Evaluate wins and losses objectively, focusing more on effort and execution than on the outcome of the game” – Morgan Wootten
Being in the flow is arguably the most perfect state to start from.
It is a state where your awareness of time almost disappears and you are one with what you do. Although this perfect harmony usually feels effortless, it is your basketball mental state where you produce your greatest results.
So you could say flow is the state where peak performance happens.
If you could willingly get into The Zone, you could use this great state anytime you would want to produce something outstanding.
How can we get into The Zone?
Know the Concept of Zone like Focus – The moment you get effortlessly lost in a game goes by any number of names: focus, concentration, escapism, flow, and countless others. It’s the point where you’re able to blur the world around you and calibrate your brain to pay attention to one single task. It’s your sweet spot. It’s when you Get Things Done. Your entire cognitive effort is concentrated on one task and when you’re in that moment the outside world disappears.
Learn How Focus Affects Your Performance – Research on basketball psychology shows that excess things in your surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information. That’s exactly what sports psychologist at Princeton University found when they looked at athlete’s task performance in an organized versus disorganized environment. The results of the study showed that physical clutter in your surroundings competes for your attention, resulting in decreased performance and increased stress.
When you have to-do items constantly floating around in your head, your brain doesn’t get a chance to fully enter creative flow or process experiences. When your brain has too much on its plate, it splits its power up. The result? You become awful at:
• keeping up with the game
• switching quickly between plays
• keeping high confidence
Identify your Triggers – Life unfolds in the present. So often, you let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of your lives as you worry about the future and ruminate about what’s past.
When you’re at a game, you fantasize about being on a party; on party, you worry about the next game. You dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. You don’t appreciate the living present because of all the distractions.
To be productive and successful one must in the moment. Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them.
Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.
Training your mind and developing your basketball mental toughness is a key skill for success and self-improvement. The ability to get into flow makes peak performances possible.
It is a great experience and you will be amazed to see the final results.
*Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in Basketball
