Be the Ball

Danny Noonan lines up the putt.  The audience is hushed.  A full-ride scholarship is on the line.  Danny starts the backswing.  Just then, his partner Ty Webb says, "Be the ball Danny.  Just be the ball."  This classic moment from the film Caddyshack brings to mind Chevy Chase's (Ty Webb) unconventional approach to getting in the zone.

My approach is even more bizarre and sure to elicit some laughs perhaps.  But I don't take credit for this method.  It is thousands of years old.  It comes from Japan, a secret of martial arts rarely shared outside the country.  I thank my friend Tanabe-san for showing it to me.

The secret, so he says, to getting into the zone (the void) on command, is simply this: tighten your inner sphincter.  This is a small, donut-shaped muscle between the rectum and the small intestine.  Imagine you are inconveniently far from a restroom when nature calls for a #2.  This is the muscle you squeeze to hold it all in.  You know the feeling.

Now, do that and combine it with the sword grip discussed last time.  Do this with an empty hand with just the little finger.  Relax everything else in the body.  Now the combination of this reflexological pressure on the hand and the pucker factor will do something utterly amazing.  It keeps the flow of chemicals your body releases during moments of tension from reaching your heart and brain.  These are negative chemicals, not including adrenaline, since this crucial zone chemical is produced in the adrenal gland which is above the waistline.

I kind of laughed at this suggestion until two things happened.  First, I saw firsthand other Japanese practicing it during a very tense situation we were all involved in at the time of this lesson.  So naturally I tried it myself.  Sure enough, instant zone.  The heart rate went down.  The breathing rate went down.  The production of lactic acid decreased.  The fear and anxiety went away.  Seems like the ninjas knew what they were talking about.

Now had Danny Noonan known this and done it, what happened next in the movie would not have happened and it would not have been funny.  But poor Danny just couldn't be the ball with all that chatter from Ty going on.  "Okay Danny.  I'm not talking now, not talking."

What method(s) do you use for getting into the zone?  What works for you?  What success have you had with controlling this ability on demand?  If you try my method, let me know how it works for you.