getting in the zone, expanded peripherial vision, etc
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RACastanet
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I can get into the 'zone' when I am in a qualifying/shooting for record mode at the range. It is amazing when it happens and I cannot always do it, but when I do it is a personally induced tachypsychia.
First, the period sized bullseye at 25 meters or 100 yards or whatever distance I am shooting at look about the size of a bowling ball. I can hear my heart slowly beating (always have ear protection on which has some part in that) and every breath is mentally loud and measured. Also, I see my heartbeat in the sight movement.
When in this zone I am a perfect shot. I cannot miss. I have put holes in the holes of previous shots and unless someone is watching closely they would think I missed the target completely.
Here is a target from the 1,000 inch qualifying range at Little Creek Naval Amphib Base in Norfolk (where the SEALS train). This quarter size bull has 16 hits on it from an M16 randomly assigned to me from the armory. The first shot in the bull was a 'sighter' and the next 15 were for record. Note that you can count only 14 holes as two shots were through old holes. This was verified by the Gunny running the range and watching me.
This is what being in the zone does for me:
Surprised everyone that day, even me.
Rich
First, the period sized bullseye at 25 meters or 100 yards or whatever distance I am shooting at look about the size of a bowling ball. I can hear my heart slowly beating (always have ear protection on which has some part in that) and every breath is mentally loud and measured. Also, I see my heartbeat in the sight movement.
When in this zone I am a perfect shot. I cannot miss. I have put holes in the holes of previous shots and unless someone is watching closely they would think I missed the target completely.
Here is a target from the 1,000 inch qualifying range at Little Creek Naval Amphib Base in Norfolk (where the SEALS train). This quarter size bull has 16 hits on it from an M16 randomly assigned to me from the armory. The first shot in the bull was a 'sighter' and the next 15 were for record. Note that you can count only 14 holes as two shots were through old holes. This was verified by the Gunny running the range and watching me.
This is what being in the zone does for me:
Surprised everyone that day, even me.
Rich
Last edited by RACastanet on Mon May 08, 2006 11:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Member of the world's premier gun club, the USMC!
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RACastanet
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Rob Kolenc
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The god-like display of shooting (nice shooting by the way ) sounds like the "Zen" state I was referring to rather than this stress induced tachypsychia. I really think it's a different thing with similar effects?
For the Zen state, just turn your brain off. Like completely, totally off. Don't focus on anything, just let the brain stem react. It's like shooting a shotgun: you don't aim, just pull the trigger.
For the tachypsychia, I have no idea.
) sounds like the "Zen" state I was referring to rather than this stress induced tachypsychia. I really think it's a different thing with similar effects?For the Zen state, just turn your brain off. Like completely, totally off. Don't focus on anything, just let the brain stem react. It's like shooting a shotgun: you don't aim, just pull the trigger.
For the tachypsychia, I have no idea.
Very nice Rich.
I'm very new to this stuff but as far as tricks for getting into a certain state what I've found that has started to work for me is notice or remember when you've gotten into that state naturally, and then try to recreate what you were doing when it happened. The hard part is not to try too hard. After that it's practice, practice, practice.
The guys who are good at this can narrow and widen the focus as needed.
I'm very new to this stuff but as far as tricks for getting into a certain state what I've found that has started to work for me is notice or remember when you've gotten into that state naturally, and then try to recreate what you were doing when it happened. The hard part is not to try too hard. After that it's practice, practice, practice.
The guys who are good at this can narrow and widen the focus as needed.
I was dreaming of the past...
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RACastanet
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That is what my eyes did when I saw the target.This is a practice makes perfect effect. It does not always happen but I have had similar perfection on several occasions with high power rifles and handguns. I had a perfect 50 out of 50 with a standard Glock 9mm in a low light qualification not long ago. Once again, I put bullets through bullet holes and an observer had to tell the scorer he saw me do it as the scorer was going to mark me down as having missed the target completely a few times.
Personally I think it is the breathing and focus. My breathing is very slow, rythmic and measured when shooting for record. Then as I focus in on the target that is all that I see. That is when the target grows.
Those are my ZEN moments.
Rich
Member of the world's premier gun club, the USMC!
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Rob Kolenc
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Well now that I know what you guys are calling it (tachypsychia), I can Google it and I see that this is well documented.
