One
of the most powerful terms used in world sport for decades is the mental state
called 'the zone'.
This is the mental state which produces super-human
performances, amazing times and winning streaks.
Any triathlete - or
athlete of any kind for that matter, who is in this state is virtually unbeatable
at their respective level of competition - and at the elite level, you witness
records being well and truly smashed.
A triathlete who is in the zone
experiences an unusual feeling of effortless power, allowing them to feel
as if their body is powered by a turbo-charged engine, and they find their body
moving with maximum result but minimum energy.
The strange part
about this is - this powerful performance does not feel as if it is being controlled
by the actual athlete themselves! In fact, they often report feeling as if
they weren't responsible for the result at all - as if their body was being guided
and directed by a more powerful force (and this is exactly what is happening).
Almost every triathlete at some stage in their career has experienced
this feeling to some extent - even if just in one particular segment or
leg of the triathlon - and then wondered afterwards "how did I do that?"
This is the mystery that surrounds the zone - why does it appear so fleetingly,
and then disappear just as quickly as it came? And most of all - why can't we
access it all the time?
What is the powerful force which is guiding
the body during this period? The answer is the sleeping giant that resides inside
all human beings - the subconscious mind, the source of all bodily movement which
also stores all past sporting memories and experience.
When an athlete
is 'zoning', their conscious mind becomes quiet (the normally busy,
chattering mind we use all the time), and this allows their more powerful subconscious
to run their performance on 'automatic pilot', in the way a computer runs
software.
This allows their movements to flow much easier, effortlessly
increasing speed and power in a way that could never be matched by conscious thought.
This means that when you are in the zone, you have virtually no thought
going through your mind whatsoever, your body is just moving on instinct and
automatic-pilot, powered directly by your subconscious mind.
This
is not to say that your body is moving without instruction, on the
contrary, it is simply getting its instructions from a more powerful and reliable
source.
So how do we get into the zone? Everyone must find the method
that best suits their needs, but there are a few threads which run through most
'zoning' experiences, such as:
