Success vs. Joy
- XLV -
The Zone
After a high quality match, particularly the final of a tournament, I find myself emotionally drained. I tend to ‘celebrate’ with a hot soup and an early night because I find I am emotionally, mentally, and physically drained. I remember back in 1993, after I won the finals of the world professional championship in Mumbai, I didn’t even have the energy to stand. All my friends were gathered there to celebrate my victory, but I was exhausted and slept like a baby.
There is another state that players reach. It is much like an out-of-body experience, a trance. I have gone through this experience on three occasions. In this state, I could actually see myself playing.
If one reaches such a level of intense concentration, playing the game becomes absolutely effortless. At such moments I find that I’m able to control the balls with pinpoint precision – literally to the last micro-millimeter.
I have watched many great sportspersons enter what may be called ‘the zone’ or ‘perfect zone’ – a phase when they can do no wrong. They include Leander Paes and Michael Ferreira, who was world amateur billiards champion thrice, and a vociferous critic of the way in which sports is administered in India. Today he’s the national coach for cue sports.
I remember Michael in the perfect zone when he made breaks of 995 and 1,149 during the final of the Indian National Billiards Championship in 1978. Everything was in perfect harmony – timing, speed, body, and mind were fully synchronized with one another. I have watched the stunning West Indian cricket player Brian Lara score 500 runs in an English county match for Warwickshire. He was certainly in the mythical zone when he achieved that incredible feat. Later he scored 400 in a test match, becoming the first player in the world to reach the quadruple century mark at cricket’s highest level.
When I am in this state of trance, I’m completely unaware of the world around me. My concentration is at its peak, my game is being played without any flaws and still, I am in a sense outside myself.
A trance does not last very long, perhaps for a few seconds, or at best for a few minutes. In such a state, you feel you are one with the universe. You are wide-awake and yet, you cannot seem to sense that you are breathing.