Into the Zone
The kind of mental conditioning that makes athletes into superstars also helps ordinary folks become extraordinary
Sometimes you have to kill the thing you love. Pop-psych 101? To be sure. But Tiger Woods's Shermanesque march through the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach gave new force and meaning to the phrase. It's not just that Woods mowed down some of his nearest and dearest competitors, though that he certainly did. Nor is it only that he brought one of his favorite courses--and one of golf's hardest--to its knees. He also seemed to subdue the game itself: to beat it into submission.
"Kill them," Kultida Woods used to say when her young son went off to face the competition. It was oddly predatory counsel coming from a Thai-born mother who at other times imparted Buddhist wisdom about inner peace. But if Woods was ever confused by these seemingly dissonant messages, he didn't show it at the Open. He killed 'em, every one, with almost transcendent calm, posting the biggest margin of victory in the history of golf's four "major" annual tournaments. "He's so focused every time," said an amazed Ernie Els, who tied for a distant second place. "That hunger for winning a major championship, it's like 110 percent. To be honest with you, I don't feel like that every week when I'm playing. He's just different. I'm not sure there's a lot of players out here like that."
Focus. Control. Flow. In the zone. Think of any other synonym for mental mastery, and it applies to the level of play that Woods achieved in the Open. And while this state of internal calm and power has different names, it boils down to this: When the body is brought to peak condition and the mind is completely focused, even unaware of what it's doing, an individual can achieve the extraordinary.
But this is not a game of chance. Psychologists and physiologists say ordinary people can achieve this state by inducing changes in physiology, including brain-wave patterns and even heart rates, through focusing and relaxation techniques. These might include breathing exercises or using verbal cues or developing rituals (bouncing the ball exactly three times before you take the foul shot). It also might involve visualizing successful outcomes before you make the swing or jump shot, without thinking about the mechanics of the action. The "stay in the present" focus that enables Woods to sink almost routinely those deadly 8- and 10-foot putts for par came in part from what his father, Earl Woods--his best personal sports psychologist--taught him about having a mental picture of the ball rolling into the hole.
Today, Americans of all stripes are using mental conditioning not just as a means to a better golf swing but also to make them better corporate competitors, more creative artists, and, some argue, better human beings. "When you're in the zone, it's so quiet, it's so peaceful," says Harriet Ross, a potter from Hartsdale, N,Y., who uses the
lessons of Zen to relax and focus. Julio Bocca, who has been a ballet prodigy since he was 4 years old in Argentina, worried about a decline as his 30s approached. Instead, he has been dancing to acclaim around the world--an achievement reached, he believes, through mental focus.
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