Roadmap to the Zone

Sport psychology has come a long way in the past decade.  Motivated by the stories of athletes overcoming impossible odds to succeed (see the ‘Inspirational Stories’ section for a few of them), many researchers and coaches have dedicated their careers to finding out how to best prepare for, and what to think about during, competition.  This book was written for athletes and any other performer who is searching for detailed “directions” on their journey toward understanding high performance and attaining their biggest dreams.

Using the analogy of a “Roadmap,” we have assumed that everyone reading this book is embarking on a journey to the same destination.  That destination is the “Performance Zone,” or simply, THE ZONE.  The Zone has for years been described as a highly illusive state of being where performance happens automatically, effortlessly, favorably, but also randomly.  Controlling the Zone is compared to controlling the weather - things seem to happen by chance, even illogically.  Why is it that we tend to find the Zone when we don’t care as much about finding it? Why does the Zone go away as soon as we acknowledge that it’s there? If you have found the Zone, you likely know it to be a highly pleasurable place filled with confidence, focus and enjoyment.  You probably recall very few distractions, no fear of making errors, and no thought of the potential outcome.  If you’ve found the Zone once, you want it every time you compete.

On this journey to the Zone, we travelers need to know which path to follow, what to experience along the way, when to turn, and what to expect next.  Similarly, we have attempted to give clear directions about which psychological skills to use, their benefits, and how to practice them so you can improve the chances of Zoning.

While we may all be going to the same destination, we acknowledge that different people will choose different paths.  This is a necessary reality on the road to enhancing one’s performance.  Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses as well as varying motives to succeed.  The skills discussed in this book will be combined by each individual in various ways that make the most sense for that individual.  We endeavor to give guidelines along the way, much like a travel agent.  As any successful travel agent does, we use our years of experience to provide an ‘ideal’ roadmap to follow so that your goals are met in the most beneficial way.

Here’s an obvious statement, but a hugely important one: Before you can embark on any journey, you need to know where you’re going.  We find that most athletes have left the station and they’re not sure which train they’re on! So, it makes sense that goal setting should be our first chapter.  We’ve developed an easy and straight-forward way to set, follow and update what you’re trying to accomplish.  After we know where we’re going, it will help if we can imagine ourselves making the journey successfully.  In this process, we will not only more fully believe that we can succeed at the journey, we will be better prepared for the potential difficulties that all journeys entail.  As such, Chapter 2 will discuss visualization.  Next, as we experience these difficulties (adversity), we will need to be strong enough to get ourselves through it.  What we tell ourselves in the face of this adversity will be a big factor in how hard and how long we will persist.  Chapter 3 will cover ideal self-talk.  Adversity is not only likely to occur, but necessary for us to become strong enough to perform at the highest levels of our sport or activity.  Much of this ‘strength’ comes in the form of emotional strength.  It is critical all performers understand how their emotions can be controlled by their thoughts.  Chapter 4 puts it all together so performers can quickly remind themselves of the critical components necessary for finding the zone.  A new “flow diagram” of emotion control is presented for the first time.  It’s a step-by-step process for the performer to consistently find the zone during competition.  Finally, Chapter 5 serves as a ‘follow-through’ chapter, helping athletes build these skills and concepts into their weekly training regimen.

Let’s get started!

See It Before You Believe It

You know the old saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it”? If you’ve ever said that to yourself, you probably meant that you didn’t believe something was ever going to happen and that you’d need to see it first.  Unfortunately, high performance doesn’t quite work that way.  In fact, anybody who ever achieved anything of significance “saw” it in their mind first (imagined it) and then believed it was possible to bring into reality.  Examples include: Bannister breaking the 4-minute mile; Armstrong landing on the moon; Bell inventing the telephone; the Wright Brothers succeeding at manned flight.  In every case, these people clearly saw it was possible before anyone else believed it.  They had a mental picture of what they were going to do long before they actually did it.  Imagining it enhanced their belief that it was possible to do.

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Softcover

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