A great advantage when competing is a heightened awareness. When we learn to manage this heightened awareness and welcome it we may have achieved the highest level of the zone.
Unfortunately, when we first encounter this heightened awareness it can overwhelm us. We are getting much more information than we ever have and it can be a distraction. Often the recommendation is to block out this information coming in or distract ourselves with one tiny detail in order to ignore all of this information that we should be sorting and taking advantage of the parts of it that are useful to us. I once read an entire book by a mental game coach with a Phd whose entire focus was to block out all this wonderful new information we were getting! While he had competed it was obvious that he had never achieved a high level zone. It was like a blind man trying to tell us what the Mona Lisa looks like.
When we first start receiving all of this extra information it is hugely distracting and the natural reaction is to fight it. The generally accepted method is to select one word or a short phrase to repeat over and over in your mind. This is a busy mind which is not good but it is better than one with dozens of distractions derailing our efforts. Words I like for pool are "smooth" or "flow" or "smoothly flowing" with the comparison to water flowing in a slow moving stream. It speeds up or slows down depending on the stream bed but everything is done smoothly. Smoothly accelerating and slowing your cue will do a great deal for most people's game. Beginning players without a home table can gain a lot at home just for spending five minutes or so several times a day practicing stroke timing and gentle starts and stops.
Moving on, at some point hopefully we learn to welcome all of this new information pouring in. We don't try to stop it or bury it we welcome it. With experience our brain learns to effortlessly sort what we need and what we don't and we aren't doing any thinking at all on a verbal level. Our unconscious absorbs the good and discards the bad and our conscious mind is almost totally an observer. If a correction needs to be made it will make it, but for the most part it is just along for the ride. When we achieve this state we can operate on the ragged edge of what it is possible for us as an individual to do.
The highest level zone is tough to reach in pool and harder to hold on to because of the constant interruptions in play of having to rack. One magic night I held it for over eight hours. With nonstop challenges on an eight foot bar box I held the table literally all night, never losing a game. Most of the time I was barely aware who I was playing and when everyone I was playing had to break off, many to go to work, I was surprised to step outside into daylight! Might have held the table ten hours or more, seemed like three or four. I had won well over a hundred games in a row, never scratching on an eightball, never accidentally pocketing an eightball. That in itself was amazing on the eight footer with buckets.
I set a record shooting the first perfect score at a pistol match after it had been going on for fifteen years when I deliberately sought the highest level zone in the last few stages of the match. Dozens of more physically gifted shooters had came before me but all had stumbled under the pressure of perfection, dropping only one or two points. In the zone I wasn't under any pressure. I have also done totally ridiculous things in circle track cars when in the zone also. Circle track racing lends itself to finding the zone more than many other things and after a little experience I could always find the zone behind the wheel.
The more often you find the true zone, the highest known zone, the easier it is to get there. When I am seeking it often I get the feeling of things opening up all around me before I strive for a perfect performance. I see better, I hear better, I move better, and I don't think in words while performing. I'm only acting and reacting as needed. Every once in awhile I still sneak out a win for all us gimpy ol' varmints! :thumbup:
Hu
Unfortunately, when we first encounter this heightened awareness it can overwhelm us. We are getting much more information than we ever have and it can be a distraction. Often the recommendation is to block out this information coming in or distract ourselves with one tiny detail in order to ignore all of this information that we should be sorting and taking advantage of the parts of it that are useful to us. I once read an entire book by a mental game coach with a Phd whose entire focus was to block out all this wonderful new information we were getting! While he had competed it was obvious that he had never achieved a high level zone. It was like a blind man trying to tell us what the Mona Lisa looks like.
When we first start receiving all of this extra information it is hugely distracting and the natural reaction is to fight it. The generally accepted method is to select one word or a short phrase to repeat over and over in your mind. This is a busy mind which is not good but it is better than one with dozens of distractions derailing our efforts. Words I like for pool are "smooth" or "flow" or "smoothly flowing" with the comparison to water flowing in a slow moving stream. It speeds up or slows down depending on the stream bed but everything is done smoothly. Smoothly accelerating and slowing your cue will do a great deal for most people's game. Beginning players without a home table can gain a lot at home just for spending five minutes or so several times a day practicing stroke timing and gentle starts and stops.
Moving on, at some point hopefully we learn to welcome all of this new information pouring in. We don't try to stop it or bury it we welcome it. With experience our brain learns to effortlessly sort what we need and what we don't and we aren't doing any thinking at all on a verbal level. Our unconscious absorbs the good and discards the bad and our conscious mind is almost totally an observer. If a correction needs to be made it will make it, but for the most part it is just along for the ride. When we achieve this state we can operate on the ragged edge of what it is possible for us as an individual to do.
The highest level zone is tough to reach in pool and harder to hold on to because of the constant interruptions in play of having to rack. One magic night I held it for over eight hours. With nonstop challenges on an eight foot bar box I held the table literally all night, never losing a game. Most of the time I was barely aware who I was playing and when everyone I was playing had to break off, many to go to work, I was surprised to step outside into daylight! Might have held the table ten hours or more, seemed like three or four. I had won well over a hundred games in a row, never scratching on an eightball, never accidentally pocketing an eightball. That in itself was amazing on the eight footer with buckets.
I set a record shooting the first perfect score at a pistol match after it had been going on for fifteen years when I deliberately sought the highest level zone in the last few stages of the match. Dozens of more physically gifted shooters had came before me but all had stumbled under the pressure of perfection, dropping only one or two points. In the zone I wasn't under any pressure. I have also done totally ridiculous things in circle track cars when in the zone also. Circle track racing lends itself to finding the zone more than many other things and after a little experience I could always find the zone behind the wheel.
The more often you find the true zone, the highest known zone, the easier it is to get there. When I am seeking it often I get the feeling of things opening up all around me before I strive for a perfect performance. I see better, I hear better, I move better, and I don't think in words while performing. I'm only acting and reacting as needed. Every once in awhile I still sneak out a win for all us gimpy ol' varmints! :thumbup:
Hu
I.e. what truly is the groove, how to get into it, and what to do with the open information feeds when you're there.
. But when I did...I played great. No question about it.