For example, in Human Kinetics (sorry for the long quote)
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/s ... pt_id=2941
Stress happens when the mind resists what is . . . athletes commonly resist the natural processes by trying. The word itself implies a weakness in the face of challenge. The moment we try, we are already tense; trying, therefore, is a primary cause of error. In more natural actions, we omit the try. When competitors feel they are under pressure and begin to try, they often fall apart. . . . Inner athletes have a sense of letting it happen without any sense of strain. This may seem like idealistic fantasy, but numerous descriptions of the lives and duels of martial arts masters testify to the existence of this kind of grace under pressure. The higher the stakes, the more calm, clear, and relaxed these masters become.
According to Kevin Elko and Debbie Yohman, elite gymnasts can find the zone of peak performance only by first relaxing every part of their body. "Most people seldom experience this state because their thoughts, especially the judgmental ones, get in the way," they wrote in USA Gymnastics Online. "For some, it might be the thought that they’re too slow, uncoordinated, or weak. Others might start thinking about that bit of criticism their coach threw at them earlier in the day. These thoughts have GOT to go, or the zone will be impossible to find." They recommend that athletes sit quietly in a quiet place and listen to their own breathing, allowing their minds to go quiet. "The mind that is blank can perform in the zone."
Again, relaxing is an individual thing and many athletes carry out their own relaxation techniques.
Leif Robert Diamant and Richard M. Baker are members of the Community Holistic Health Center in Carrboro, NC. In their book Mind-Body Maturity, they wrote that relaxation can co-exist with arousal, as long as it comes first: "If psyching up is a means of creating optimal arousal of mind-body resources, relaxation is the most effective foundation of psyching up. Relaxation involves the releasing of any unnecessary tension, tightness, or concerns. Relaxation means the muscles do nothing and the mind, effortlessly, does as little as possible. Relaxation means heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration slow down. Relaxing (to make loose again) often is accompanied by slower brain wave activity and heightened endorphin production. Relaxing allows the athlete to develop awareness of his or her muscles and thought processes in subtle and beneficial ways." Relaxing is also a way of recharging in the middle of an athletic event, they said.
Some performers incorporate meditation with arousal and report that is it a good way to enhance a feeling of "flow" in their competitive performance. Parry O’Brien, one of the greatest shot-putters ever, used yoga in the 1950s, long before sport psychology. He said yoga taught him concentration and the Hindu principle of "ayurveda" in which he acquired serenity. He listened to Tibetan bells, Balinese and Afro-Cuban drumming to achieve a warrior’s frenzy, then went into self-hypnosis. "I’d record pep talks to myself. I’d put the tape player under my bed, get into a sleepy state and let it all sink into my subconscious," he said.
Getting to the Twilight Zone
Sometimes, when calming and concentration techniques merge with an athlete’s high arousal (is this what we should be calling an optimal experience?), a slow-motion effect is reported, and the action seems to slow way down - a sort of tachypsychia. Full-blown tachypsychia (defined in chapter 3) may be the most difficult of the arousal zone states to summon. At its height, it’s certainly the most fleeting. Maybe that’s why, when many athletes are asked how they get there, they just shrug their shoulders like basketball player Reggie Miller and say, "You don’t come to the zone, the zone comes to you." But there is evidence to suggest otherwise. Like other positive facets of the psycho/adrenaline system, it seems to kick in at optimal arousal - the point at which the athlete has reached harmony of the mind-body-hormonal triangle. That’s the state the Japanese call "ki" and the Tibetans "lunggom." It’s directly related to intense concentration, visualization, and perhaps hypnosis. "We may be able to harness it," says John Krystal, associate professor of medicine at Yale University. "It’s similar to inducing a trance and it’s under the control of the adrenaline system." To get to tachypsychia, the athlete may need to reach the highest "workable" level of the mind-body alarm system. Whereas extra speed and strength kick in during a two- or a three-alarm reaction, tachypsychia seems to require a four- or five. When an athlete who has reached optimal concentration is suddenly faced with a crisis stage of competition - bingo - the dopamine and noradrenaline arrive to give momentum to a situation that’s already there, some biochemists believe. These wonder hormones seem to always attach themselves to the direction of momentum the athlete is headed. (Those chemicals were found in large quantity in a study of British racing drivers who were concentrating hard and achieving good results.) Of course, when they’re pumped into the blood of a competitor who is concentrating poorly or is anxious or fearful, the opposite - choke and poor performance - can occur.
