How To Breakthrough To New
Levels Of Fitness And Performance...
By Doing Less!

Here are a few extracts from each chapter from The Peak Performance Zone.

If you have any questions about the content please email me at roy@fitness-programs-for-life.com
and enter 'zone' in the subject line.

Contents Foreword by Greg Chappell MBE Introduction Into The Unknown Defining The Elusive Zone What's Stopping You Reaching The Zone? Beyond The Matrix Getting Back To The Zone To Boldly Go... Running In The Zone When It Goes Wrong Living In The Zone

Foreword

Frederick Matthias Alexander discovered the link between thought and tension in the body. By changing the way he thought while carrying out certain actions he was able to improve his performance and, subsequently, the performance of those whom he taught.

Roy Palmer, in this book explains in a straightforward and entertaining manner how anyone can improve their performance by understanding that their intention and their thought processes can either hinder or help their performance.

This book will show the professional athlete, or the weekend warrior, that working harder is not necessarily the best solution to any problem. By changing the thought process and the understanding of what constitutes efficient movement, performance can be improved almost instantaneously. This book will be a very useful addition to the tool kit of any coach or performer.

Greg Chappell MBE
Former Australian Cricket Captain and current Indian National Cricket Coach

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Introduction

Have you ever achieved the performance of your life while experiencing the feeling that it was effortless? That everything you tried worked to perfection? If you have experienced this, you were in The Zone.

The Zone has achieved mystical status in the world of sport and it is not surprising to see why. It's a paradox. How can a peak performance be achieved with such little perceived effort? Surely if we are working at the very limits of our ability it should be hard work and not feel like a stroll in the park?

.....The procedures in this book will give you a totally different sensation of movement and show you how to take control of previously hidden factors influencing your performance. The methods I use are based on The Alexander Technique, the world-renowned system for developing what I call intelligence in action. My hope is that by creating a subtle shift in your thinking, you will be able to recognise aspects of your training that may be keeping you out of The Zone.

.....If you are used to vigorous forms of training then at first this way may seem a little pedestrian. However, if you can suspend judgment for the duration of this book you may find that this subtle, yet powerful approach is one of the best ways to focus and enhance your performance.

Marc Salem, Professor of Psychology, offers some very useful advice to all of us:
"Minds are like parachutes; they only work when they are open".

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1. Into The Unknown

Are you performing to your best abilities? How would you know? We are all influenced by habits that may well be restricting our development and sporting potential, but nature has played a cruel trick on us by keeping so much of what happens in our body hidden. This is fine if everything is going well but what if it isn't?

.....You can add a whole new dimension to your sport by learning how to control what was previously beyond your awareness and hence ability to manage.

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2. Defining The Elusive Zone

What is happening when we enter this euphoric state? Why does a peak performance feel effortless?

.....How often have you been in The Zone? Can you remember what you did to get there? The purpose of this chapter is to build a picture of The Zone based on the experience of athletes, plus neuroscience, and research by sports scientists. If we can understand the processes involved and why we have developed this capacity, we could increase our chances of getting there.

.....Whilst it is interesting to know a little about The Zone on an intellectual level it's really not much use if it remains theoretical. On a practical level we need to know what is not going to make it happen? If it's an automatic capacity then maybe we are doing something that prevents us entering it. Instead of looking at what we think we need to do, let's look at what we should stop doing to allow ourselves to slip in to The Zone.

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3. What's Stopping You Reaching The Zone?

Training habits developed by, paradoxically, current training methods could be keeping you out of The Zone causing poor performances and sports injury. Are you trying too hard and failing to perform at your peak?

.....we all create our own unique bubble to exist in, but we can't see it because we are in it. To the snowman inside his dome the weather never appears to change! If you've developed poor habits relating to movement, how would you know? Loss of form and injury are the most obvious symptoms; but how can you accurately identify the cause when the fault lies with the very equipment you would use to diagnose and correct it?

Never performing to your full potential is a less obvious symptom, simply because if you haven't been there, how do you know if you are underachieving?

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4. Beyond The Matrix

In the previous chapter we looked at how it is possible to create your unique set of rules that ultimately establishes the limits of your performance - your own matrix. You can't see it because you exist within it. Yet there are moments when you may have experienced a performance so different from (not to mention easier than) anything else you have ever achieved, that you find it hard to describe your experience.

