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In The Zone
'You're so focused you know exactly what's going through your mind and exactly where you are.' - Usain Bolt
'Those "edge" moments, like when you put an incredible lap all together, are what keep me going.' - Lewis Hamilton
How did Novak Djokovic and Nadia Comaneci peak as the world watched? How did Michael Phelps and Jessica Ennis-Hill see into their own future? How do champions suppress their fear of failure and find the belief to win? Can the greats even bend time and space when they push to the limit? What separates those who live their dreams from those who don't? What exactly is 'The Zone'? And how do you get there?
Drawing on over a hundred exclusive interviews with the world's elite stars of sports ranging from boxing to rugby union, motorcycling to surfing, triathlon to the Paralympics, Clyde Brolin sets out to discover the secrets of true success.
In The Zone investigates with intelligence and clarity the mental traits that make champions, and reveals how anyone can reach the magical state of mind where sport's greatest achievements happen... The Zone.
'The magic lives inside every one of us, despite our struggles and our doubts.' - Cathy Freeman
'Those "edge" moments, like when you put an incredible lap all together, are what keep me going.' - Lewis Hamilton
How did Novak Djokovic and Nadia Comaneci peak as the world watched? How did Michael Phelps and Jessica Ennis-Hill see into their own future? How do champions suppress their fear of failure and find the belief to win? Can the greats even bend time and space when they push to the limit? What separates those who live their dreams from those who don't? What exactly is 'The Zone'? And how do you get there?
Drawing on over a hundred exclusive interviews with the world's elite stars of sports ranging from boxing to rugby union, motorcycling to surfing, triathlon to the Paralympics, Clyde Brolin sets out to discover the secrets of true success.
In The Zone investigates with intelligence and clarity the mental traits that make champions, and reveals how anyone can reach the magical state of mind where sport's greatest achievements happen... The Zone.
'The magic lives inside every one of us, despite our struggles and our doubts.' - Cathy Freeman
320 pages, Hardcover
First published April 20, 2017
32 people are currently reading
254 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 13, 2019
[2.5]
I'd heard a rather interesting podcast with the author recently but I can't pretend I was anything other than disappointed with this book. Billed as an exploration of the mental element of what separates top sportspeople from the rest of us, I came away thinking that, while there was some interesting nuggets scattered here and there, as a whole it was no more than a collection of interviews with sporting stars, most of whom gave very similar explanations of what lay behind their sporting success.
It begins with an interview with 2011 Indy 500 winner, the late Dan Wheldon, on how he had come from near the back – a deeply unfancied runner that year – to put himself in the prime position to pick up the pieces when the man who had been leading until the final turn made a small error that pitched him into a wall. It's quite an intriguing account – the fact that he was apparently making multiple small adjustments to the weight-jacker and anti-roll bar through every corner to maximise the performance of the car, and was doing this so automatically that he wasn't even aware of it himself until he spoke to his team afterwards. Its one of the more striking illustrations of the author's underlying point that peak human performance tends to come when a person is able to do what they do automatically, without conscious thought. When they are, to use a phrase that I frankly got rather tired of by the end of the book, “in the zone”.
The trouble is, there are really only so many different ways that this story can be told. And over time, it began to get rather repetitious. There was, to be fair, some acknowledgement of the fact that exactly what it means to be 'in the zone' varies from one sport to another. That team sports are fundamentally different to individual sports, and that those taking place over many hours or even days are different from those which are over in seconds. There did appear to be a bit of a split too between those involved in sports requiring great 'skill' in the conventional sense, and athletic disciplines like marathons or iron-man triathlons which are primarily a test of endurance, or the 100 metres which is about sheer power. It was noticeable that athletes seemed to talk less about developing their ability to concentrate and more about how their 'belief' in themselves was key to their success. The book sometimes seemed to veer into trite self-help territory in recounting their stories. Self-belief may be a necessary condition for success in professional sport (though it may not be – I wonder if impostor syndrome, the fear of being found out, can be just as much of a motivating force) but I very much doubt that it's a sufficient one.
And that brings me to what I think might be a significant problem with the premise on which the book is based: I'm not sure how much you can find out about why someone is successful in any given field just from asking them because a lot of the time, I'm not sure that it's a question that they necessarily have any great insight into. Really, Brolin would need to go and speak to sport's nearly-men and also-rans and see if the accounts they gave differed substantially from those who reached the very top.
