Transcending Self - My encounter into "The Zone"

Actual account. Sports Psychology. Sports

 

University of Chicago psychology professor, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, had recently gathered the results of twentyfive years of research. In Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csikszentmihalyi identifies a self-surpassing dimension of human experience that is recognized by people the world over, regardless of culture, gender, race, or nationality. Its characteristics include deep concentration, highly efficient performance, emotional buoyancy, a heightened sense of mastery, a lack of self-consciousness, and self-transcendence. Csikszentmihalyi calls the experience "flow"; today's athlete calls it being in "the zone."-An exert from In the Zone: The Zen of Sports, by Andrew Cooper

 

A shuttle relay race consists of four athletes on a team, each team occupying two adjacent lanes on  the track, with the #1 and #3 runners on the team running in one direction and the #2 and #4 runners running in the opposite direction. The runners on each team go in sequence from 1 to 4.

Coach Lee Pantas

Track and Field coach for A. C. Reynolds High School in Asheville, North Carolina

www.greathurdlers.com

 

When I was thirty-three years old I had the opportunity to relive some of my old glory as a track and field athlete and join a intramural track team for fun.This decision would produce the

most profound athletic experience of my life. I'll get right to it.

 

The event was the 4x100m. shuttle relay. Stayed to myself prior to the race. Come race time I saw the competition for the first time. These guys weren't men out of their prime, they were boys in their twenty's. I began to get nervous. Our team had a large following of friends and family members who always came out to support us. Everyone was always very enthusiastic, and by that I mean loud, very loud. It was a big day, an important race. We wanted to win. They must have noticed my serious nature, because they started to shout my name as we gathered for the start. Joey! Joey! Joey! As the shouting continued my adrenaline surged. I was vibrating with excitement! Never before have I been so wound up for a race. At this moment this race was the most important thing in the world to me. Just then I noticed the official. She had a megaphone in one hand, an air horn in the other. I must harness my emotions and focus, I thought to myself, so I allowed the cheers to wash over me. I took a deep breath, another, then another raising the baton over my head to get the attention of Raheem, the second leg of the relay. Finally, he raised his arm to acknowledge.The race was about to go off. I stared intently at Raheem like he was the only one on the track.

 

That's when it happened. The roar of the crowd became muffled, indecipherable. My body transformed to a state of calm unlike I have ever felt before. Then without warning my vision telescoped like an eagle targeting it's prey. Raheem literally moved rapidly towards me as if he were 50 meters away, rather than 100. I was aware something unique just occurred. I didn't flinch, making sure not to take my eyes off him. "Runners to your mark", she spoke into the megaphone. I was already on my mark. "Set"! I crouched just a bit, relaxed my shoulders still focusing on my destination. Then the horn blew. I was out, driving my legs as quickly as I could. There was a quiet effortlessness to this moment I won't soon forget. From about the 30 meter mark til I handed off the baton I heard nothing, and felt nothing, not even my feet touching the ground. The split-second Raheem snatched the baton, it was over. I was conscious, the sound of the crowd was at full volume and I could feel my legs again.

 

There weren't any individual times during the relay, but I'm sure that I have never sprinted that fast in my life. We went on to win, and I had the pleasure to be carried around on the shoulders of my teammates. I entered into a rare state of mind on that day. Some place prefect that I don't visit often enough.

Reviews

[E. Leo Wells]

I'm a fiction writer, I get to control all the facts, situations, back drops, history to that I can make it fit and read smooth. My point is, it is a rough read, meaning I have to read some aspects of it twice to capture the relevance of the flow. Your beginning sentence of the second paragraph "That's when it happen..." Steal the thunder from the rest of the sentence. It is far more powerful, when the sentence begins with... "The roar of the crowd... it stimulates the reader's mind harking back to the reader's life experiences. It is the key to the whole experience and stands on its own, good action. Keeping the sentences short, makes it reads smooth and fast, like your race. The same applies to the last sentence, it is really unimportant what your time was, only that you won, and over the younger competitors. The first paragraph beginning with, "The event was..." same applies, Start with the second sentence and tell the reader why you stayed to yourself, it will add to the pre-race drama and give more meaning to you as a "Older" racer and Why you needed the extra mental preparation. Remember, the reader is as smart as you are and you want him to have a reason to read on, not stop and say,"I know where this is going" then go to the end of the story to see who won. I Like the story, the references are okay, but I wouldn't have put them there, footnotes would have been the place with only a reference to the PHD theory. It takes the reader to long go find the meat of the story. (beginning, middle and end) as my creative writer instructor would say, get the action up front and bang, bang, and bang. Meaning, as I would learn, is keep it live and moving, don't stop until it is over. I like it, as a fiction writer it would only be part of a part of the story. It is an inspirational story, it relates to what most people have experienced and is done well.
E Wells