Have you ever performed amazingly well in sport, seemingly without effort?
Two former, great athletes, Ted Williams, a baseball player for the Boston Red Sox, and Arthur Ashe, a Wimbledon champion, are credited with coining the phrase 'in the zone' when they described their amazing feats. To others, achieving top results seemingly effortlessly is known as the flow.
Regardless of what you call it, it's a much sought-after state of mind and one that seems to make anything possible.
Even before the zone was named, people have been fascinated by its existence. Often seen as the high point of an athlete's accomplishments, it typifies a state in which the individual is able to ignore
all distractions and perform at his or her best.
In his 1990 book Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes it as a 'state of being so involved in an activity that nothing else matters'. According to Csikszentmihalyi, certain conditions must exist before this heightened mental state can be achieved.
There must be clear goals and immediate feedback. Any conscious distractions should be eliminated. The athlete shouldn't fear failure or feel self-conscious about their performance.