All the same, there was some interesting material in here (especially for those who have not already listened to an hour-long podcast where he ran through much of it). There accounts from people doing extreme sports of how they handled risk, for example. Wing-suit divers who rubbished the idea that they were devil-may-care risk-takers because “anyone like that would quickly end up dead” and said that fear was a vital part of what kept them alive. Although one account of someone doing a parachute jump from very high in the earth's atmosphere in a pressure suit which failed suggested they were at least unusually reconciled to their mortality: “The glove's come off, so that's goodbye from me.” one said over his intercom before plunging to his certain death. Or the account given by Damon Hill of an 'out of body' experience during the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix - undoubtedly the drive of his life, and the one time he looked to genuinely have the measure of Michael Schumacher – where it seemed that the ability to drive automatically had gone so far as to leave his conscious brain thinking someone else entirely was doing the driving.
Whether it's a reflection of his interests, or mine, or both, I did think the parts of the book dealing with motor racing were more interesting, and felt more authoritative, than other sections of the book. In an interview, Brolin had said that his whole interest in the subject had been sparked by an obsession with getting to the bottom of Ayrton Senna's account of his 1988 Monaco qualifying lap, where he had lapped one a half seconds faster than his team mate, Alain Prost – a huge margin against anyone, but especially the man then considered the best of his generation. Overall, though what could have been a very interesting 'long read' in a newspaper or magazine felt like it had been stretched rather thin over the length of a whole book.
I'd heard a rather interesting podcast with the author recently but I can't pretend I was anything other than disappointed with this book. Billed as an exploration of the mental element of what separates top sportspeople from the rest of us, I came away thinking that, while there was some interesting nuggets scattered here and there, as a whole it was no more than a collection of interviews with sporting stars, most of whom gave very similar explanations of what lay behind their sporting success.
It begins with an interview with 2011 Indy 500 winner, the late Dan Wheldon, on how he had come from near the back – a deeply unfancied runner that year – to put himself in the prime position to pick up the pieces when the man who had been leading until the final turn made a small error that pitched him into a wall. It's quite an intriguing account – the fact that he was apparently making multiple small adjustments to the weight-jacker and anti-roll bar through every corner to maximise the performance of the car, and was doing this so automatically that he wasn't even aware of it himself until he spoke to his team afterwards. Its one of the more striking illustrations of the author's underlying point that peak human performance tends to come when a person is able to do what they do automatically, without conscious thought. When they are, to use a phrase that I frankly got rather tired of by the end of the book, “in the zone”.
The trouble is, there are really only so many different ways that this story can be told. And over time, it began to get rather repetitious. There was, to be fair, some acknowledgement of the fact that exactly what it means to be 'in the zone' varies from one sport to another. That team sports are fundamentally different to individual sports, and that those taking place over many hours or even days are different from those which are over in seconds. There did appear to be a bit of a split too between those involved in sports requiring great 'skill' in the conventional sense, and athletic disciplines like marathons or iron-man triathlons which are primarily a test of endurance, or the 100 metres which is about sheer power. It was noticeable that athletes seemed to talk less about developing their ability to concentrate and more about how their 'belief' in themselves was key to their success. The book sometimes seemed to veer into trite self-help territory in recounting their stories. Self-belief may be a necessary condition for success in professional sport (though it may not be – I wonder if impostor syndrome, the fear of being found out, can be just as much of a motivating force) but I very much doubt that it's a sufficient one.
And that brings me to what I think might be a significant problem with the premise on which the book is based: I'm not sure how much you can find out about why someone is successful in any given field just from asking them because a lot of the time, I'm not sure that it's a question that they necessarily have any great insight into. Really, Brolin would need to go and speak to sport's nearly-men and also-rans and see if the accounts they gave differed substantially from those who reached the very top.
All the same, there was some interesting material in here (especially for those who have not already listened to an hour-long podcast where he ran through much of it). There accounts from people doing extreme sports of how they handled risk, for example. Wing-suit divers who rubbished the idea that they were devil-may-care risk-takers because “anyone like that would quickly end up dead” and said that fear was a vital part of what kept them alive. Although one account of someone doing a parachute jump from very high in the earth's atmosphere in a pressure suit which failed suggested they were at least unusually reconciled to their mortality: “The glove's come off, so that's goodbye from me.” one said over his intercom before plunging to his certain death. Or the account given by Damon Hill of an 'out of body' experience during the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix - undoubtedly the drive of his life, and the one time he looked to genuinely have the measure of Michael Schumacher – where it seemed that the ability to drive automatically had gone so far as to leave his conscious brain thinking someone else entirely was doing the driving.
