"We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it." -- William Hazlitt

In the early 1970s the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was puzzled by an intriguing question in human motivation: Why do artists and other creative people forego the common rewards and enticements of everyday life-food, sleep, sex, comfort, status, and the like-in the single-minded pursuit of their craft? In a series of studies, Csikszentmihalyi examined the motives of creative people across many disciplines. He found that creators across varied fields report the same quality of experience, and that this enjoyable experience in itself motivates them to seek new challenges.


Let's "Play" Golf

Taking his cue from rock climbers, Csikszentmihalyi adopted the term "Flow" to capture this experience. Flow denotes a state of immersed concentration in which attention is centered, distractions are minimized, and the person attains an enjoyable give-and-take with the activity. In this state people report they lose track of time and their daily problems; forget hunger, pain, and fatigue; and pass from a stance of control and "efforting" into a mode sometimes described as "active effortlessness."

Golfers love the zone. Love to be in it. Love to observe when others are in it. Love to wonder when it will happen again. Golf's mystery lies in the fact that in a game where time and a stationary ball seem to give the player the most control--to plan, to rehearse, to adjust--we seem to find the zone the least. "The moment you think you're in it, you're out of it," goes the zone conundrum.

It's the game's cruel joke that the closest the fearful, ego-driven and brain-locked golfers get to the zone is when, immediately after a poor shot or missed putt, we reflexively drop another ball, and with our mind on nothing else but where the damn thing should have gone in the first place, stripe it down the middle or into the hole.

Interestingly, with all we've studied and learned about the zone, Dr. Fran Pirozzolo, a neuropsychologist who works with professional sports teams and individual athletes, believes the experience is less frequent in sports than ever. He shares in an article, The Future of Golf by Golf Digest, "I look at Sam Snead, an intuitive genius who played for the intrinsic joy and yet had the discipline to develop his skills. Sam was built to enter the zone, probably quite often. But our culture today has taken the concept of play out of high-level sports and replaced it with a photocopy of work. At the same time, there is a drive in our culture to make things easy. The most important condition for entering the zone is a high-challenge situation with highly developed skills to meet the challenge. Without the enjoyment of play, and without high challenge and high skills, you don't have the zone. And I think we have less of those things today."

Peter Jacobsen says he achieved the zone in winning the Greater Hartford Open at the age of 49. He shares that, "The key is to create your own reality on the course. Down the stretch at Hartford, I just kept saying to myself, Be who you are, and the golf shots will be easy."

Phil Mickelson went through a similar process in achieving his "different feeling" at the Masters. Like Jacobsen, Phil said that, "I just decided that I had come so close trying to be so focused and so intense, but that's not really the way I am normally. I enjoy having fun, and I wanted to carry that into my play. And that brought out my best game."

Chuck Hogan, who after 35 years of pursuing the zone from all angles, has come full circle and now believes that "The zone is all about play. It's the simplest bypass to all the things we do to screw ourselves up. The whole reason we play is to find that primal joy we once had. We know it's in there, and it becomes its own reward. The way to the zone is your own."

Psychologist Jon Skidmore shares steps he teaches to help young musicians attain flow to overcome anxiety and enjoy themselves on stage in an article, Putting the 'Play' Back into Performing by the American Psychological Association. These steps translate perfectly to helping us play golf with less anxiety and more fun.

Relaxation on demand - Stepping in front of an audience excites most people, says Skidmore, but musicians can keep their heart rate from skyrocketing by breathing deeply while tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups. The psychologist advises performers to master this technique in their practice room-perhaps while taking a needed break from playing. However, other musicians may experience the opposite problem-not being excited enough about a performance-says Skidmore.

Preperformance preparation - Skidmore recommends that musicians take five minutes before stepping onto the stage, using the minutes to relax and focus on their performance goals. During workshops, the psychologist helps musicians discover their own trigger words-words that capture how they want to perform. One student, for instance, uses the words "outrageous" and "bold." As he breathes out, the pianist says those words to himself and then steps onto the stage.

Attention control - Good performances happen when the musician can let go of all thoughts unrelated to the music itself, says Skidmore. To that end, performers can practice tuning out mental noise–thoughts about dinner, about one's family and even about particularly difficult passages–and focus completely on what is happening in the moment.

Performance enjoyment - Letting go of anxiety and outside concerns frees up a musician to have fun, and that really comes out in the performance, says Skidmore. "It's not called 'playing' for nothing," he notes. During his workshop, the psychologist attempts to redefine the stage as a place for fun, perhaps by asking performers to act like animals or make up impromptu performances with noisemakers. These unusual performances help performers identify and conquer what Skidmore calls their "imaginary rattlesnakes"–concerns that are making their stage a dangerous place to play.

Constructive criticism - All too often, musicians mentally rehash every mistake they made, Skidmore says. Instead, he teaches performers to take a few minutes and debrief themselves about their performance. During this time, the musicians look at their recital as objectively as possible, congratulating themselves on successes as well as noting what they would like to have done differently. Skidmore guides musicians to think about what might have contributed to mistakes and then brainstorm ways to overcome those obstacles in the future.

After just one weekend with Skidmore, a student reports that he completely redefined the way he approached live performances. Instead of seeing the audience as a group of people passing harsh judgment, he began to view them as "playmates".

Labels: Articles, Disciplines, Play, Zone