My definition for "Being in the Zone"

N

naji

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hello all,
I responded to a post recently, and thought this might be good for a new thread subject:


My definition for "Being in the Zone" means:


1. You won your 1st game, 2nd, and no pressure any more, you do not hear people say "He is in the zone when he looses a match, it seems this phrase is reserved for winners only

2. You are holding cue butt lightly, your wrist is fluid, you are following through and staying down on almost every shot therefore, your CB speed is almost perfect due to muscle memory.

3. You know every little secret about the game advance knowledge as well as applying it, and you figured out the table cloth well. Additionally, most shots on table seem to align with almost all your check list items that "you are aware of". (Some check list items, we are not aware that effect a shot which is major reason for us not being consistent at times).

4. You are at your favorite pool hall, playing your best "fish", on the table you love the most, favorite CB, and game you like, surrounded by your best fans

5. No outside distraction, no guilt feelings, you taken care of work, family and everyone you deal with; health is good, slept very well last night, happy about life at least that day, all of these are BIG factors in freeing your memory bank which in turn and automatically allocates freed memory to what you are doing weather pool, play music, play chess, giving a speech..etc. Having free memory in the conscious mind helps in decisions making so you select better patterns more often, which way to shoot some shots, and seem to help on keeping your winning $$, or match and not let it all go away.

6. Sorry, luck on your side more % than opponent; balls seem to favor you more " always luck sides with winners" (you cannot be lucky and loose)

7. If you cannot "Be in the Zone" all the times or 99% of times, back to the drawing board and start figure out what did you do wrong, which check list item missed, when exactly things started to go wrong, keep record of it, and trust your inner feeling, and go out and prove what you came up with in money game, if it works great, if not keep trying..

8. Other issues i am sure..


Best of luck
 
My definition would be:

A pleasurable state of mind where deep concentration on the activity is effortless and execution is easy.
 
(((Satori))) said:
My definition would be:

A pleasurable state of mind where deep concentration on the activity is effortless and execution is easy.
Click to expand...

Agree, but i like to be specific, and point out what actually bring us to that level at least from my own opinion and the long journey with this game !!
 
Staying down on every shot not most.

When you're in the zone you are completely focused and on autopilot. There is know thought to what you are doing because the game has become effortless.

Said this time and again...The zone is when both your mental and physical games peak at the same time. Its the purest and most blissful part of life and should be played out until the feeling diminishes..
 
naji said:
My definition for "Being in the Zone" means:...
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I have to disagree with most of these points. Being in the zone is subjective and has nothing to do with your skill level or amount of knowledge. After all, a C-player can be in the zone, not just a professional. It's the individual's level of focus, determination, and coordination with his body, that as a result, lets the individual play better and more controlled than usual, regardless of skill.

It also has nothing to do with solving your personal issues outside of pool. Being in the zone is having the focus necessary to simply ignore them and concentrate on the table.

EDIT: To elaborate on this, pool used to be an escape for me sometimes. When I had personal problems, I used to hop on the table and just start hitting balls. A calmness would come over me, and my mind would go blank, focused only on the execution. It's completely possible (in an my case more likely) to hit a gear in this scenario, than when my personal life is in order (which is never is anyway lol).

(((Satori))) said:
My definition would be:

A pleasurable state of mind where deep concentration on the activity is effortless and execution is easy.
Click to expand...

This however is bang on. Adding further details detracts from the purity of the situation.
 
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Right on Nate you're right. One day I got zoned in was a pretty horrible day for me. Lost my job wife left me, car broke down and found out I wasn't a man!! You know what? Even though I was having a really bad day in life my pool game was perfect!! After hitting my last ball I stopped and smiled because it really didn't matter to me anymore. My problems were all but problems but that day on that table was perfect and that's all that matter to me.

I guess what you are trying to say is that you are trying to give yourself the best opprotunity to pop into the zone but it doesn't work like that. The shit just happens whenever. There is no magical or ideal situation you can create to get you there. Otherwise I would try it everyday of my life :lol:
 
In the zone is nothing more than seeing what needs to be done at the moment and just doing that. Its a Zen thing. Theres no past, no future just this moment you put your whole being into. You get out of your head, so to speak.

You can be in the zone doing dishes.
 
My out of the zone can give the zone the 7.

We used to be tight but he never comes around anymore.

F the Zone.
 
RRfireblade said:
My out of the zone can give the zone the 7.

We used to be tight but he never comes around anymore.

F the Zone.
Click to expand...

My zone hasn't happened very often but when it does, it seems I don't think about anything. I don't see anything but the balls and the table. I can tell everything is going in before I shoot. I literally cannot see anything that's going on in the room or around the table at all, nor do I care. When I am not in the zone I am talking to myself in my head and I notice everything around the table. I get sharked easy and let things bother me that shouldn't:-).
 
ahhh... The Zone.

In Basketball, it's been said that when in "The Zone" the hoop looks like it's the size of a bushel basket. In Baseball, they say that you can read the lettering on the baseball, and in both it's said that time seems to slow down.

For me, on the rare occasion that I enter that place while at the table. I can actually see the lines on the table as if somebody has drawn the pattern for me and execution of the shot is something that requires no more than stroking the ball.
 
What could be going on? Your body sends 11 million bits of information per second to the brain for processing. The part of the brain you are using to read this can only handle 50 bits per second.. The rest is filtered out as noise. Being in the Zone is when your brain is free to make the ball without distractions. Some players can quite the brain by talking, drinking alcohol or taking drugs.
 
