Getting in the Zone

“Getting in the Zone” is a common phrase people use in competition settings.  Almost everyone has the stereotype of a serious face and extreme concentration for the signs of someone being in the Zone for competition.  A lot of research has been done on getting in this Zone of Optimal Performance.  It turns out everyone is different!  There are three main types according to one theory:

A) The athlete who does extremely well under stress and performs better when everything is depending on him/her.  If this athlete is not under enough stress his performance will suffer.  This is the classic Hulk athlete, the more you attack him the bigger and stronger he gets, but if you put Betty Ross in the situation he calms down and can’t fight anymore.

B) The athlete who does well in medium amounts of stress.  If he gets too anxious his performance will suffer and vice versa if he does not have enough stress his performance will suffer.  This would be more like Batman who gets the crap beat out of him until he smartens up, calms down, and then starts to understand his opponent.   

C) The athlete who does not do well under stress.  These athletes will often be deemed the athletes whose nerves get to them.  He/she does really well in practice but then when competition comes around they don’t do as good as they did in practice.  This athlete personifies Megamind (Will Ferrell) who always loves to casually compete against his rival Metro Man (Brad Pitt) with no real consequences.  But once his new rival wants to harm him things turn for the worse.

-State Anxiety is identified by the amount of anxiety a person feels in a particular situation or for our purposes a competition/performance.  “Short term anxiety”

Some athletes respond well to extreme situations that are very stressful, while another athlete will not be able to perform well if they perceive the situation as stressful.  The trick is knowing how to control raise or lower your stress so that you will perform the best.  A good way to find this out is to compete often.  The competitions could be just informal weekend contest between teammates or friends.  In one competition try getting really excited, raise your heart rate, and take your Java Stim.  In the second competition, after warm up, try to calm down breathe slow and deep, don’t take any stimulants. In other words be stress free.  After trying both extremes you will have a better idea of what environment you do best in, then it’s time for fine tuning it.  Most people already have a general idea of what kind of situations they do best in, but it is still important to explore different methods to understand your own body even better.

This applies to sports as well as strength training.  If you are more like the Hulk try getting really excited before each workout.  If you do well with low stress, like Megamind, make sure you don’t have anyone around you stressing you out and make sure you are having fun.  Just remember that everyone is different and it is important to find out which Zone you perform the best in.

-Tatum