The Zone

It drives me crazy that I never know how I might perform on a given day. Some days, I'm gliding, floating, cruising! Seemingly effortlessly I meet my training and racing time targets. I'm in the zone. Other days, I feel clumsy, awkward, and misaligned, just completely out of it. On days like this, I never hit any targets. No, It's not that I'm over trained, it's just plain weird. Wouldn't it be nice if we could turn a switch and enter the zone? I have asked myself this question for the longest time, actually ever since I became consciously aware of having been in the zone. I took notes, re-enacted the circumstances, tried to recall my mind set, and did all kinds of stuff. Sorry, I did not find the Holy Grail yet. I learned to enter the zone more often but whenever I really, really wanted to go there in a very bad way, I failed.

All those years, I was aware that scientists worked to uncover a set of preparatory conditions that were powerfully linked to optimal performance and made success more likely. I don't mean working only on overcoming negative psychological states, like anxiety and fear. That has been done for as long as I've been in adult sport. Even as a youth soccer player, we would all lay on the floor of a darkened room, doing stuff like imagery and goal setting and working on self confidence. As important as this is, I want to find the entry code to what has been called peak performance, optimal performance, ‘flow' or THE ZONE. Could I consistently have this positive subjective experience during training and races, I would be a happy man. Think about it. At any time, you can effortlessly move from disorder, disharmony and anxiety to harmony, to a state of flow. Heaven!

I have explained and discussed the state of flow many times in the past. I have described the experience in writing. As a soccer player, I became completely unaware of spectators, was on auto-pilot, read the game perfectly, knew without any doubt what would happen next all over the field, had perfect anticipation of the game situation, executed perfectly… As a runner, I suddenly feel like a cheetah in motion. I lose sense of time; I only know I'm fluid, in motion, fast. My breathing becomes more regular and deeper, only the muscles involved in hurling my body through space are active; the rest of my body grows still. I'm happy.

This is not common. It happens infrequently, it certainly is not the way I function every day. What a shame! But I've been there, done it. And I will go there again, you know it, I know it. Why am I allowed to enter the zone so infrequently? Ask science and they guarantee nothing but give flow the following characteristics

• perceived challenge – skill balance
• merging of action and awareness
• clearly defined goals and feedback
• total focus
• sense of control
• loss of self-consciousness
• time distortion
• intrinsically rewarding experiences

Yes, it all sounds good to me. Anxiety is the result of an imbalance between my perceived difficulty of the task ahead (training goals, race times) and my skill level. Flow cannot happen if I'm scared sh..less. Contrary, more times I'm entering the zone when I'm out on a hard but not not overly challenging run. Certainly, a high challenge/high skill situation is not needed or might even make entry more difficult. Maybe boredom opens the door? That would be funny. No wait, I learned that boredom never leads to flow. The activity has to be challenging but I have to feel that I can deal with it. It really happens automatically, when I think of nothing in particular, certainly not of flow and the damn elusive key to it. Wham, all of the sudden I'm one with my activity. Everything falls into place. It happens to me, I don't make it happen. As a soccer player, time slowed down to slow motion and I felt like having all the time in the world to trap, pass or shoot. Time was abundant. As a runner, time speeds up and the training run is over in no time at all. Too my great astonishment, I have to say. But very seldom it happens in my throwing events (discus, shot, javelin). And it never happens in my jumping events (long, high, pole). That makes sense as I'm not confident in my abilities.

I do not know if a “runner's high” is an identical experience since I have always associated the state of consciousness with being in the zone. I know further research is being conducted as we speak. It seems to be clear that our understanding of flow is still in its infancy. My wife is an artist and she experiences flow. Back in my teens I 'managed' a rock band. Flow happened and they were on a roll! I talked to a dude who took on 50 opponents simultaneously kicking their butts in chess. Flow, he said, I've got the groove, baby. I've heard of elite athletes saying they can make flow happen. I hope this is true! As I mentioned, I get better at it, enter more often. But a conscious effort to turn the switch and… I'm in? Dream on, Waltermann. Now, science is telling me to focus on factors that have been identified as necessary precursors to flow. Well, I go along, concentrate and work to prepare my state of mind, open myself and let the flow in:

• positive mental attitude
• confidence in meeting the challenge
• mental plans
• physical preparedness
• task - goal orientation
• optimal environmental and situational conditions
• high motivation
• maintaining appropriate focus

And I have one important advantage, I feel. I'm not in a sport to make a living. I'm an age grouper, an older athlete. I judge success by the quality of my performance as I see it, irresponsible of placement and opponents (there are none, only fellow runners). My athletic activity is truly task-oriented, not ego-oriented. I cannot control how my peers perform. On the contrary, great performances by a fellow age grouper of any age make me proud and happy. Thus, I have less emotional barriers to the zone, at least I feel that way.

What about factors that might prevent flow? Again, let's hear science:

• physical problems such as injury and over-training
• mistakes by self or team-mates
• distraction and loss of concentration (well, what about the boredom factor?)
• negative mental attitude
• low confidence
• low intrinsic motivation

Like so often, science is nothing but putting common sense into words. But it purifies my thought process and helps me to understand a bit better what I'm really after. Still, to sum things up, I still don't know with certainty how to enter the zone. In many ways, it will remain an intrinsic challenge of sport in general and of my struggle for perfection in particular. I do know without any doubt that as I continue to enjoy the journey towards my goals I learn more consistent routes towards more positive experiences including peak performance, flow or the zone. Never ever forget to enjoy the journey, Mr. Waltermann.