RunoutJJ said:
Right on Nate you're right. One day I got zoned in was a pretty horrible day for me. Lost my job wife left me, car broke down and found out I wasn't a man!! You know what? Even though I was having a really bad day in life my pool game was perfect!! After hitting my last ball I stopped and smiled because it really didn't matter to me anymore. My problems were all but problems but that day on that table was perfect and that's all that matter to me.

I guess what you are trying to say is that you are trying to give yourself the best opprotunity to pop into the zone but it doesn't work like that. The shit just happens whenever. There is no magical or ideal situation you can create to get you there. Otherwise I would try it everyday of my life :lol:
Click to expand...

If what you saying is true RJJ about wife leaving and lost work, are good things happened to you, it made you free man and the heavy weight you have on your shoulder is lifted, so you played good pool, it probably has not sink in yet to effect your game then.

Again, we are humans, not magicians, we cannot control what we do not know so we try to guess at it and if we persist and continue to research it, we will be able to eliminate none sense reasoning. Some people know more than others in every aspect of life; therefore, they are better at judging and eliminating reasons than those that do not know as well. Take for example, and speaking of myself here; i played for 20 years and never ever crossed my mind that there is such a thing as pool cue deflection, squirt stuff when applying english; 10 years later it is different, i know why i miss now; sure i own a pool table at home, and have much more time to figure it out; pool is all about little stuff like this, thousands of possibilities so closely tangled together, unless you untangle them all one at a time "accurately", will never know when that ZONE comes, until then the ZONE will remain a mystery and you and Nate will continue to call it " The shit just happens whenever"
 
Here my thought... imagine ur listening to music on the radio,and all of a sudden one of ur favorite songs come on. You start rockin back and forth bobbing ur head looking for a pretty girl in the car next to u . You feel great then the song ends. This is the zone u got to feel the rythem of the game and when it hits u u feel like dancing even if u dont know how to dance u feel like u do. I stay in the zone longer and longer i lo e being in a pool hall its magic.. now go take some dancing lessons.
 
In the case of the highest gear I've ever caught and maintained for more than an hour or two,it felt like what Bruce Lee's sensei described in Enter The Dragon as spiritual insight that transcends physical technique.

On that day,I missed balls I shot at,and missed safety attempts or a tough kick sure,but in 10 races to 13,I never just flat blew a shot for no apparent reason.

There were times where 1/8 of an inch could have hooked me,left an opening on a safe etc,but except in the cases of something really tough to bordering on WTF,I executed to the limits of human performance.

I put together 10 consecutive .900 sets (not estimated,actually scored on paper!) where I missed no more than 2 makeable balls,and 3 sets in a row where I didn't miss a single shot to pocket a ball,but had errors where I had to play safe,or kissed off a ball and scratched,etc.

The high was a .959,no balls missed and included a run of 4 full racks,and a 5 pack to finish the set AFTER my opponent ran 6 of his own to go up 9-8.

He came up dry,he laughed and said "well shit,I just played the best pool of my life and now I gotta watch you run the set out...."

I agreed jokingly and did exactly that,and be damned if it didn't feel just as basic and natural as spitting out your SSN when someone asks you during some kind of business meeting.

I've only approached it a few times since,and went waaay further than I should have trying to chase it. Tommy D.
 
naji said:
Hello all,
I responded to a post recently, and thought this might be good for a new thread subject:


My definition for "Being in the Zone" means:


1. You won your 1st game, 2nd, and no pressure any more, you do not hear people say "He is in the zone when he looses a match, it seems this phrase is reserved for winners only

2. You are holding cue butt lightly, your wrist is fluid, you are following through and staying down on almost every shot therefore, your CB speed is almost perfect due to muscle memory.

3. You know every little secret about the game advance knowledge as well as applying it, and you figured out the table cloth well. Additionally, most shots on table seem to align with almost all your check list items that "you are aware of". (Some check list items, we are not aware that effect a shot which is major reason for us not being consistent at times).

4. You are at your favorite pool hall, playing your best "fish", on the table you love the most, favorite CB, and game you like, surrounded by your best fans

5. No outside distraction, no guilt feelings, you taken care of work, family and everyone you deal with; health is good, slept very well last night, happy about life at least that day, all of these are BIG factors in freeing your memory bank which in turn and automatically allocates freed memory to what you are doing weather pool, play music, play chess, giving a speech..etc. Having free memory in the conscious mind helps in decisions making so you select better patterns more often, which way to shoot some shots, and seem to help on keeping your winning $$, or match and not let it all go away.

6. Sorry, luck on your side more % than opponent; balls seem to favor you more " always luck sides with winners" (you cannot be lucky and loose)

7. If you cannot "Be in the Zone" all the times or 99% of times, back to the drawing board and start figure out what did you do wrong, which check list item missed, when exactly things started to go wrong, keep record of it, and trust your inner feeling, and go out and prove what you came up with in money game, if it works great, if not keep trying..

8. Other issues i am sure..


Best of luck
Click to expand...

This sounds like me last night. ;)
 
RunoutJJ said:
Staying down on every shot not most.

When you're in the zone you are completely focused and on autopilot. There is know thought to what you are doing because the game has become effortless.

Said this time and again...The zone is when both your mental and physical games peak at the same time. Its the purest and most blissful part of life and should be played out until the feeling diminishes..
Click to expand...

I like this very much, and I agree 100%
 
naji said:
All pro players play in the zone 99% of the times; It is a clear indication that the more knowledgeable in the game secrets you are the more often you will be in the ZONE, plus mind state is optimum.
Click to expand...

I believe there is a difference in playing good and being in the zone.
 
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