Have you ever achieved the performance of your life while experiencing the feeling that it was effortless? That everything you tried worked to perfection? If you have experienced this, you were in The Zone.
The Zone has achieved mystical status in the world of sport and it is not surprising to ...Have you ever achieved the performance of your life while experiencing the feeling that it was effortless? That everything you tried worked to perfection? If you have experienced this, you were in The Zone.
The Zone has achieved mystical status in the world of sport and it is not surprising to see why. It’s a paradox. How can a peak performance be achieved with such little perceived effort? Surely if we are working at the very limits of our ability it should be hard work and not feel like a stroll in the park?
I believe when we are in The Zone we are experiencing the mind and body working together as perhaps nature intended. Living in the modern world tends to separate the mental and physical as we are either sat behind a desk all day or, conversely, racing around a tennis court or running track trying to stay fit. The problem is that we tend to look on activities as either ‘mental’ or ‘physical’, but do we really get the best results by splitting ourselves in two?
Ancient methods such as the martial arts and yoga recognise the importance of the total unity of mind and body. In fact even to use the terms ‘mind’ and ‘body’ suggests a split. To experience the real benefit of exercise I believe you have to be completely absorbed in the activity or ‘be in the moment’. When we are in this state the body is working as a totally integrated whole and it can be a pure joy to be active.
Too many exercise routines do not allow this to happen. How many TV screens are in your gym? Can we be in the moment when running on a treadmill watching MTV? All these distractions do not create the conditions that will let you slip into The Zone. This is the important point. In my view, what we experience in The Zone is our natural state and to get there is a similar process to falling asleep, i.e, we don’t need to try. For example, when you go to bed you allow yourself to drift off and any effort to do so will stop it happening. You don’t get to sleep quicker by shutting your eyes tighter.
When you next go out for a run, play tennis or visit the gym do not let yourself be distracted by thoughts such as getting a good work out or even how well you are going to perform. Lose yourself in the activity, take your foot off the gas a little, enjoy the activity and see where it takes you. A young athlete once asked her coach how she could tell if she was in The Zone. Her coach replied “don’t worry, you’ll know!”
Roy Palmer is a teacher of The Alexander Technique and has studied performance enhancement in sport and running for the last 10 years. He believes many conventional training systems could be restricting development and even cause injury. More information about his unique training techniques can be found in his book The Peak Performance Zone.