Whether it's a reflection of his interests, or mine, or both, I did think the parts of the book dealing with motor racing were more interesting, and felt more authoritative, than other sections of the book. In an interview, Brolin had said that his whole interest in the subject had been sparked by an obsession with getting to the bottom of Ayrton Senna's account of his 1988 Monaco qualifying lap, where he had lapped one a half seconds faster than his team mate, Alain Prost – a huge margin against anyone, but especially the man then considered the best of his generation. Overall, though what could have been a very interesting 'long read' in a newspaper or magazine felt like it had been stretched rather thin over the length of a whole book.
January 9, 2018
I came across this book when I heard Clyde Brolin interviewed (on Chris Evans’ Radio 2 show). It was when Vasos Alexander, Evans’ sports reporter, described it as the book he’d wished he’d written that I ordered it. Human psychology fascinates me, but particularly the facet of how people improve. Of course I was going to buy it.
It isn’t a self-help book (thank goodness) but a wonderful narrative of years of Brolin’s work and interviews with some sporting greats. Brolin has an easy, engaging, uncluttered way of writing. This suits the subject matter, somehow (more of that later). That said, I was in two minds whether to continue after the first 50 pages or so, because of the huge bias to motorsport narratives. Motorsport is not my thing, and the detail in their narratives didn’t excite me. I am hugely glad that I read to the end, through the conclusion to the acknowledgments. Part of the joy of In The Zone is reflecting upon its content, and fitting it to my own experience.
So, as a book, I wish that elements of the conclusion were in the set up. In The Zone isn’t just a story of champions, it is a story of all of us. The book in itself is Brolin’s ‘think and win big,’ because of what he was driven to understand, research, and share. It took him seven years, six without a publisher, and this deeply impresses me… and inspires me.
I think the book grows in confidence, with a move to the wider message of the elements of what makes those champions think and win big, but how that applies to all of us… ‘to be the best we can be’. That is a phrase that speaks to me, inspires me. That there is repetition in the book helps build towards Brolin’s crescendo of a conclusion. It is a collection of voices with the same themes, but different experiences. That Brolin has boiled them down into chapters is a reflection of all the ‘data’ he has collected in his interviews, and the book needs it. Without a structure it would have been a rather rambling narrative. Is this a blueprint for ‘thinking and winning big’? I’m not sure (which is why it isn’t a self-help book). All the stories point, potentially, to another conclusion, which isn’t directly picked up, that each of the ‘champions’ have a deep self-knowledge. Self-acceptance in order to make the improvements necessary.
One lasting thought that I have is that the chapter titles are rather ‘left brain’. Conceive. Believe. Achieve. I can see the flowchart that goes with it. But this is at odds with the language of the champions who speak of ‘passion’, ‘drive’ ‘energy’, ‘improve’ and of something bigger. This seems far more right brain, and more intangible. I wonder, the construct of the publisher? But perhaps the chapter headings actually don’t really matter at all, given that the magic comes from the narratives, Brolin’s included.
A gift of a book, that grows and grows. Thank you Clyde Brolin.
It isn’t a self-help book (thank goodness) but a wonderful narrative of years of Brolin’s work and interviews with some sporting greats. Brolin has an easy, engaging, uncluttered way of writing. This suits the subject matter, somehow (more of that later). That said, I was in two minds whether to continue after the first 50 pages or so, because of the huge bias to motorsport narratives. Motorsport is not my thing, and the detail in their narratives didn’t excite me. I am hugely glad that I read to the end, through the conclusion to the acknowledgments. Part of the joy of In The Zone is reflecting upon its content, and fitting it to my own experience.
So, as a book, I wish that elements of the conclusion were in the set up. In The Zone isn’t just a story of champions, it is a story of all of us. The book in itself is Brolin’s ‘think and win big,’ because of what he was driven to understand, research, and share. It took him seven years, six without a publisher, and this deeply impresses me… and inspires me.
I think the book grows in confidence, with a move to the wider message of the elements of what makes those champions think and win big, but how that applies to all of us… ‘to be the best we can be’. That is a phrase that speaks to me, inspires me. That there is repetition in the book helps build towards Brolin’s crescendo of a conclusion. It is a collection of voices with the same themes, but different experiences. That Brolin has boiled them down into chapters is a reflection of all the ‘data’ he has collected in his interviews, and the book needs it. Without a structure it would have been a rather rambling narrative. Is this a blueprint for ‘thinking and winning big’? I’m not sure (which is why it isn’t a self-help book). All the stories point, potentially, to another conclusion, which isn’t directly picked up, that each of the ‘champions’ have a deep self-knowledge. Self-acceptance in order to make the improvements necessary.
