In 1964, famed psychologist Abraham Maslow originally coined the term “peak experience” to describe these periods of heightened concentration and self-actualization.
A few decades later the University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term “flow” to describe this state of optimal performance and intense focus in the present moment. NBA basketball player and coach Bill Russell of the Celtics describes the zone as, “as if we were playing in slow motion. During those spells I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken.”
Peak performance , flow and playing in the zone all describe a state of mind with a heightened state of consciousness that enables athletes to play at their optimal level. Many elite athletes who have won national championships and Olympic medals attribute their enhanced performance under extreme pressure to being in a state of flow or playing in the zone.
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