The Zone: “Flow”, “Nirvana”, “Lights on, nobody home,” and my favorite, “White moment”, is a dreamlike state in which you perceive an uninterrupted stream, a reality far greater and totally other than our every day existence.
Truly, the experience is hard to put into words. It could not be combined with your every round routine in the usual way and its appearance seemed to be disturbingly linked to the concept of “nothing.” Thus from Bob Jones: “There's very little reflection on the nature of the state itself. Indeed, as soon as you try to examine it, the experience is gone, as soon as you begin to reflect on it, it fades.” There lies the root of the experience - an unconscious exercise becomes a way to escape your self into yourself.
What happens to your brain as you get into the Zone? Many artists say that you are capable of making virtually unlimited number of synaptic connections or potential patterns of thoughts. Your consciousness stays intact throughout the experience, so that you could later recall and record it imprecise detail.
- Your mind and body are fully alert and hungry for action.
- Is unique and unprecedented.
- Thus, it never forces itself.
- The Zone is a rope stretched between the swing, the muscle and the mind, a rope over an abyss.
- A dangerous crossing if you are afraid to make a mistake.
- It is dangerous looking back (and down), you have to keep yourself in the now.
- Focusing your attention in the objective be sure of the next steep.
- Turning all the distractions, you play the course warily.
- For in truth, the zone is the beginning, the point beyond which there is nothing knowable.
- Everything runs on autopilot, and unconsciously you exercise a way to escape your self.
- A long walking dream of pure play.
- What is great in the Zone is that it is a bridge and not a goal:
- Thus you walk as spirit over the bridge.
By practicing and playing until everything runs on autopilot, what we practice, the muscle remember. What we mechanize in our own swing becomes our own. In this sport, of course, great emphasis has always been placed on the individual. While Jack Nicklaus perceived the exact moment you perform with complete detachment from the possibility of failure, the Zone can also work both ways.
We know the one positive pole of Peak State. What about the negative side?, How do you know if the Peak State would lead you to shot 58 or 83?, Was Greg Norman's agony at the 1996 Masters a chaotic state and also un-controlated state?, There are, arguably, two preeminent forms of automatism, two that surpass all others in how far and how truly they fling us from our routine. Once we see this clearly we realize that the Zone is basically one thing: control - the result is not defeat but victory and greatness, and Choke is its dark twin. Choke is none of those things. Of course, we do not think of these two experiences as closely related.
An Analysis of the Zone, by Sam Snead:
- I'm not exactly sure how it happens - it just does.
- When you are in the zone you feel more relaxed.
- Everything feels smooth.
- Your senses become sharper.
- You see all things more clearly.
- You can see the line of every putt.
- Your visualization is very clear.
- Your whole feel is different in the zone.
- Your touch seems different.
- It's lifter, it's smoother, and it's easier.
- You're more relaxed.
- You don't think about anything but the shot you need to.
- You are not trying to hit the shot, you just do it.
- And there are no mechanics - there is nothing to think about.
- There's work to do, and you just do it and go to the next shot.
- You never feel as if you can't do what your mind is telling you to do.
Being in The Zone could be a mystical experience: “God knew I couldn't putt so he put me close to the hole each time”, Barbara Barrow said. Barbara shot five birdies on the back nine at Birmingham, Alabama, to win her first LPGA Event in 1980. Perhaps we come near to the truth when Nick Price says that the zone is “the ability to give 110 percent of your attention and your focus to the shot. When I'm on the tee, I'll see a divot in the fairway and try to run my ball over that divot - and succeed. That's the zone.”
There is a certain relationship between Peak states and Nirvana; both are knowable by the mind. Practicing rightly, with a purified mind, free, straight, without obstructions, and desireless, a noble disciple can see nirvana, though, in your everyday game, it may be attained more easily by having in advance a clear mental image of the stroke you want. The one requirement is that your skills so perfectly match the demands of the moment that all self-consciousness disappears. “There is no place for conscious effort in golf,” said Dave Stockton.
This present tense performance style sets aflame the physical faculties of your body. In this high-octane state of mind and body synergy, you are so well focused on attaining your goal that only when you step out of it do you realize that it felt like a vacuum. When in the Zone you perform with no feelings or sentiments of the past or future because you perform solely in the Now. Without a thought you concern yourself only with the task at hand. Nothing stands between you and your goal when you reach the Zone.
The Open Mind
“You need to keep in the memory bank a portfolio of good shots. Sometimes they will be more courageous than perfect. The whole idea is that you can draw on the images and let them play through your mind the next time you face a similar situation." Paul Casey, Daily Telegraph, October 5, 2006.
“It's not a matter of poetry or carpentry. It's more important than that.”
Bobby Jones, discussing the sub-conscious golf in a 1928 interview.
Golfing Trivia
In your opinion, “Be in the Now” refers to:
- Play one shot at a time.
- Don't think ahead.
- Play within yourself.
- Just hit the damn thing.
You catch the present moment without words or thought. Few things are easier to describe and harder to do. Walter Hagen knew that long before it became the mantra of sport-golfing psychology. It's called the law of Be a Man and Hit the Ball!