As in other peak performances, anger is often a key quotient, as long as it is channeled optimally, and with confidence. When he’s playing poorly, Doug Flutie - now in the NFL after years of great success in the CFL - gets mad at himself and takes command of a game. That’s when tachypsychia often appears. In a 1994 CFL game, he got mad at an opponent who stepped on his arm. "After that, the whole game in front of me slowed down for a while and my concentration became superior," he recalls. "Suddenly I had more time to react to what the defense was doing and my adrenaline levels seemed way up, but I didn’t let them get out of hand." Flutie added that he saves those emotional bursts for the latter stages of a game. "I can’t hold that concentration level for 60 minutes. I wish I could bottle it, though." Such moments not only give Flutie more energy, but more desire to win, he added. "It keeps your morale up, knowing you have the ability to bring on those powers."
Tachypsychia doesn’t last long - from a few seconds at it’s most intense to a few minutes in a more watered-down form. The great athletes know how to strive for it at the turning point of a match. And remember - it’s important not to confuse various types of peak performance zones. This short-term state seems only vaguely related to long-term zones, such as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. In between are many other mind-body "flow" states, lasting a whole game or through several competitions.
Former tennis great and Olympic women’s coach Billie Jean King calls tachypsychia the perfect emotion. She tries to bring it on as often as possible by focus, relaxation, and using cue words such as "Go!" during the turning point of a competition.
She explains: If a match gets close, I slow down my rituals. If I bounce the ball twice before serving, I’ll bounce it slowly, or repeat the ritual, bouncing it four times, exaggerating. I make absolutely sure I have total clarity, acuteness, focus. I try to visualize where I’m going to hit my serve . . . It’s an exercise in total commitment -technical and visual. I go through all this before I start. Then I feel the adrenaline flowing (like many athletes, she may be misinformed about the type of hormone she refers to, but the spirit of her words seems accurate), and I know the moment has come. "Go!" I say to myself, and I commit myself. You’re totally involved in the moment.
When King synchronizes such moments, the ball starts to look bigger to her and slows down as it comes at her off her opponent’s racket.
Some athletes are born with a big advantage: their hormonal and concentration systems are set up differently, says cardiologist Arnold Fox. They are allowed to take in greater detail, and perhaps are offered more room in time, because their visual and hormonal systems are different, and/or are better developed. It’s been said that Ted Williams could see the seams on a 100-mph fastball, although part of that was his intense concentration of pitchers’ habits while he was sitting in the on-deck circle.
"We know that people who are able to ’flow’ have a greater ability than others to screen out irrelevant information," says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. "It could be the way their brain is put together, but I think it’s something that people can learn through technique."
For example, in Human Kinetics (sorry for the long quote)
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/s ... pt_id=2941
Stress happens when the mind resists what is . . . athletes commonly resist the natural processes by trying. The word itself implies a weakness in the face of challenge. The moment we try, we are already tense; trying, therefore, is a primary cause of error. In more natural actions, we omit the try. When competitors feel they are under pressure and begin to try, they often fall apart. . . . Inner athletes have a sense of letting it happen without any sense of strain. This may seem like idealistic fantasy, but numerous descriptions of the lives and duels of martial arts masters testify to the existence of this kind of grace under pressure. The higher the stakes, the more calm, clear, and relaxed these masters become.
According to Kevin Elko and Debbie Yohman, elite gymnasts can find the zone of peak performance only by first relaxing every part of their body. "Most people seldom experience this state because their thoughts, especially the judgmental ones, get in the way," they wrote in USA Gymnastics Online. "For some, it might be the thought that they’re too slow, uncoordinated, or weak. Others might start thinking about that bit of criticism their coach threw at them earlier in the day. These thoughts have GOT to go, or the zone will be impossible to find." They recommend that athletes sit quietly in a quiet place and listen to their own breathing, allowing their minds to go quiet. "The mind that is blank can perform in the zone."
Again, relaxing is an individual thing and many athletes carry out their own relaxation techniques.
