BACK '' IN THE ZONE''

Do you remember?

The first time you made a great play, your first home run, your first pitching victory?

Do you remember that feeling that could be described as "thank you God for giving me that feeling of pure happiness where I feel dominant and in control"?

Do you remember the smile, the joy, the realization that "I don't even understand how I did it, it was just easy!''

At that moment you were IN THE ZONE. I would even say IN YOUR ZONE! The one where your natural coordination was able to express itself and perform, the one where the goal was reached because the gesture was perfectly adapted and accurate.

Then what happened... You went OUT OF YOUR ZONE!

And that's when YOUR QUEST begins. The one that justifies hours of practice, weight training, data, video analysis, gurus, sessions with private coaches...

The quest to find the feeling of ease, performance, happiness that you knew when you were in YOUR ZONE, when nothing and nobody could dominate you. You were the master of the game in such a natural, simple and enjoyable way! These emotions are extraordinarily powerful and you want to relive them over and over again.

Paradoxically, being IN YOUR ZONE creates huge expectations from yourself, your teammates, from your team... Until the ultimate pressure: the amount of your salary when you turn pro and the length of your career!

But does this quest have an end? Good question...

How many players have managed to really return to their zone and especially at what price and how long did they stay there?

Despite the data, the biomechanics, the analysts, the chosen ones are few to be able to say: ''- I am and can stay in my zone!''

Why? For 2 reasons: Fear and standardization.

1) Fear is a bad advisor, everyone knows it. And in the quest to find out how to get back into our zone, there is in essence the fear of not getting there. So we usually turn to the most logical solution: Copy the stars of Major League Baseball.

2) And that's where standardization comes in. The culture of the model applicable to the greatest number.

If this model works for this player, why not for others? That's a good question! And the answer is just: ''- Because each player is different!''

Then you will ask me... "Why can some players come back to their zone". And I will answer you: "Because the way they train and play corresponds to their natural coordination!''

But that's a very small number of players. And we all could ask ourselves: '' - What's happening to the rest? ''. Well... Do I dare to say that they are the justification for "no pain, no gain"?

Let me explain to you this with a very short example:

• Cross your arms on your chest: You just did this move without any effort or focus
• Bring your arms back to your sides and now cross your arms again but switch arms position. See how much harder it was for you to do this simple move.

If there is no rule that forces you to do this or that gesture... and you have to practice and repeat your arm crossing over and over again. Which one do you think is going to be the most effective and efficient ?

Logically, you will choose your natural movement. And if you train it, it will be more and more efficient, without really being complicated for you.

Whereas the other one will require more repetitions, conditioning, concentration, for a result that will probably be less good!

Arm crossing is an simple move... Imagine the impact on your swing, your pitching... These moves are more complex but the way your body want to move naturally is still involve. Not matter what you will do. You can keep imposing an ''non natural'' move to your body, it will require more implication, more energy, more conditioning and training volume. And sooner or later, you will get injured.

Because we see how difficult it is for players to perform, or how rare it is to be able to be IN THEIR OWN ZONE and stay there... We decided that the technical skills of baseball were difficult.

But when did we ask ourselves, what if we were wrong? What if we weren't the ones making baseball difficult by prioritizing and measuring the consequences of our movements: Exit velo, bat speed... Instead of focusing on the unique producer of its movements: THE HUMAN BODY.

Each body is unique. The way it prefers to produce movements is unique (see the previous example of crossed arms). It is rare that a coach knows how to identify a motor profile in order to set a conditioning program up, to develop a dedicated mental approach and adapt mechanics... Most part of the time, conditioning programs are done based on sport constraint, swing or pitching are valorizing stats and data. I do understand the motivations behind. But this approach is only partially right.

From this observation, you now understand that it is almost impossible to return to your zone... Because simply your own nature, your body and the way it prefers to move, are neither identified nor taken into account.

I asked previousy: Does the quest to go back IN THE ZONE have a end?

YES, it has one. And it is called MOTOR PREFERENCES. By knowing your profile you will be able to align conditioning, gestures, mental approach on the most important thing that can make you back in YOUR ZONE: YOU!!!

Don't get me wrong. It doesn't mean that you will be unbeatable! It does mean that you will have the ability to understand ''why'',''how'' and adjust immediately.

In fact, your quest will be over because you will have all answers... So you'll never really leave your zone again!