Back to the Zone: Sport and Inner Experiences

by Damien Lafont PhD

Overview

"The Zone" is that quasi-mystical state achieved only rarely by athletes, when everything flows effortlessly and you can do no wrong. Unfortunately, we enter the Zone seemingly at random, when it is least expected.

The great hope of all competitors is to be able to summon the Zone at will. Toward this end, Back to the Zone breaks the Zone down into its many components and helps the athlete optimize each one: balance, absorption, clarity, feedback, concentration, control, loss of self-consciousness, imagination, positive thoughts, energy, self-esteem, meditation, and quiet mind. Ultimately, Damien Lafont shows us that reaching the Zone is more about freeing our mind from the unnecessary rather than learning new techniques and concepts.

This is a short, clear, practical guide for athletes in all sports. With it the golfer or the baseball player, the runner or the swimmer, the tennis player or the cyclist will all reach new levels of performance, and will find themselves "in the Zone" more often.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781891369995
Publisher:	Breakaway Books
Publication date:	11/06/2012
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 9

Part 1 In the Zone

Welcome to the Zone! 13

White moments 16

Optimal Zone 19

The features 22

The dark side of the Zone 34

The fake Zone 37

Measuring the Zone? 38

Flow or Zone? 40

Zone at will! 42

Optimal conditions 44

Zone for everybody? 55

Inner sun 59

What prevents us from reaching the Zone? 61

Now what? 64

Part 2 The Zone is within

Limits 69

Neurosciences 72

Modified perceptions 75

To shift our attention 79

A gold vision 86

Body awareness 89

Posture and rhythm 93

Breathing 96

To let go 100

Tim Gallwey and the Inner Game 103

Conscious, Unconscious 107

A Zen Zone 111

Phil Jackson: a Zen master in the NBA 115

Yoga and Zone 124

Don't do 128

Quiet mind 130

Keep it simple 132

From instinct to intuition 136

Effortless 140

To be a child again 144

The links 147

The missing piece 155

Connection 159

To do it 165

Don't think, feel! 169

Endnotes 178