Leif Robert Diamant and Richard M. Baker are members of the Community Holistic Health Center in Carrboro, NC. In their book Mind-Body Maturity, they wrote that relaxation can co-exist with arousal, as long as it comes first: "If psyching up is a means of creating optimal arousal of mind-body resources, relaxation is the most effective foundation of psyching up. Relaxation involves the releasing of any unnecessary tension, tightness, or concerns. Relaxation means the muscles do nothing and the mind, effortlessly, does as little as possible. Relaxation means heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration slow down. Relaxing (to make loose again) often is accompanied by slower brain wave activity and heightened endorphin production. Relaxing allows the athlete to develop awareness of his or her muscles and thought processes in subtle and beneficial ways." Relaxing is also a way of recharging in the middle of an athletic event, they said.
Some performers incorporate meditation with arousal and report that is it a good way to enhance a feeling of "flow" in their competitive performance. Parry O’Brien, one of the greatest shot-putters ever, used yoga in the 1950s, long before sport psychology. He said yoga taught him concentration and the Hindu principle of "ayurveda" in which he acquired serenity. He listened to Tibetan bells, Balinese and Afro-Cuban drumming to achieve a warrior’s frenzy, then went into self-hypnosis. "I’d record pep talks to myself. I’d put the tape player under my bed, get into a sleepy state and let it all sink into my subconscious," he said.
Getting to the Twilight Zone
Sometimes, when calming and concentration techniques merge with an athlete’s high arousal (is this what we should be calling an optimal experience?), a slow-motion effect is reported, and the action seems to slow way down - a sort of tachypsychia. Full-blown tachypsychia (defined in chapter 3) may be the most difficult of the arousal zone states to summon. At its height, it’s certainly the most fleeting. Maybe that’s why, when many athletes are asked how they get there, they just shrug their shoulders like basketball player Reggie Miller and say, "You don’t come to the zone, the zone comes to you." But there is evidence to suggest otherwise. Like other positive facets of the psycho/adrenaline system, it seems to kick in at optimal arousal - the point at which the athlete has reached harmony of the mind-body-hormonal triangle. That’s the state the Japanese call "ki" and the Tibetans "lunggom." It’s directly related to intense concentration, visualization, and perhaps hypnosis. "We may be able to harness it," says John Krystal, associate professor of medicine at Yale University. "It’s similar to inducing a trance and it’s under the control of the adrenaline system." To get to tachypsychia, the athlete may need to reach the highest "workable" level of the mind-body alarm system. Whereas extra speed and strength kick in during a two- or a three-alarm reaction, tachypsychia seems to require a four- or five. When an athlete who has reached optimal concentration is suddenly faced with a crisis stage of competition - bingo - the dopamine and noradrenaline arrive to give momentum to a situation that’s already there, some biochemists believe. These wonder hormones seem to always attach themselves to the direction of momentum the athlete is headed. (Those chemicals were found in large quantity in a study of British racing drivers who were concentrating hard and achieving good results.) Of course, when they’re pumped into the blood of a competitor who is concentrating poorly or is anxious or fearful, the opposite - choke and poor performance - can occur.
As in other peak performances, anger is often a key quotient, as long as it is channeled optimally, and with confidence. When he’s playing poorly, Doug Flutie - now in the NFL after years of great success in the CFL - gets mad at himself and takes command of a game. That’s when tachypsychia often appears. In a 1994 CFL game, he got mad at an opponent who stepped on his arm. "After that, the whole game in front of me slowed down for a while and my concentration became superior," he recalls. "Suddenly I had more time to react to what the defense was doing and my adrenaline levels seemed way up, but I didn’t let them get out of hand." Flutie added that he saves those emotional bursts for the latter stages of a game. "I can’t hold that concentration level for 60 minutes. I wish I could bottle it, though." Such moments not only give Flutie more energy, but more desire to win, he added. "It keeps your morale up, knowing you have the ability to bring on those powers."
Tachypsychia doesn’t last long - from a few seconds at it’s most intense to a few minutes in a more watered-down form. The great athletes know how to strive for it at the turning point of a match. And remember - it’s important not to confuse various types of peak performance zones. This short-term state seems only vaguely related to long-term zones, such as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. In between are many other mind-body "flow" states, lasting a whole game or through several competitions.
Former tennis great and Olympic women’s coach Billie Jean King calls tachypsychia the perfect emotion. She tries to bring it on as often as possible by focus, relaxation, and using cue words such as "Go!" during the turning point of a competition.
