How to get "in the zone"

[Gamma]

Interesting, do you think thats being 'too deep in the zone' or a lapse of concentration within the zone. I have seen it before, and have done it before, and man i felt stupid, especially when your set to score a few!!

As for Maguire and the ref, i guess they were taking it for granted that Ding knew what he was was doing!! I cant believe no-one noticed!!! Great black from Ding when the cue ball was tight to the top cushion though!!

Haha, love Michaela Tabb, did you see at the worlds this year http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeFDv8EFHoE complete loss of concentration, again with Maguire!!

[Krypton]

Fake Video, been discussed endlessly already...

[thelongbomber]

Not too sure if this fits the topic, but it happened to me a week ago, just sprang to mind and wanted to share with you guys...

The tournament table I was playing on had its cloth changed just in the afternoon and was running real fast and smooth. After my first shot I was in the zone straight away... made 3 reds and blacks and got perfectly onto a red to left centre, just needed a soft screw to land on the black to left bottom pocket.

There was another open red that I needed to get to after I get on the black, so I was planning in my mind already for that next red (2 shots ahead). At this point of time, I got myself ready, went down, and... potted the black!

This is the first time it happened to me! Immediately after I potted, my friend called out "foul"... afterwhich I realised he had been calling out to me when I was down on the black but I didn't really bother and just wanna pot that black before responding to him. So I was in the zone... but a "wrong" zone! So embarassing... and thinking back the break could have been a higher one!

Which reminded me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ9dJ56I1Qw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOc9C3kqCfc

Both shows the same Ding, which is a very similar mistake just that the order was different, he was on a colour but he played a red.
The funny thing is that even the referee and Maguire didn't notice too!
(were they in the "zone" together with Ding?)

A separate discussion can be started, as in what was on the mind of the referee and Maguire? We can understand if Maguire was not paying attention, but how about the referee? So much can be said, it only goes to show that refereeing is not easy, and you can't allow yourself to be "watching" the game and thinking together with the player. But this really is a one-off when everyone was "in the zone"

But referees are human, and can you blame this from happening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oLX-...eature=related

LOL.. I can related as I have seen/done this before. It's a common side effect of the zone: not hearing background noise and chatter. Your brain doesn't stop hearing, it's just that it starts filtering out noise. In fact, it's probably akin to sleeping where only certain sounds ("foul!") will wake you out of the dream/zen state you are in.

This all is starting to sound like top snooker is meant to be when one is in a "zen like meditative state ".....

oooohhmmmmmmm........ooooohhhhhhmmmmm... yes, I can feel it now. The century is near! .....oooohhhmmmmm