The Zone of Discipline

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A letter from Akwasi Frimpong International student and sprinter

It is now t-minus 12 days until the UVU Track & Field Team travels to New York City for the 2011 Indoor Great West Conference Championships. Our goal? To work hard as a team and bring the title home. We plan to do this using what we call “the zone of discipline.”

Two months ago, our track and field coaches introduced this idea to the team. This concept teaches us, as a team, to train at an almost superhuman level of focus and discipline. The zone of discipline has become the team’s secret to success because we have come to an understanding that it is a method to get ourselves into the mental state of being “in the zone.”

Being in the zone gives us a huge advantage. Being in the zone is similar to the concept of “flow,” a mental state of operation in which a person is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, with full involvement and success in the process of the activity.

The zone of discipline is divided in three parts: the left, the right and the middle. We practice staying in the middle of the zone. Too far to the left, and you’re doing your own thing; too far to the right, and you’re waiting for the coach to do everything for you. In the middle, you work hard but allow yourself to be coached. I have posted this on my door at home to make sure I am completely focused on being in the zone daily.

The UVU Track & Field Team has won the Great West Outdoor Conference Championships for two years in a row, but we’ve never been able to win the Indoor Championships.

I believe that, with the zone of discipline concept, we have a good shot of winning this year. We are mentally and physically fitter than ever, and with our new outdoor track facility on campus, are a solid and complete Division I Track & Field Team.

Our time to win the Indoor Championships has come.

New York City happens to be the city where dreams come true; but for us, this is not a dream anymore. We have worked hard as a team to turn our dreams into goals, and we will bring the title home using the zone of discipline!

We do have to admit that we face different challenges; we don’t have an indoor track for team practice, and we all know how cold it gets here, but we have heart. The taste of victory is near, and we are not letting this go.

I hope that the city where dreams come true will also help me get one step closer to my 2012 Summer Olympic Games goal. Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: I am in the zone and not willing to give up. I won’t, and our team won’t end up too far left or too far right.

Follow Akwasi Frimpong’s road
to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games
via www.AkwasiFrimpong.com.