Have you ever had a dream where you could fly and do anything you wanted without any fear or possibility of being hurt? Normal limitations didn’t apply, like gravity or pain. Perhaps you can remember a time when you were unstoppable and everything you did was spot on. You were at your best, you were in the ZONE!
Here are accounts of athletes describing their experience of pinnacle performance:
“ a strange calmness; it was a type of euphoria; I felt I could run all day without tiring, that I could dribble through any of their team or all of them, that I could almost pass through them physicall.” – Edson Arantes Do Nascimento (Brazilian soccer legend Pele’)
“It’s a very strange felling. It’s as if time slows down and you see everything so clearly. You just know that everything about your technique is spot on. It just feels so effortless; it’s almost as if you’re floating across the track. Every muscle, every fibre, every sinew is working in complete harmony and the end product is that you run fantastically well.” – Mark Richardson (1996 Winter Olympics Gold medalist)
“I’m Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes to football. When I’m on the field sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing out there. People ask me about this move or that move, but I don’t know why I did something, I just did it. I am able to focus out the negative things around me and just zero in on what I am doing out there. Off the field I become myself again.” -Walter Payton (Hall of Fame NFL running backs)
“At that special level all sorts of odd things happened….It was almost as if we were playing in slow motion. During those spells I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken. Even before the other team brought the ball in bounds, I could feel it so keenly that I’d want to shout to my teammates, “It’s coming there!” –except that I knew everything would change if I did. My premonitions would be consistently correct, and I always felt then that I not only knew all the Celtics by heart but also all the opposing players, and they all knew me.” – Bill Russell (NBA legend)
Mihaly Csikszentmikhalyi, a western psychologist and leading scientific researcher in the area of flow, a.k.a. the zone, describes the flow as completely focused motivation, a single minded immersion that utilizes your emotions for peak performance and learning. Csikszentmikhalyi has found 10 factors that are hallmarks of the state of flow.
1. Clear goals where expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one’s skill set and abilities. Challenge level and skill should be both high. Your practice should resemble the competition as much as possible.
2. Concentration on a limited field of attention. Fully focused on the task at hand. Being present in the moment. Eliminate distractions. Practice meditation and breathing exercises to clear your mind.
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness. Become one with your craft.
4. A Distorted sense of time, one’s subjective experience of time is altered. When we were kids we would play outside for hours.
5. Direct and immediate feedback. Be able to assess your performance quickly and make changes immediately.
6. Balance between ability level and challenge.
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so that there is effortlessness in the action. You must enjoy the activity. Remember why you started playing.
9. A lack of awareness of bodily needs. Use the restroom before you compete, stay hydrated and fueled.
10. Absorption into the activity, action awareness immerging.
Buddhist PhD Andrew Cooper, a leading expert and researcher of the zone, describes this phenomenon as:
“profound joy, acute intuition (which at times feels like precognition), a feeling of effortlessness in the midst of intense exertion, a sense of the action taking place in slow motion, feelings of awe and perfection, increased mastery, and self-transcendence.”
The way that the athletes have described their record breaking performances sounds dream and mystical like. They seem to be in a trance like state where they could close their eyes and play. To induce these peak state performances of invincibility:
- Become one with your craft. Put in the time to perfect your skills.
- Love what you do. You should associate pure joy with your craft. When you love what you do it is no longer work.
- Practice mindfulness and meditation. Be able to eliminate distractions at will. The better you are at staying focused the easier it will be for you to get and stay in the zone.
- Practice loving self talk and self awareness. Pay attention to your thoughts. Be able to replace and or change negative self talk quickly. This will improve your confidence.
- Go and grow beyond yourself. Be part of something greater than yourself. Practice forgetting about yourself and your ego. Grow for the greater good.
Being your best will never be achieved strictly through physical training. We must train the mind with the same intensity and purpose of improving our game. Spiritual practices have proven successful throughout the world before scientific methods were ever employed. By synchronizing our body and mind, we can grow on the eternal rhythm of the universe. Living for something greater than ourselves will truly make us invincible and our spirit unstoppable!