She explains: If a match gets close, I slow down my rituals. If I bounce the ball twice before serving, I’ll bounce it slowly, or repeat the ritual, bouncing it four times, exaggerating. I make absolutely sure I have total clarity, acuteness, focus. I try to visualize where I’m going to hit my serve . . . It’s an exercise in total commitment -technical and visual. I go through all this before I start. Then I feel the adrenaline flowing (like many athletes, she may be misinformed about the type of hormone she refers to, but the spirit of her words seems accurate), and I know the moment has come. "Go!" I say to myself, and I commit myself. You’re totally involved in the moment.
When King synchronizes such moments, the ball starts to look bigger to her and slows down as it comes at her off her opponent’s racket.
Some athletes are born with a big advantage: their hormonal and concentration systems are set up differently, says cardiologist Arnold Fox. They are allowed to take in greater detail, and perhaps are offered more room in time, because their visual and hormonal systems are different, and/or are better developed. It’s been said that Ted Williams could see the seams on a 100-mph fastball, although part of that was his intense concentration of pitchers’ habits while he was sitting in the on-deck circle.
"We know that people who are able to ’flow’ have a greater ability than others to screen out irrelevant information," says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. "It could be the way their brain is put together, but I think it’s something that people can learn through technique."
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fivedragons
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fivedragons
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Rob Kolenc
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Bill Glasheen
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By the way, Rob, note my repeated comments about "warm hands" being associated with a relaxed state. Seek that out. It's a great personal biofeedback meter.
The opposite is a stressed state where the hands get cold and clammy. The mechanism involved is peripheral vascular resistance. When we relax, the smooth muscle cells in the vascular periphery relax. This causes more blood to flow to the extremities, and the blood pressure consequently to drop. This usually happens in conjunction with other physiologic changes such as lowered heart-rate.
As to what one can do to induce tachypsychia... Actually Rich above isn't quite correct in connecting tachypsychia to his good shooting performance. He instead is achieving another visual "distortion" (the target appearing bigger) because this directly relates to his performance.
The operative word here is biofeedback.
What you want to do is get involved in an activity - such as hitting very fast baseballs or reading the spin on fast baseballs - where the course of time is critical to performance. To hit a fastball properly you need to detect it with perfection and be relaxed enough to put the bat precisely on the speeding ball. The task itself is feedback. When you screw up, you miss. When you do it right, you hit. Over time you begin to associate success with what you are doing to achieve that success. This in turn eventually will begin to induce degrees of tachypsychia. Some folks will get there faster than others.
I find that doing lots of prearranged kumite with really good partners helps. Rory told me the same vis-a-vis his prearranged work in his Sosuishitsu Ryu Jiujitsu. He had the gift of an athletic partner who wasn't afraid to try to rip his body in pieces. The two of them managed to send each other into altered states by pushing the envelope while working on these relatively simple (but potentially deadly) prearranged routines.
- Bill
The opposite is a stressed state where the hands get cold and clammy. The mechanism involved is peripheral vascular resistance. When we relax, the smooth muscle cells in the vascular periphery relax. This causes more blood to flow to the extremities, and the blood pressure consequently to drop. This usually happens in conjunction with other physiologic changes such as lowered heart-rate.
As to what one can do to induce tachypsychia... Actually Rich above isn't quite correct in connecting tachypsychia to his good shooting performance. He instead is achieving another visual "distortion" (the target appearing bigger) because this directly relates to his performance.
The operative word here is biofeedback.
What you want to do is get involved in an activity - such as hitting very fast baseballs or reading the spin on fast baseballs - where the course of time is critical to performance. To hit a fastball properly you need to detect it with perfection and be relaxed enough to put the bat precisely on the speeding ball. The task itself is feedback. When you screw up, you miss. When you do it right, you hit. Over time you begin to associate success with what you are doing to achieve that success. This in turn eventually will begin to induce degrees of tachypsychia. Some folks will get there faster than others.
I find that doing lots of prearranged kumite with really good partners helps. Rory told me the same vis-a-vis his prearranged work in his Sosuishitsu Ryu Jiujitsu. He had the gift of an athletic partner who wasn't afraid to try to rip his body in pieces. The two of them managed to send each other into altered states by pushing the envelope while working on these relatively simple (but potentially deadly) prearranged routines.
- Bill
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fivedragons
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Rob Kolenc
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