Well, yes and no. The individual that gave me this jewel saw it a little differently. Let me expound and show where AI’s info in your post contradicts itself.
Flow states can only be achieved once you reach a certain level of expertise, and have developed the muscle memory that accompanies that. He pointed out that if you see an individual that was just learning how to play the piano, and then look at a concert pianist, you could see a huge difference. A student is very conscious, slow, halting in their method, as they are just starting out. A concert pianist is much different, playing brilliantly, without any thought given to the notes or timing or finger placement in performing a difficult piece of music, they are in flow.
What AI listed in your post as “Analytical Focus” is the use of the conscious mind. Under your “how to stay in flow” section it says “flow is broken by overanalyzing” which is “thinking with your conscious mind”. So if you look at the “Analytical Focus” part again, telling you to evaluate the factors listed on every shot, you’re kind of destroying what your trying to achieve every single shot.
Let me give you a different perspective as it was given to me. My mentor believed sports like pool and golf, that once you reached a high level of proficiency, that conscious thought is the enemy of flow or reaching your full potential. As I said in my earlier post, he said “focus is the antithesis of flow”. So, let’s replace the section AI listed as “Analytical Focus”, just “see” the entire process in your “minds eye” of EXACTLY what you want to accomplish, in excruciating detail. See yourself drop on the ball, your practice strokes, striking the cueball, the cueball striking the object ball and not just pocketing it, but in the precise “part of the pocket” you need it to enter for the cue ball to take the path off the object ball to its precise spot for the next shot. See it travel the entire path until it comes to rest at that spot, on the correct side of the next ball to give you the angle for the following shot. This SOUNDS like it takes a bit of time, but in reality, this “picture or video” can be seen in it’s entirety in mere seconds. Once you’ve seen it clearly, then drop on the ball and let your subconscious mind execute it.
He believed that in the thousands of reps previously executed by you to achieve your current skill level, that your subconscious has all the factors that are required to execute perfectly “on file”. Tip placement, aiming point, speed, angle, all “on file”. That you just need to give your subconscious the “picture or video” and it will make these calculations and adjustments automatically, without any focus or conscious thought being required. Just show your mind the picture in detail, and get out of your own way and let it execute.
He was a proponent of a pre-shot routine but for different reasons than given by AI. He believed we all have a “natural rhythm” as players. As a result each player needed to create their own PSR that “fit their own natural rhythm”. That this served several things. It makes everything you do repeatable, the same every single shot. That it’s also something that “keeps you within yourself, your rhythm” in crucial moments of the match, what some call “pressure situations or shots”. To keep you from interrupting your flow state. He used to like to say there is no such thing as “a pressure shot, or situation”. That there are just shots, and the shot is no different in practice than it is in the final shot to close out a set. That people fail to see that there is no such thing as pressure. That the only difference between the same shot in practice, or to close out a match, is a players perception of the shot. That by “placing importance” on the shot to close out the match is a change in perception that creates what many call “pressure” in their minds. That if you just look at it as you do any other shot, without the conscious mind assigning “more significance” to it at that moment, that you realize it’s just another shot.
