• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

The Zone (Basketball)

X

Xilnik

DP Veteran
Joined
May 22, 2020
Messages
3,521
Reaction score
2,818
Location
Colorado
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Independent
This is something that has bounced around in my mind a lot as I'm no longer able to play and miss that feeling of being in The Zone playing ball. I had some questions for other people who may have played sports somewhat regularly at one time:
  1. Does that feeling occur in other sports besides basketball?
    • I only played basketball enough to experience it. I played volleyball and had some really good serving days, but nothing like The Zone I'd experienced in basketball.
  2. How rare is it to experience for most people who did not play professionally?
  3. How rare is it to experience for most people who did not play in organized sports (high school or college)?
    • I only played pick-up and in a few camps when younger.
    • I think I may have experienced it for the first time in one of those camps, but I experienced it a handful of times playing pick-up in my mid to late twenties.
  4. How would you describe what being in The Zone feels like?
    • I have a difficult time explaining it to people who never played and how amazing it feels.

And to share my experience with The Zone:

Michael Jordan described it with his 63-point performance in the playoffs. He said he didn't feel tired, the basket looked like an ocean, and he thinks he'd still be playing that same game today (this was 10 or so years later) if it hadn't ended.

I didn't really feel like the basket looked any different, but every shot flowed straight into the basket, and distance had no meaning. I was sinking shots from 22-40 feet away with no effort, pulling up before the defense had a chance to react or even contemplate I would shoot from that range. I recall one of the guys I regularly played against seeing it for the third or fourth time and asking me, "Is it even fun when you know every shot is going in?" I said, "That's the most fun. It's an awful feeling when it ends."
​

I think that's it for now. I'm hoping some others on here know what I'm talking about outside of just seeing professional athletes or collegiate athletes experience it. I've never really been able to talk about it with someone who has been through it.
 
Unfortunately, I never got to play organized basketball because i was homeschooled, but I believe what you are referring to as "the zone" is what some athletes describe as being "hot" or "catching fire." I was suggested a video essay on YouTube a couple months ago talking about this idea. I haven't finished watching it, so if it sucks, don't blame me, but it might be describing what you felt playing basketball.
 
lolbert said:
Unfortunately, I never got to play organized basketball because i was homeschooled, but I believe what you are referring to as "the zone" is what some athletes describe as being "hot" or "catching fire." I was suggested a video essay on YouTube a couple months ago talking about this idea. I haven't finished watching it, so if it sucks, don't blame me, but it might be describing what you felt playing basketball.
Click to expand...

I watched it. As someone who appreciates analytics and has experienced what was dubbed The Hot Hand, I think the video did a pretty good job of explaining the phenomenon. I always felt like it was a culmination of nearly perfect muscle memory, experiencing confirmation after confirmation with each event. The video reminded me of something I experienced at basketball camp in one of our team drills. Our coach was running the 3-point drill for all the teams at camp. For some reason, our team inexplicably failed to miss during our drill. We each took about three shots, so across ten players, it's pretty incredible that we would have gone 30/30. We were the only team that managed that in the drill.

There was no reward for the team for doing so. I still can't explain it today, but I do wonder if some part of it was that our coach was the one running the drill. There was a familiarity for us having practiced with each other and with him involved that maybe provided more clarity for our muscle memory than other teams. Even so, I doubt that's happened too many times for teams anywhere, let alone a set of amateurs in a camp setting.
 
I think "the zone" you're talking about does not exist in other sports, because the opportunity to shoot with that frequency does not exist. In basketball, the team can be coached or encouraged to feed somebody with the "hot hand", but nothing similar occurs in hockey, rugby, soccer, etc. I don't know anything about water polo, but I could imagine a similar dynamic in that game.

In baseball, hitters, like their teams, have "streaks" - hot and cold.

I also suspect, though I don't know, that hockey goalies can achieve the "Zen" of seeing and anticipating every shot, where the puck is always huge, they are never out of position, and they never give up a rebound. This would result in a shutout game.
 
I've experienced "the zone" in basketball on a few occasions. It's hard to explain other than I wasn't tired and everything went in. On one occasion, I was pulling up for 3's on fast breaks because I couldn't miss.
 
I've experienced it playing golf. Every drive in the fairway, every approach shot hits the green and the cup looks twice it's size of 4 1/4 inches. It's an amazing feeling that you can't misfit a shot. Unfortunately it never lasts as long as you want it to.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom