What, Or Where, Is The Zone?
Competing in sport, or even coaching it, brings with it a variety of emotions and mental experiences. Rightly or wrongly, the positive ones have often been called ‘the zone’. It’s not uncommon for athletes to say, “I was in the zone today.” One of our common requests is, “Can you help me get into the zone?”.
The Zone and its cousin, Flow, describe effortless optimal performance. In both, internal processes do not prevent us from executing our skills to the best of our abilities. And typically, consistency prevails.
These same internal experiences more commonly create barriers to effective performance. They can test individuals’ mental toughness by challenging their ability to self-regulate and manage these experiences constructively. Note the idea of “self-regulation” because we want our clients to develop the skills to do this independently. Relying on others (including us as their performance psychologist) is a short-term solution only.
Self-regulation is Psychbabble for Managing Your Emotions Yourself
The widely used Yerkes-Dodson Inverted U Stress Curve suggests that we should always try to be somewhat aroused. In other words, some nerves are better than others before or during pressure.
This theory has two major flaws. Firstly, it overplays the role that emotions play in optimal performance. It incorrectly implies that athletes must feel a certain way to perform at their best. We know this is not true. Both scientific and anecdotal evidence confirm that humans can be excellent across a huge range of emotions.
Secondly, the Yerkes-Dodson model suggests that being too relaxed before competition is bad. This is BS. Unless you’re asleep and miss the opening whistle, there is no downside to being very relaxed.
The Relaxed Competition Mindset
One way to begin developing a Relaxed Competition Mindset is to understand the Zones of Awareness. These zones suggest that we can attend to information through three different zones. Zone One is an inner zone (physiological sensations), Zone Two is the middle zone (thoughts), and Zone Three is the outer zone (the five senses).
When we function well and cope with our situation, our awareness across these zones is balanced. This allows us to respond very effectively and efficiently. This is very useful in high-pressure situations because maintaining a balanced awareness means we can respond quickly to stimuli. In other words, we can maintain good levels of focus during perceived chaos.
When we get too caught up in one of the zones, we can lose this balance. This can impair our abilities and cause distress, reducing the opportunity for optimal performance.
Being Outside Of The Zone
While each person is different, how we respond to adversity is universal. In such situations, people tend to become much more aware of their self-talk and physiological state. “Oh my, I can actually feel my heart racing,” for example.
When we first notice our thinking or physiology shifting unhelpfully, strategies such as mindfulness can prove effective.
When these experiences become too intense, trying to challenge our thoughts or become more aware of our bodies can feel like adding fuel to an already burning fire. This is where the third zone (the outer zone) can become useful in helping us manage.
The Five Senses
Individuals competing outdoors might consider pulling out some grass from the field for the sense of touch. Or tightly gripping a towel and noticing the feeling. What about taste? Eating as part of a pre-match routine can help, but instead of quickly consuming the food, notice the flavours more. For each mouthful or while chewing gum, try to notice the release of flavour with each bite. With the sense of smell, we notice any smells in our environment, such as muscle rub creams. For sight, individuals may ask themselves how many colours they can notice around them. Or how many people can they count wearing hats? Listening to music as part of a pre-match routine can really help get your head out of the way.
It’s Also A Matter of Timing
It should be noted that we don’t want to consider these things while trying to execute skills. In other words, the majority of the Relaxed Competition Mindset work should be done before we start competing.
Ultimately, that’s the key. We want to be able to shift our attention and focus where necessary to restore balance and composure to your internal state. In doing so, we remove some internal barriers to performance, which puts us in a position to meet our performance potential.
If you’d like our help Getting Into The Zone, then below are a few ways to contact us:
- Via email at [email protected]
- Via our Contact Us form here
- By completing one of our Mental Toughness Questionnaires
