'Jeopardy!' champion Buzzy Cohen's secret to his success on the present: carrying a go well with day-after-day for years

• Buzzy Cohen gained 9 straight “Jeopardy!” video games in 2016 and the 2017 Event of Champions.
• His secret to succeeding underneath stress is making ready for the surroundings you may be performing in.
• He wore a go well with day-after-day in order that he’d really feel comfy carrying one whereas competing.

“Jeopardy!” champion Buzzy Cohen’s secret to success does not contain waking up at 5 a.m. and working a number of miles earlier than breakfast not like some CEOs.

“My day normally begins with considered one of my youngsters yelling at me that they need breakfast,” he informed Insider forward of the April 26 premiere of his new podcast, “That is Jeopardy!…The Story of America’s Favourite Quiz Present,” which explores the present’s historical past and enduring success.

Cohen — who gained $164,603 in a nine-day streak on the sport present in 2016 — took a brand new strategy whereas making ready to return for the 2017 Event of Champions, which he went on to win. Along with brushing up on common “Jeopardy!” subjects and practising his buzzer response time with a ballpoint pen, he began carrying a go well with day-after-day.

“I wished to be as comfy as doable in a go well with and tie for once I was going again on the present,” he stated. “What I discovered was that by doing it day-after-day, it made it one thing I did not have to consider. All of this guesswork that usually you are going to do — you are routinely placing your self at an obstacle. And so I strive, with out being completely a routine particular person, creating sure touchpoints that permit me to really feel at house in these completely different conditions.”

Getting ready for the surroundings that you will be performing in is essential to performing nicely, Buzzy Cohen says

As he wrote in his 2019 Audible audiobook “Get Prepared: A Champion’s Information to Getting ready for the Moments That Matter,” this consideration to element will be utilized to any high-pressure state of affairs.

“I feel attempting to have your follow mirror as a lot of the bodily actuality of your expertise as doable is de facto vital,” he stated. “So many individuals watch ‘Jeopardy!’ at house at 7 o’clock or 7:30 p.m. on the sofa. They’re relaxed, they’ve had dinner. That isn’t what taping ‘Jeopardy!’ is like. Taping ‘Jeopardy!’ is in your ft at 11 a.m., uncomfortable in a chilly place. So that you get onstage and abruptly you are like, ‘Oh wait, I used to be truly not making ready for this expertise.'”

Cohen continued carrying a go well with day-after-day all through the peak of the pandemic in 2020. Whereas he acknowledges that the selection was “type of psychotic,” he stated it helped him really feel comfy guest-hosting the Event of Champions in 2021.

“I used to be identical to, ‘Okay, cool, I am able to go,'” he stated. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh shoot, I have never put a go well with on in 18 months.'”