Hacking Flow for Optimal Tennis Performance
Flow in the simplest of terms is an optimal state of consciousness, a peak state where we both feel and perform our best. In my upcoming book, 7 On Court Strategies To Experience Your Play State – How to Win Every Time You Play, I discuss the advantage of why being in the Flow State is the most powerful influencer of winning. As Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Ned Hallowell said, “Flow naturally catapults you to a level you’re not naturally in, flow naturally transforms a weakling into a muscleman, a sketcher into an artist, a dancer into a ballerina, a plodder into a sprinter, an ordinary person into someone extraordinary.”
Everything you do, you do better in flow, from baking your favorite food, to planning a vacation, to solving a business plan, to playing tennis. Flow drives optimal performance and accelerates performance. Researchers now believe that flow sits at the core of almost every athletic championship and why so many champions remain at the top of their sport for longer durations of time – those athletes simply master and get in the flow state for longer periods of time and more often than others. In this blog, I’d like to dive into one of the most fascinating ideas I’ve ever discovered when it comes to hacking flow. Overall, there are 4 varieties of hacking flow, external triggers, internal triggers, social triggers, and creative triggers. There are several external triggers that hack flow. External triggers are qualities in the environment that drive people deeper into the zone.
The term “Hacking” comes from the electronic world wherein hackers were originally found in tinkering with technology in an attempt to improve performance. Although the word has since taken on a negative connotation, it is a powerful way to discover how to maximize human performance – and in this particular example, winning when you play on a tennis court. In this case instead of hacking external technologies, the focus will be on hacking internal technologies, our own psychology and neurology. Hacking flow then refers to any action performed that propels us into flow.
Focus is the goal of getting more into the flow. Risk is one external trigger that is a powerful way to hack flow. Using risk as a “flow hack” can be an extremely potent trigger because flow proceeds from focus and consequences catch our attention. Not only do consequences catch our attention, they also drive neurochemistry. As risk increases, so do two nature chemicals in our brain release. They are norepinephrine and dopamine. Norepinephrine is a chemical released from the sympathetic nervous system in response to stress. One of the major advantages of norepinephrine being released is it causes an increase in the amount of oxygen going to our brain – this helps us think clearer and faster. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them. Our brain uses these two to amplify focus and enhance performance. Playing with this trigger often produces long-lasting effects: risk takers are transformed into risk seekers. Risk moves from being a threat to be avoided to a challenge to be risen toward. This is the major reason I change the word “drills” to “challenges”. Drills originally came to be known of instruction or training in military exercises. Challenges are an invitation or call to take part in a contest or competition. I’ve found especially around young players that using the phrase, “Alright, here’s our next challenge!” The response physically and emotionally is so much more positive and the player or players are motivated 100x more to participate than when I use to say, “Alright, the next drill is….”.
Being challenged is a risky proposition, there will be winners and losers (in the score), there could be embarrassment; physical, mental, and emotionally stress – but that’s exactly the point – it’s a powerful trigger towards playing in the zone, in flow. Using the word challenge can only push you towards the flow state, it’s like having a great pair of tennis shoes to begin. When risk is a challenge, fear becomes a compass – literally pointing players in the direction they need to go next, the direction that produces more flow. As neuropsychologist Barbara Sahakian, the University of Cambridge, England, says, “To really achieve anything, you have to be able to tolerate and ENJOY risk. It has to become a challenge to look forward to. To make exceptional discoveries, you absolutely need risk – you will never have a breakthrough without it.”
I have witnessed over 20 years of coaching, the players that embrace risk (I call it in my book, “embracing the pressure”) always push through and win every time they play. They may not win in the score in every match or competition, but they develop towards greatness – a sense of achieving more than they believed. There is a sense of fulfillment and learning to find joy in the journey of becoming better players and human beings. I’ve also witnessed this phenomenal idea of embracing risk watching professional players play the game.
The best players have always had a sense of rising to the occasion, looking fear in the face, embracing all the risk of the moment, and going for it! Players of the past like Graf, Evert, Navratilova, Conners, Lendl, Agassi, and Sampras – Players in modern times like Serena, Sharapova, Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. These players embody risk taking and playing in flow.
Certainly taking risks is needed for you to activate flow. There are different types of risk taking, physical, mental, social, emotional and creative risks. The application of imagination – a very short definition of creativity is all about mental chance taking. The game of tennis is a very mental challenge, and taking risk is something that must be embraced to be your best.
And the risk is real because losing is real…. stay tuned for the book and more to follow Hacking flow requires full commitment to the process or the journey – and it must be ferocious. Accelerated performance needs unyielding focus and commitment, coaches that design training environments that create a safe space for taking risks is one where players will thrive and play in flow more often. They will “Win Every Time They Play!”