strange progress - fluctuating between ~100 points

[kahwokah]

Hi folks!

I noticed a strange thing about my progress...

Sometimes I am bad and blundering around... then my rating sucks and goes down to 1620 or something. But after a few days it rises again and is stagnating at ~1670. then it goes up to 1700 and now its 1740... but i was at 1770 some weeks ago, then i lost a terrible amount of points and it seemed that i didnt learn anything. now im rising again and dont know why... its so strange.

Normally i make rules and ask myself systematically what i could do to improve... f.e. i try to find the strongest move and its counter move:

-check for mate in one, or material advantage
-check for weak points or figures
-try to consider whats important

-and finally: find the correct order of moves and be most effective (f.e. mate instead of material advantage) (see the idea, see the right idea, find the right order of steps)

->that calculating helps my not to blunder. but i improved without thinking about this system. i saw the position and thought... oh its so trivial i simply must do this and that...
and it worked but i havent the slightest idea why....

-> what could i do to improve permanently and with consciousness??

No need to gratulate, its only temporal - instead i thank you for reading!!

[kahwokah]

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/796/kahwokahpz2.png

[revenant]

It seems that wide swings in rating (even 200 points from peak to trough, especially in blitz) are quite normal and an expected part of life.  When you notice your rating starting to plummet, no sweat.  You've got two choices and either one is great.  You can very deliberately walk away and vow to come back only when you're sharp again (congratulate yourself on your willpower!), or (if you're an incorrigible addict) keep playing and just blissfully enjoy the pretty patterns of pieces floating across the board, secure in the *knowledge* that it's not a permanent thing and you'll eventually get back to your former peak.  Just maybe not today.  Or tomorrow.  But soon enough.

I'm betting hordes of users here can relate to that blitz rating graph image of yours and hopefully some will pipe up also with their own words of encouragement.

[andreacoda]

I learnt that, in every endeavor of life, you have to get worse before you can get better. What you have to look at is the trend, rather than the point-to-point results. Don’t know why, but this is just the way it works!