Getting in the Zone: Part 2
07/17/23
In my previous blog post, I made a distinction between “Being in the Zone” and “Getting in the Zone.” The blog was centered around the necessity of taking actionable steps to create the “zone” with effort and intentionality in high stakes performance settings. Part of what generates confidence in athletes is having tools they can utilize to perform at a high level.
First, it’s important to note that no amount of mental preparation can replace the physical preparation that comes with deliberate practice to succeed at your sport. That might seem obvious, but it’s an important point to challenge athletes with when assessing their performance. Am I giving 100% to my physical and mental preparation? This is not about perfection, but about an unrelenting commitment to get better every day. The foundation of excellent performance is equal parts both physical and mental work. There are no short cuts.
“Getting in the Zone” is about intentionally activating an athlete’s mental muscles. This activation requires purposeful repetition. The mistake many athletes can fall into when they start working on mental performance techniques, is getting discouraged when they don’t see immediate results. I remind athletes they didn’t become an elite athlete overnight. Through hours, days, weeks, months, and years of relentless practice and training they became an elite athlete, so be patient about becoming ‘mentally elite’. This doesn’t mean that when athletes starts implementing techniques they won’t see some quick nuggets of success, but learning to get in the zone CONSISTENTLY is what takes time. Consistency is also what separates good from great athletes.
Tips for athletes “Getting in the Zone”:
1. What gets you out of the zone? Often athletes can’t identify exactly how they “got in the zone”, so a great starting point is getting clear about what interferes with their ability to mentally lock in to perform. What mental hurdles knock them off balance and cause destabilization? The key in this exercise is having athletes name specific things that get them out of the zone that are in THEIR control. This backwards process helps clarify the mental hurdles that get athletes out of the zone, and provides insight into the specific techniques that aid in jumping over them. When an athlete prepares for a game, they first have to take into consideration who their opponent is. You tailor your game plan according to who you’re playing against. Similarly, we have to know what an athlete’s ‘mental opponent’ is so we can specifically strategize ways on how to overcome it.
2. Visualization. Every athlete has an experience they can name when they were in the zone. Through visualization we can help athletes recreate being in the zone state by tapping into their senses of what it felt like. I’ll ask athletes to first just create space to think about the event, and notice if anything stands out to them about how they were thinking or feeling. This is to scan for any general clues about that zone state they were in. Next, I will have them reflect upon any specific information related to their five senses during that event: see, hear, touch, taste or smell. My goal is to facilitate a process where athletes learn how to access the mental portal that takes them to the zone. The more clearly the athlete can tap into their 5 senses related to the zone state, the more powerful their ability to recreate that space.
3. Rehearsal. Rehearsal has many forms, and I think it can be overwhelming if you don’t break it down. I try to have an athlete pick a specific memorable point in their performance that feels most pivotal to getting in the zone. This could be before, during, or after a race or event. For example, right before they get on the blocks for their event, walking into the stadium with their headphones on, driving on the bus to the arena. The key is having an athlete pick something that they perceive to be most connected to unlocking their zone state. Then I ask them to rehearse what an ‘idealized’ zone state would feel like in relation to that event? What would they ideally be thinking, feeling, and experiencing? The key is helping athletes uncover who their ideal ‘zone’ self is, and learning how to connect with that version of themselves consistently over time.