Staying in the zone.

[zaph]

I hadn't played for bit timing was all out, nothing working, till I warmed up. Then suddenly I was playing better than I ever had. It was weird, it was like I had loads of time to hit everything, every swing felt lazy, like I wasn't putting in much effort, but shots I was producing were going deep and hard.

I playing doubles and one of the players on the other team normally gives me all sorts of problems. He has great timing and detroys my serve. He did the same this time, really hard flat deep returns, but this time it didn't matter. The first I hit down the centre line, the next round his partner into the trams.

I thought this is great, I can't miss. That is kind of were it went wrong. The moment I thought that, no longer in the zone, and everything that had been easy, became harder. My feet stoping moving properly, timing went, and I played worse.

So how do you avoid that happening?

 

[Gazelle]

You are in the zone when you don't THINK about how you swing, but when you just swing. Your body knows how to swing the racket, after all you have done it thousands of time, you should just let go, trust your body.

 

[Ash_Smith]

Trying to exert conscious control over an autonomous process is the first step on the road to frustration :0

 

[goran_ace]

Yeah you just have to let it happen. The zone is an unconscious state, not something you can just decide to turn on. Once you start to think about it you're probably going to jinx it. A 'mindbone' (to borrow that term from Aurellian) from juniors to cool off a red hot opponent would be say something like 'man nice shot, you're zoning' or 'wow you're really in the zone.' It's like talking to a pitcher during a no-hitter.

 

[torpantennis]

The whole concept of zone, I seriously doubt it TBH. I know the feeling, been there done that, you just always hit with good ball contact and never seem to miss, you don't think about the swing mechanics etc. but just let the racquet swing. And I know that I've got away from the zone the moment I think about it, e.g. "wonder why I'm playing so well".

But just recently, I was hitting and playing matches like better than ever, for a full two weeks of a time. There was absolutely no hesitations in my swings, no stupid mishits, and everything felt like almost trivial. I was in that flow for a long while. Then one morning I tried to analyze in the practices that what I've done so well recently. I couldn't figure it out, BUT from then on, all that two weeks magic went directly away. And it was NOT a bad day, I was in that magic mode for the first 20min of the session.

Then I struggled like I typically do for almost two weeks, but within a session I figured out: DAMN, I'm not watching and focusing on the ball like I did back then. So I just decided that let's try to stare at the next ball, let's ONLY focus on it's flight path and let's stare at the contact point let's not look where the ball goes after I've hit it. BOOM, that magic and free swinging came back, out of nowhere.

So zone = You just focus on the incoming ball, nothing else!

Can it be enforced consciously? Most definitely!

 

[Ash_Smith]

^^^ Not quite, but you're sort of in the right ball park (ish) - go and read some of the academic research into Flow State.

 

[sureshs]

It will come with practice, like everything else

 

[tlm]

I guess that's one good thing about rarely ever getting into the zone I don't have to worry about trying to stay in it.

 

[sureshs]

You know you are in the zone when you keep playing tennis while thinking of something else. Just like driving. Actually you don't know when you are in the zone - you know it when you snap out of it. You are then like 3 games flew by and I was thinking about work tomorrow and did not even realize it.

 

[Royce]

This is something that often happened to me.

IMO, it's because you got competitive. For me, being in the zone is being relaxed. If I start thinking about how badly I want to win, how good i am, how good my opponent is, how many shots I hit out or my first serve percentage, it'll pull me straight out of the zone. Thinking about that causes stress. Stress is the opposite of relaxation.

Think of all the times when you played your absolute best tennis. Think about what you were thinking about at that time. I can almost guarantee at those times you weren't thinking about anything but hitting the ball, or better yet, not thinking of anything at all, just letting your body move instinctively.

The most dangerous opponent IMO is the one who doesn't mind winning and doesn't mind losing either. Their state of mind is crystal clear.

 

[tlm]

This is something that often happened to me.

IMO, it's because you got competitive. For me, being in the zone is being relaxed. If I start thinking about how badly I want to win, how good i am, how good my opponent is, how many shots I hit out or my first serve percentage, it'll pull me straight out of the zone. Thinking about that causes stress. Stress is the opposite of relaxation.

Think of all the times when you played your absolute best tennis. Think about what you were thinking about at that time. I can almost guarantee at those times you weren't thinking about anything but hitting the ball, or better yet, not thinking of anything at all, just letting your body move instinctively.

The most dangerous opponent IMO is the one who doesn't mind winning and doesn't mind losing either. Their state of mind is crystal clear.

Good post with very good points, now if I can figure out how to do this consistently.

 

[sainttom]

This is something that often happened to me.

IMO, it's because you got competitive. For me, being in the zone is being relaxed. If I start thinking about how badly I want to win, how good i am, how good my opponent is, how many shots I hit out or my first serve percentage, it'll pull me straight out of the zone. Thinking about that causes stress. Stress is the opposite of relaxation.
.

Yes great post Royce. Something like this happened to me today, played good tennis and won the first set of my interclub match this morning and then it just felt like the complete opposite in the second, with all these kinda thoughts dragging me away from playing like I had in the first. Thankfully I managed to win in a third set tiebreak after losing the second.

 

[colowhisper]

You know you are in the zone when you keep playing tennis while thinking of something else. Just like driving. Actually you don't know when you are in the zone - you know it when you snap out of it. You are then like 3 games flew by and I was thinking about work tomorrow and did not even realize it.

^^To me that is not being the zone, that is zoning out. When i play tennis I like the former much better! Back in the day, we used to call the zone "treeing" but I don't know where that saying came from.

 

[psmooth]

I'm usually thinking about how to hit my strokes. Is this wrong? I thought you are supposed to think about how to hit the ball?

 

[Royce]

I'm usually thinking about how to hit my strokes. Is this wrong? I thought you are supposed to think about how to hit the ball?

I wouldn't say it's wrong lol. Whatever works for you. For me, my body acts instinctively. There are hard shots where I need to think about what I need to do next, but for the most part it's auto pilot.

 

[sureshs]

^^To me that is not being the zone, that is zoning out.

Interesting observation. For repetitive mindless activities like tennis, isn't zoning out natural after one becomes very proficient in the game?

 

[Power Player]

I'm usually thinking about how to hit my strokes. Is this wrong? I thought you are supposed to think about how to hit the ball?

Yeah, you want to be at the point where you are not thinking about tennis at all.

Guy I used to gig with told me - if you are thinking, you are sucking. And it's true. But its not easy to get there, especially when you are still learning.

 

[President]

Take a few shots (not enough to impair you) or smoke a blunt about 20 minutes before the match starts.

 

[Ash_Smith]

I'm usually thinking about how to hit my strokes. Is this wrong? I thought you are supposed to think about how to hit the ball?

It likely depends at which level of learning you reside. Cognitive requires that you think about the "how" because you don't yet have the knowledge/experience, at the Associative stage you have the knowledge, but not yet the experience so you might still be thinking about the "how", but hopefully with more target focus. At an autonomous stage of learning, you have both knowledge and experience and should only be focussing on the target/intention - this is where "expert" performers lie, until they try to exert "conscious control" over their autonomous actions - and that way madness lies