Today Jeff talks with Scott Ford, author of Integral Consciousness in Sport: Unifying Body, Mind and Spirit Through Flow.
Scott, an elite tennis coach for decades, is at the leading edge of thinking and practices for enhancing athletic performance. He has mapped out a five-stage developmental sequence of athletic performance, the first three of which are familiar:
- Learn the rules, tools and techniques
- Strategies and tactic for winning
- Mental/emotional training for self-excellence
Stage 3, online for less than 50 years, is where many elite athletes function today.
But it is at stage 4 and 5 that things get more interesting. At these higher stages we are working with flow or the zone, that elusive state where the player and the game merge. This “subject / object collapse” is what Scott calls “flowing presence” and is the gateway not just to greater performance, but to a profound enjoyment and fulfillment in the act itself.
Scott is also a founding member of the Sports, Energy and Consciousness Group, a collective of doctors, psychologists, scientists, world-class athletes and leading-edge coaching, which is having its third annual conference in San Rafael this July.
In this podcast Scott offers a specific practice for entering flow, which is applicable for “in the zone” performance in all aspects of life.
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About Jeff Salzman
Jeff Salzman worked with Ken Wilber for several years in building the Integral Institute. He is a co-founder of Boulder Integral, the first bricks-and-mortar venue dedicated to the development of integral consciousness. These days Jeff provides integrally-inspired commentary on politics and culture on Integral Life and The Daily Evolver.
About Scott Ford
Author, clinician and performance specialist, Scott has been a USPTA Professional since 1977. He is the author of Design B: How To Play Tennis In the Zone (1984), Welcome To The Zone: Peak Performance Redefined (2014), and is a Founding Member of The Sports, Energy, and Consciousness Group as well as a contributing author to Sports, Energy, and Consciousness: Awakening Human Potential Through Sport (2014). Scott has also written numerous articles that have appeared in TennisOne.com, ADDvantage Magazine, Sports Vision Magazine, and Colorado Tennis.