The importance of performing optimally at the crucial moment cannot be overstated. Whether we are creating on the field, the stage, or in the office or boardroom; the critical role performance plays in achieving our goals is exactly the same. And the exact same principles apply in our personal and private lives as well. Aware of all the constitutive elements involved in the proper execution of the specific ongoing bodily tasks of playing, people adjudge themselves to be performing flawlessly. Being able to concentrate to such a degree, they have the impression that the habitual bodily task of playing has become much easier. Accustomed to constantly judging all relative aspects of bodily engagement during play, they begin to feel that this newly demonstrated level of skill is suddenly and dramatically raised to a degree hitherto deemed impossible. This challenges their pre-thematic understanding of their capabilities and limitations as players and engenders a state of euphoria. They feel liberated from self-doubt. Efforts to fully comprehend this mystifying improvement in their play finds people sensing that the defining experiential feature of this newfound ability was the particular way their body felt at that moment. There remains the conviction that this newfound sense of enhanced agency emerged completely unexpectedly and without identifiable cause.
My professional work concerns the elucidation of the essential elements of superlative performance, and the continual surpassing of ability thresholds. Anyone can get into the zone; the only question is how far you will go. Establishing the proper mental attitude towards the cultivation of one's own or another's talent creates the conditions conducive to continual improvement and transcendent performances.
Physical prowess without psychological and neurosychological control leads to inconsistent performance; while the proper psychological and neuropsychological factors alone cannot allow for a demonstration of skill without the requisite physical ability and personal discipline.
Break through to the next level of performance. Consultations are undertaken with individuals and groups with specific needs in the athletic, management and performance fields. All consultations include direct, one-on-one instruction on how to achieve peak performance and be in the zone. My areas of specialization are:
- Optimal preliminary motivation: Goal-Setting, Arousal Regulation, and Imagery.
- Peak Performance and Being in the Zone.
- Recovering psychologically from career-threatening injury and trauma.
"The essence of being in the zone is a transcendent, creative skillfulness that finds people playing better than they could have ever imagined. It is a radical transcendence of previously understood capabilities and expectations...a temporary transformation of the habitual world."
Schlaudecker (2002)
"Usually I am trying to work the ball inside to a player who is closer to the rim or who has a more open shot: better percentages. But for some reason this night I knew that I would score every time the ball touched my hands. I was attempting and making shots and moves which I would never ordinarily try let alone do successfully...I was taking it up strong and double pumping...I never even practice doing things like that because they just aren't part of my game."
NCAA Basketball Player, excerpt from Schlaudecker (2002)
