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"PEAK PERFORMANCE
A higher state. A state where the player transcends even the sporting arena and its activity. In sports psychology terms, this is known as peak performance. And at this level the realm of sports comes closest to spirituality. Athletes who push themselves to the edge of endurance often experience something verging on, sometimes even going beyond, mystical illumination. This experience takes the player by surprise, as it comes at a moment of intense physical effort and mental concentration. It is almost as though he bursts through space and time into another dimension. Athletes refer to this state as ‘the zone’.
The Sports Center of New Age guru Michael Murphy’s Esalen Institute deals exclusively with this spiritual angle of sports. Established in 1972 in San Francisco, the center soon became, in the words of Theodore Roszak, “a gathering place for those who have come to regard athletics as a contemplative therapy of body and soul.” Cultivating this ‘zone’ has become increasingly important in sports psychology.
The attainment of this state of being makes possible superior or peak performances. What follows is a performance that seems effortless, encased in a timeless envelope of space, in which the player allows his mind and body to do what they have been trained to do. Many describe this moment as being on automatic pilot. WHEN YOU ARE IN FLOW...
There is a merging of action and awareness: you have no dualistic perspective.
Questions like “am I doing this correctly?” do not enter the mind
You narrow your consciousness to a specific locus
You transcend your individuality
You control actions and the environment without conscious effort
You require no goals or rewards external to the feeling
It is virtually impossible to give tips on this state of sporting nirvana, as it were. But the definition that probably comes closest can be found in these words of Herrigel’s Zen master: “You can learn from an ordinary bamboo leaf what ought to happen. It bends lower and lower under the weight of snow. Suddenly the snow slips to the ground without the leaf having stirred... So, indeed, it is: when the tension is fulfilled, the shot must fall, it must fall from the archer like snow from a bamboo leaf, before he even thinks of it.” "
Thought this would make for cool reading. I have been to the Zone many times.
Anyone want who wishes to the read the complete article: http://www.lifepositive.com/mind/psychology/sports_psychology/sportspsychology_article.asp
A higher state. A state where the player transcends even the sporting arena and its activity. In sports psychology terms, this is known as peak performance. And at this level the realm of sports comes closest to spirituality. Athletes who push themselves to the edge of endurance often experience something verging on, sometimes even going beyond, mystical illumination. This experience takes the player by surprise, as it comes at a moment of intense physical effort and mental concentration. It is almost as though he bursts through space and time into another dimension. Athletes refer to this state as ‘the zone’.
The Sports Center of New Age guru Michael Murphy’s Esalen Institute deals exclusively with this spiritual angle of sports. Established in 1972 in San Francisco, the center soon became, in the words of Theodore Roszak, “a gathering place for those who have come to regard athletics as a contemplative therapy of body and soul.” Cultivating this ‘zone’ has become increasingly important in sports psychology.
The attainment of this state of being makes possible superior or peak performances. What follows is a performance that seems effortless, encased in a timeless envelope of space, in which the player allows his mind and body to do what they have been trained to do. Many describe this moment as being on automatic pilot. WHEN YOU ARE IN FLOW...
There is a merging of action and awareness: you have no dualistic perspective.
Questions like “am I doing this correctly?” do not enter the mind
You narrow your consciousness to a specific locus
You transcend your individuality
You control actions and the environment without conscious effort
You require no goals or rewards external to the feeling
It is virtually impossible to give tips on this state of sporting nirvana, as it were. But the definition that probably comes closest can be found in these words of Herrigel’s Zen master: “You can learn from an ordinary bamboo leaf what ought to happen. It bends lower and lower under the weight of snow. Suddenly the snow slips to the ground without the leaf having stirred... So, indeed, it is: when the tension is fulfilled, the shot must fall, it must fall from the archer like snow from a bamboo leaf, before he even thinks of it.” "
Thought this would make for cool reading. I have been to the Zone many times.
Anyone want who wishes to the read the complete article: http://www.lifepositive.com/mind/psychology/sports_psychology/sportspsychology_article.asp
