In golf we hear quite a bit about being “in the zone”: “He was in the zone and couldn¹t miss;” “She was so deep in the zone, nothing bothered her;” “He was zoning out and didn’t even hear the crowd noise.” Sounds great, but what is the zone, exactly?
The zone is a mental state in which we are so totally focused on a task or situation that nothing breaks our concentration. We have all been there: You get so involved in a book that you don’t hear someone knocking at the door or you’re at work on a project and hours pass without you noticing.
In sports, the zone is where we reach peak performance. It is a complex state of human consciousness that, coupled with highly developed skill and physical training, can create moments and sometimes hours in which athletic performance becomes effortless and achievement goes beyond known boundaries.
The brain works so smoothly and so quickly in the zone that we may even perceive dramatic changes in the passage of time: The batter who can see the stitches on the fastball coming at him, the high-diver who feels she has forever before she plunges into the pool, the basketball player coming up through a screen of defenders and casually taking the perfect shot – they’re playing in the zone.
Names like Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Ted Williams and Arthur Ashe come to mind when we think of individuals who perform consistently in the zone.
While golf is a game like no other, golfers’ experience of the zone is similar in quality to that of other athletes. You’re in the zone when mind and body, thought and action, seem to merge into a seamless whole.
In the zone, the game becomes easy. You hit long drives in the fairway with little effort, iron shots stick close to the pin and putts seem to go in from anywhere. A confidence comes to you, creating a feeling that you can hit any shot well. A low score just seems to happen. Everything else, all the noise of the mind and senses, falls away.
For most of us, those moments of flow are rare and unpredictable. It just seems to come to us, often when we least expect it — and not as often as we’d like. There are things we can do, though, do maximize our chances of playing in the zone.
In golf, getting into the moment is all about following a mental and physical routine as you get ready to swing. Tour professionals have set routines that they work very hard on. By religiously following set mental and physical sequences, they are able to eliminate extraneous thoughts and focus on what they want to accomplish.
The physical aspects of a routine can include taking your grip, setting posture and ball position, taking a practice swing to create the proper feel, a waggle to release tension before the swing, and the actual swing that hits the shot. The mental routine includes making a plan, visualizing the proper execution of that plan, committing to the plan, thinking of and executing the physical aspects of the routine, and maintaining a mental picture of the target throughout the process.
Being in the zone in golf is basically about having no negative thoughts. Your mental pictures are so good that you simply expect good results. The beauty of this is that even if you don’t hit a good shot this time, it doesn’t matter because you know the next shot will be great. You think and act entirely in the present.
This is a lot to demand of the mind, and that’s exactly the point. You want to keep your mind too busy to wander off into thinking about what could go wrong, because once you start thinking, “Better not hit it into the bunker,” you’re more than likely to do exactly that.
We may not be able to get in the zone at will, but even when that eludes us, we continue to think of positive outcomes and minimize our negative thoughts. Of course this is easier said than done: You can’t just go out one day and decide to have only positive thoughts. Just as we need to practice to build muscle memory and repetitive motions, we need to practice to develop consistent thought patterns. So do spend some of your range-time establishing and working on your routine, one step at a time. The more you think positively and execute properly, the easier it becomes.
The athlete who learns to give total, positive attention in the moment feels fully absorbed in his actions. Immersion in the moment brings on the zone, and the immense pleasure of performing at your absolute peak.
Ted Norby is the Director of Instruction at the National University Golf Academy