How To Help Concentration

Stockton, California, sports reporter Bob Highfill examined the phenomenon of the "zone" experience in local athletes. He found one Stockton resident, Dave Bolles, who bowled three consecutive perfect games – thirty-six strikes in a row – to win a PBA Tour event. Even though he was weakened at the time by a bout of food poisoning, he managed to screen out distractions and bowl at a superhuman level. "All I had was a target line in my head," Bolles said. "Everything I had worked on just clicked. I got myself into such a good state of mind… [the pins] just kept falling."

 

Volleyballer Nicole Davis played for the University of Southern California (USC) and for the U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team (winning the silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics). She said, "When I feel like I'm in the zone, everything happens in slow motion. It's automatic. There isn't a lot of thought involved."

 

Basketball standout Adam Jacobsen said, "It's when you really have peace of mind, so you're almost not thinking about anything. If you try to get into the zone, you're thinking too much. It's a trusting place. You just play."

 

And four-time Olympic high jumper Amy Acuff said that physical and mental preparation, including training and diet, were essential to getting into "the zone." She added, "The key is not overthinking things or being too analytical. It's kind of like letting the artistic side of your brain come out." When the "artistic" side of your brain unleashes your physical performance, Bob Highfill concludes, "great things can happen."

 

One of the great examples of an "in the zone" performance took place in Game One of the 1992 NBA Finals, the Chicago Bulls versus the Portland Trail Blazers. The player who was "zoned," of course, was Michael Jordan. NBC sportscaster Mary Albert recalled that he and his broadcast partners, Mike Fratello and Magic Johnson, interviewed Jordan before the game – and Jordan predicted that he would hit a lot of three-point shots.

 

The game began, and just as Jordan had predicted, he came out shooting threes. In the first half alone, he drained six three-point field goals and scored thirty-five points, setting two NBA Finals records. After that sixth three-point shot, Jordan jogged right in front of the announcers' table with his hands raised and a grin on his face. He shrugged as if to say, "I can't explain it either!" And that game has been known as "The Shrug Game" ever since.

 

The "zone" experience is certainly not confined to athletes. Artists, musicians, dancers, public speakers, and writers often speak of experiencing a state of "flow" while they are creating or performing. In The Michelangelo Method, Kenneth Schuman and Ronald Paxton describe how Michelangelo created the paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling while undergoing an "in the zone" experience:

 

For four years, Michelangelo worked cramped upon the elaborate scaffolding he had erected … Most of the time, Michelangelo stood high above the ground, his back arched in a painful curve, his vision strained, toxic paint dripping in his eyes …

 

Michelangelo was no glutton for punishment. He preferred the controlled working environment of his beloved sculpture studio. But he understood responsibility. He understood that when there is something you want to do, you should throw yourself into it and do it right ... determined not to just go through the motions but to create a masterpiece …

 

Some call it flow. Some call it being in the zone. Others don't have a name for it, but they know it when they feel it. Whatever you call it, it's that feeling you get when you're something amazing. And doesn't it feel good? And wouldn't it be nice to always feel like that when you're working on your masterpiece?

 

Michael J. Cassutt is a television producer and screenwriter who has worked with such shows as Beverly Hills 90210, The New Twilight Zone, The New Outer Limits, and Eerie, Indiana. He once recalled an "in the zone" experience he had in the 1980s while working as a screenwriter for a CBS television drama:

 

We were scrambling late at night to add a holiday element to an episode that had to start filming in the morning. In the middle of the scramble, I sat down with the script and a pencil (of all things) and – with no prior thought or discussion, sitting on the couch in an office filled with producers, assistants and actors, just closing my eyes and picturing a conversation, I wrote a scene about a homeless teen recalling the best Christmas he'd ever experienced.

 

It took all of fifteen minutes. I handed in the pages to be typed into the script. Half an hour later the typist returned, tears streaming down her face, demanding to know how I'd done that. I didn't know. I had just been In the Zone.

 

The power of the "in the zone" experience is available to us all, regardless of our field of endeavor. The key to getting into "the zone" is to live in the moment, to focus intently on the now, on this present moment of time. To learn more, you can check out How To Help Concentration.

 

 

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