One lasting thought that I have is that the chapter titles are rather ‘left brain’. Conceive. Believe. Achieve. I can see the flowchart that goes with it. But this is at odds with the language of the champions who speak of ‘passion’, ‘drive’ ‘energy’, ‘improve’ and of something bigger. This seems far more right brain, and more intangible. I wonder, the construct of the publisher? But perhaps the chapter headings actually don’t really matter at all, given that the magic comes from the narratives, Brolin’s included.
A gift of a book, that grows and grows. Thank you Clyde Brolin.
August 1, 2017
Good but too repetitive
The champion interviews were all great to learn from but many discussed the same point about what it's like to be in the Zone. I feel 'In The Zone' should've been the title of a chapter as opposed to an entire book. Helpful book nonetheless.
The champion interviews were all great to learn from but many discussed the same point about what it's like to be in the Zone. I feel 'In The Zone' should've been the title of a chapter as opposed to an entire book. Helpful book nonetheless.
September 13, 2017
The breadth of people interviewed for this is amazing but there is not enough detail about any of them for any profound discoveries. Would have preferred half the subjects with twice the details. Left me wanting more.
September 25, 2017
I really enjoyed this. I thought that the structure was great even though there was some overlapping of concepts throughout. I guess that, that's expected if one considers the subject matter of the book. The interviews were really insightful. Personally, i was introduced to a lot of top level athletes from disciplines i did not even know existed. As someone who is interested in peak performance, and the mental element of it, i found this book quite inspirational.
May 11, 2017
Clyde Brolin's book on The Zone is quite clearly a labour of love. His own passion for reaching an understanding of peak performance and the flow state permeates this inspiring book. It's heavy on interviews with some of the greatest sportsmen and women from diverse backgrounds; this is not a 'how to' self help book and yet it will inspire you in a way that a tick-box guide cannot. He has gathered narratives from those who know what it is like to reach the zone and achieve success beyond most dreams, and the most fascinating aspect is that - whilst he has talked to the most dedicated and talented people - one can quite easily picture a better, more dedicated version of oneself in their shoes. In The Zone is a joyful and optimistic exploration of self-actualisation - even if most of us are too late to win that Olympic or Paralympic gold, we're not too late to consider our dreams and how to achieve them.
December 21, 2020
Took some time to get Through this book, but it was well worth the read. Having experienced the state of THE ZONE in my career as a salesperson + having been active in track and field for 10 years in my past it was interesting to read about this state and compare the two in my experience. Lacking any sort of psychological education during my sports career I never got to enjoy the zone as an athlete, but as a salesperson it all made sense and I had results beyond my wildest dreams.
Well worth the read if you’re curious what separates the absolute best from others.
Well worth the read if you’re curious what separates the absolute best from others.
October 27, 2019
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I do understand the concept of being in the zone, so I was sort of anticipating a text that would focus more on how to reach the zone, rather than to circle around it. Across the 300 pages Brolin keeps slipping along the surface of the zone and it never really feels like he dives in and give something that the reader can really work with.
April 1, 2024
A great book, highly recommend to any competitive athlete, but it needs to be read with/after many other books on sports psychology to be properly understood. And to unpack what’s really happening with these professional athletes, otherwise you might be left in the dark thinking that it’s just something magical happening.
October 14, 2017
As with Overdrive: Formula 1 in the Zone it's a book I would love to have written...or perhaps one to still write!
October 25, 2020
A great message that became repetitious. Inspiring but by the middle of the book, somewhat predictable.
December 26, 2023
An article dragged out to a book
May 20, 2022
This book is literally so inspiring and kind of proves you that everything is possible.
As an athlete, when I started reading this book, I found that I already had been in The Zone but didn’t know what to call it or how it worked, I just knew that if I was lucky enough The Zone will come at the important moments, and it also was the best feeling ever.
But now that I know more about it and understand how it works, I hope that I can be able to be in The Zone whenever I want but especially in special moments.
As an athlete, when I started reading this book, I found that I already had been in The Zone but didn’t know what to call it or how it worked, I just knew that if I was lucky enough The Zone will come at the important moments, and it also was the best feeling ever.
But now that I know more about it and understand how it works, I hope that I can be able to be in The Zone whenever I want but especially in special moments.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews