The In Zone

THE IN ZONE

By Dennis M Clark

There would be few golfers who haven’t witnessed Tiger Woods on the rampage in some tournament.

Tiger in the zone is an impressive and inspiring sight to any red blooded golfer, and when he gets in the zone he is virtually unstoppable. It’s like he’s in a different dimension.

That ZONE. What we wouldn’t give to be there ourselves.

Really?

The truth is, every time we play golf we’re in a zone. It’s just that most times it’s the wrong one.

There’s a saying that goes, “Remember, wherever you go, there you are.” Now this is usually said in a light hearted manner, but if you think about it, it holds the answer to our ZONE issue.
At every moment of our life we are somewhere doing something, and that is our zone at that particular time. It is continually changing but it is always our current zone.

Every time we stand over a golf ball and are preparing to play a shot we are in a zone, and so the issues now become, why isn’t this zone working as we would like, and how do we change it?

The reason it isn’t working as it should is that most times we are not realising the moment, or not playing in the now, as is commonly said. We are caught between thinking about what we have learned, and should be doing, and worrying about the result of the shot. In this situation we have been focusing on both the past and the future, neither of which we can control at the moment of playing the shot. Therefore we have not been fully committed to the moment at hand, which is the zone.

To be able to create a better zone we must practice it.

The secret lies in the awareness of ourselves during the swing. By being totally aware of ourselves and what we are actually doing during our swing, allows us to totally experience the zone of our swing.

When we are practicing we must not just try to do something, but be totally aware of what is happening at every moment during that swing. By doing this we are achieving many things. We are becoming familiar with ourselves and our swings, a necessity in order to develop trust in ourselves, few club golfers possess. We are also learning to experience the zone in a full and positive manner rather than it being one of fear we try to avoid.

All too often we see practice as a means to an end. While it is this, it is necessary to realise that it is also an end in itself, for it is where we are right now, and that is the zone at the moment which we must train to be in.

So just like Tiger, we are in a zone right now. And what is empowering is that the choice of zone is up to us.

Copyright Dennis M Clark 2009