Hey guys, I was watching a Michael Jordan classic film/tv show, and he mentioned a few times about being in a zone, where he couldnt miss, and I have heard/read a lot about athletes being in the zone, but is there any scientific evidence to back this up? Anyone have any idea what this "zone" of theirs could be? Obviously I have nowhere near the level skill Jordan has/had, so I dont know what hes talking about personally, do any of you?
Well, to me "the zone" is intense focus on your goal, whether it's winning, reaching a new PR, or whatever. "The Zone" is, I suppose for me, a mental state in which you will stop at NOTHING to achieve your goals, even if you fail, you'll get up and do it again. That's what it's like for me... Now, you could always walk down to your local "auto zone" and be in the zone....
For me the zone is a state of intense mental clarity and a perfect mind body connection. I often get into it while playing guitar, painting, training you name it. Heres a classic example: You're doing an activity and you're getting all into it, with music playing in the background. Out of nowhere you think "whoa, song 6 allready, what happened to the first 5?!" Or... Being on a hockey breakaway, and it seems like the croud goes silent.
I've come across the term 'the zone' used mainly by US sports people. The idea behind it seems to me to bear some resemblance to a concept in Chinese martial arts which in English is called 'the void'. I've seen it referred to a number of times in books, and I believe that I have experienced it to some degree while practising Taiji forms. As previous replies have said, it's like you lose your normal perspective of time, so that you don't know if you have been doing what you just did for seconds or for hours (although logically you know how long it really was, you just lose your normal sense of time.)
I used to play basketball, and the zone is just when your in the match, and everything goes right, you pull off all the shots, you cant miss, like without even trying, your just playing awesome
yeah the zone is when you can get in there and do something easily... like for instance if im in the zone when im playing pool i can sink 5 in a row, while usually im lucky if i can sink one or two
Thanks for posting guys, do any of you know any scientific studies or research into this? It would be interesting to see whats going on inside your body to cause this "zone".
Oh yeah, that happens to me alright... Then I wake up on park benches, with a crow pecking at my feet... I'd say it's either a pure streak of luck, or it's 'winner's mentality', where your body does something right, then it makes sure it does the exact same thing the next time so that it does it right again, but I don't know cause I made that up, .
To me the 'zone' is when you are performing beyond your normal limits, all your timing comes together and you seem to be able to do things effortlessly. There is also the 'anti-zone' were nothing works, your timing is of and you seem to have all the ability of a damp tea towel. However I thik its true to say with training, the number of times your in the 'zone' goes up while the amount of 'anti-zone' time goes down.
as if youve never been in the zone or know what it is, its just the zone, you know just wen your in the zone
