Had a look at the first few posts in that thread, will read through a little more later.
You've now got me wondering - my regular level of awareness is still a long way from my deepest experiences of the zone. I think one reason is there's a conscious component to my aiming routine (which includes a little bit of visualization - perhaps another unhelpful (in this context) contribution from sports psychology theory!). I might try replacing that with autopilot, see what happens.
The shooting story is great. In the other thread you mentioned the importance of the last couple of shots, under pressure. I think the psychology of performing well under pressure is one of the biggest misconceptions people have, the popular idea of toughness and steeling oneself to overcome the situation...
For me, in my regular level of zone, it's very much following the same process as on a normal shot, with my attention in the same places.
It sounds like for you, it was the 'usual' channeling of the zone.
(If anyone else is still reading this, I guess my quick take-away advice for pressure situations would be to follow your normal routine, and pay attention to the same visual details or sensations as you normally do, and even if your level is below your performance without pressure, hopefully it will still be a good level of performance considering the circumstances - better than choking completely or panicking!)
I don't try to find the zone every time I compete. When I was competing several times a week with a pistol and shooting another thousand rounds or so in practice I found myself entering the zone pretty often. The matches were a series but each one was a 600 point match. There had been dozens of 598's amd 599's shot, I had probably shot a half-dozen or so myself. Over the course of the fifteen years there were at least a dozen, maybe twice that many, shooters with the physical skills to shoot clean. Easily eight or ten with better physical skills than mine while I competed. However, I had more experience competing, and trying to improve myself competing than perhaps anyone that shot those matches. For ten years it was a rare night I wasn't gambling on a pool table and this was with no quarter asked or given. I had competed at a handful of other things too. I had only taken up shooting a pistol competitively after a major injury. I went to the range to plink, they had competition matches, I'm in!
When I was clean half way through the match I shot clean I realized I had shot the hardest stages for me and the only thing between me and a 600 was between my ears. I decided right then I was shooting a six hundred that night, storm or no storm. I went down in the dark end of the firing line and visualized each of those stages as strongly as possible and even planned using the starting buzzer to drop into the zone. Each stage I dropped into the zone in less than a second, on demand! That was the amazing part, Far better competitors than I have found it impossible to drop into the zone on demand. I did it at least the two times that night I needed to.
Applying this to pool, how often do we miss shots that we fully visualize first? Odds are very few! If we can visualize it fully, we can shoot it! When we don't understand the shot well enough to visualize it, the odds of making it go way down.
As far as using the zone or anything related to competition at work, naah! I was taking a break, basically playing hooky when I practiced something from competition like breathing or dominant eye control. I was pretty productive when I was working, to the point my last few bosses accepted I was planning my weekend fishing trip or trips after lunch on Fridays barring a fire to put out. The great thing about being a Mechanical Designer, I could be staring out the window working my butt off or daydreaming and nobody could be sure which!
Funny thing, my two favorite jobs were working in design engineering and commercial crawfishing before I was injured and moved behind a desk. It was very nice to hit the outdoors before daylight and spend the day alone. After decades of hunting and fishing I thought I knew the outdoors. I learned more in six months of seven days a week outdoors than I had learned in my lifetime before!
Definitely getting into late night rambling. quietening my mind is in sore need of practice, something else that you can work on at work!
Hu
I guess if I were a level above where I am now, I would realize I don't know much.
