edge.

  “It’s the only time you have control of the pace of the game, it’s the only time you reset and centre your mindset – and you can set yourself up for being on the ‘T’.” The “T”, of course, is where the lines intersect at the centre of the court; whoever stands there tends to dominate the point. “So you want to push your opponent back with the serve – make sure they have a difficult return, make sure they can’t attack the ball – and set a platform for the rest of the rally.” It helps to surprise your rival with different types of serve: there’s the smash serve, for instance, where the ball is thumped just above the service line; or the body serve, which bounces directly at your opponent. The nuclear option, however, is the lob. “It is the hardest serve to return,” says Matthew, “but it is the riskiest to play.” Here’s how to do it, based on a right-hander serving from the right-hand side…

  1: TAKE A STANCE

  Stand with your back foot in the service box, your weight on that leg and your body at 45 degrees to the side wall. “Make sure the grip is light,” says Matthew. “The fingers need to be able to work the racket for accuracy – just as darts players throw from their fingers rather than their palm.”

  2: IT’S A TOSS-UP

  You’re going to hit underarm with an open racket face, so you need to toss the ball accordingly. “You want to get under the ball; you’re not going to toss it much higher than chest height.”

  3: WORK THE ANGLES

  Aim about half a racket’s length below the top “out-of-court” line, such that the ball bounces high on the left side wall. “Follow the line of the ball with your follow-through, very much like a golf swing. That will not only help your accuracy but it will propel the momentum of your body weight to the ‘T’.”

  4: PACE IT

  The strike should be just powerful enough that the ball comes off the front and side walls like a dead weight, making your opponent uncertain about whether to volley. Ideally, it should then bounce on the floor just before hitting the back wall. “Then they’re playing a defensive shot from the go.”

  5: ‘T’ TIME

  Immediately after serving, move quickly to the “T”. At this point, you may be tempted to look toward the front wall. That’s a mistake. “Your head should be turned, never taking your eye off the ball for a split second.” That way you can respond instantly to the return. If it comes.

  SWIM FASTER, EASIER FRONT CRAWL

  When Steven Shaw was 17, he made a tough decision. Throughout his teenage years, he had been an obsessive swimmer, competing at co
unty level, but he had begun to find the sport frustrating. “Swimming left me feeling burned-out and tired,” recalls the Londoner. “I couldn’t really understand why my performance wasn’t improving even though I was training really hard.” Having developed back and neck issues, he decided to give it up altogether.

  At university, however, he chanced upon the Alexander Technique. Developed by the Australian actor Frederick Matthias Alexander in the 1890s, it teaches improved movement and posture in daily life. Shaw became fascinated by its implications for sport. “If you can improve the relationship between your head, neck and back,” he says, “your performance in any activity will get much better.” He wondered if it could help him rediscover swimming. There was not much research on using the technique in the water, so he broke down each stroke into its smallest constituent parts, examined their effect on his back, and endeavoured to refine the movements. As he progressed, the results were transformative. “My performance got better,” he recalls, “but the amount of fatigue significantly reduced.” And so the Shaw Method was born.

 

‹ Prev