Zoned In…or Zoned Out?

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When I played provincial Hockey, we traveled all over SA for the National Hockey League. But funds were short – and sometimes non-existent - so we had to cut corners where we could. One such event had us playing a double-header on a weekend in Bloemfontein. Arrangements to the weekend saw us leave Pretoria at 04H00 on Saturday morning by car, arriving at 10H00 and playing at 14H00. To be honest – our legs were still about an hour behind us when we played the first match.

Mental performance depends on which zone you’re in. If you were to plot your performance on the vertical scale of an axis, and your arousal on the horizontal, what would you find?

You’ll find that as arousal increases, so does performance – up to a point. This point is task dependent. Complex tasks require less arousal for optimal performance. Over arousal leads to tense-ness in muscles, lack of fluidity in movement and ultimately, performance begins to decline. We can identify four zones.

Chilled: This is your lowest level of arousal. You feel no responsibility for actions and results. You’re bored. You’re lethargic. This is a good place to be when you’re on holiday, when you unwind after a race, but definitely a bad place to be before, or during an event. Here you believe that life is good, you don’t need to worry and you will never perform well in this zone. This was where we started our hockey game.

Thrilled: As arousal increases, during an event you really enjoy for example, you move into this zone. You’re excited, nervous, experiencing enjoyment and you believe that every moment counts. You are confident and believe in your abilities – that you can do nothing wrong. Your movements flow and time seems to standstill. Before you know it the race / event is over. This is a great and rewarding place to be!

Spilled: This is not too different from the previous zone. Bu now your situation begins to outweigh your abilities. You become worried, stressed and concerned with the outcome. Your muscles tense up and you tire quickly. Your breathing is shallow. Suddenly there are so many things that need your attention that you don’t know where to start. You’re overloaded wit information! You begin to worry and inwardly focused. This is where most people start looking for excuses when they don’t perform. Before we knew it, we were three goals down in that hockey game. If we couldn’t get back into the trilled zone, we’d get beat!!

Killed: Ever felt totally distraught? That you’re selling your bike after this race? You’re in the Killed Zone. Things are going from bad to worse, you can’t see any way out, and time is racing by. You can’t concentrate on anything. The big problem with being in this zone is complete feeling of helplessness you experience. You truly believe that there is no way out of the situation and you ultimately become despondent and give up. People in this zone have lost their lives – no kidding.

The trick is to monitor your levels throughout your day. Not only during events, but in everyday life. Various stimuli will drive you from one zone to the other. Recognize the dangers of being Spilled or Killed and you’ll find more enjoyment and fulfillment in everything you do.

PS: We drew the hockey game!

About the author: Erik Vermeulen is a mind coach and performance consultant to athletes and corporations. He’s gets into the Spilled zone when his wife runs out the door with the credit card.

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