As we have seen, these Zone episodes happen when you can get out of the way and temporarily step outside your matrix. The old rules don't apply and suddenly your movement, decision-making and sporting skills escalate way beyond your expectations.

The objective of this chapter is to show you how you can change your concept of your body and how it performs. We shall look at:

1. Habits and their impact on movement and performance

2. Using the wrong kind of effort

3. The advantages of 'being in the moment'

The practical experiments here will help you gain a completely new experience of movement.

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5. Getting Back To The Zone

Once you've experienced being in The Zone, it's something you just have to rediscover because little compares to the 'high' of performing at your peak. The good news is that if you have the determination and are willing to experiment there is no reason why you should not become a regular zoner. The better news is that you can get there by relearning a skill you had naturally as a child.

This skill is knowing how to 'be in the moment'. It sounds simple, but sadly many lose this ability and spend most of their waking hours being everywhere else but in the moment. When we are in the car we are thinking of our destination and what we are going to do when we get there. In the office we are thinking about what we might do later. Even when participating in our sport, inappropriately placed attention will be taking us out of the moment.

To get The Zone you need to be in the moment and focus on the present. But what do these terms mean? What do I focus on? The chapter contains a number of practical procedures to help you do it. Once you can master these techniques you can apply them to your sport and see an almost instant change.

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6. To Boldly Go...

How do you keep training day after day and keep it fresh and challenging? Here we look at how you can keep motivated and focused to keep you hungry for your sport. With the new body awareness you develop with this book you will always find new angles to investigate to continually improve your performance.

.....performance enhancement is not about pushing yourself harder in an attempt to squeeze that little bit extra out of your body. It's about training smarter and playing the role of a scientist to develop theories, ask questions, observe and assess outcomes of your actions. Try things that you wouldn't normally consider. Some of the best discoveries in science have been made by accident. I often ask runners to see how much effort they can take out of their action without slowing down. Some comment it feels like cheating because they are still moving at speed but it's not them doing it!

.....You do need to be challenged under different circumstances to keep you interested, and your body will learn to adapt to the varying conditions. Appreciate the difference between challenging and pushing yourself to the limits. By all means take yourself into the unknown by trying something new and going further than perhaps you normally would, but know when to stop.

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7. Running In The Zone

Regardless of your sport, you probably run - either as part of the game or in a training program. Running is an excellent activity for developing and maintaining fitness. For our purposes it also provides an ideal opportunity to practise getting in the moment, to open the gateway to The Zone. Whatever your experience of running I would like you to approach the program in this chapter as a beginner. You may already have the most efficient running technique on the planet, but the objective here is to practise techniques that will get you into The Zone and see what happens to your running when you do.

.....This chapter contains a number of unique procedures to prepare you for a new kind of running. These procedures combined with the awareness skills learnt from the previous chapters will take your running to the next level.

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8. When It Goes Wrong...And How To Move On

It would be naive to believe that during a lifetime of sporting activity you will not experience disappointment or frustration at some stage. After all, there would be no highs without the lows. Most of us will go through a phase of poor form, loss of confidence in ability, lack of motivation or the dreaded curse of a sports injury. These periods only become a problem when they are prolonged, when an injury is persistent or when it becomes a constant condition. Yet no player becomes a bad player overnight.

When something goes wrong we suddenly discover the limitations that lead us there. What did I do to cause it? How can I prevent it from happening again? This chapter will help you to find the answers to why something is not working and take you through practical steps to take you back and set you off on a better way forward.



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9. Living In The Zone

Getting better at what you do is a great motivator and can keep you training and active throughout your life. How you judge your performance will change along with your priorities. Treat your training as an important part of your life and your will get more in return.

No longer will your training be just about winning or achieving personal bests, although these are not to be dismissed as meaningless. It will become a life-long pursuit of applying your skills and wits against the challenges that sport can throw at you. Maintain a child-like curiosity about your body and how it works, and adopt an attitude that your training is about self-improvement on all levels. That will bring rewards far exceeding the more obvious physical benefits.

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Copyright 2006 Roy Palmer: Mental Sports Training Tips