Trust the Inner Game

Are you gently grooving with gravity or do you have a death grip on the yoke? Can you flare with flair? "It is an action is which certain things are caused to happen and certain things are allowed to happen. Faults arise in trying to cause what should be allowed."

The last two sentences are a direct quote about the mechanics of a golf swing by a lady best known as an auto journalist from her book on skiing. This is not the first place most of us would look for flying advice! But Sam led me here, for the truths she found about motor skills apply directly to the 'good stick' aspect of flying.

It is often repeated that during the Vietnam war, when some US Navy aviator's chests were wired up by doctors, that their heart rates were fastest not during actual deadly air-to-air combat, but at the end of the mission during landing back on the boat. Now, while few of us land a F-4 fighter jet low on fuel on a tiny rocking rolling aircraft carrier deck, most pilots can agree that landing is a time of complete concentration. We lose ourselves in the task. There are many other maneuvers—from the airline pilot's V1 cut to soaring a glider in a thermal to airshow aerobatics—that are excellent examples of mind-to-eye-to-hand coordination of the highest order. We need smooth. We need precision. But just trying harder often leads to worse results— actions become jerky and forced. We need relaxed concentration, we need fluidity on stick and rudder and throttle and judgment. Sam liked to say that we are surgeons operating on our own body, in a cramped bumpy operating theatre hurtling at 360 knots indicated.

Like many sports, the physical handling part of flying is far too fast, far too complex for reasoned thinking and careful consideration. In the flare you directly control pitch, yaw, roll and thrust to manage airspeed, angle of attack, descent rate, horizontal, vertical and lateral orientation against changing winds and aerodynamic states, all referenced against a small fixed point in space that is the very solid runway. Hands and feet are all dancing. In the time it takes to say it, to think it through, you have flared and landed. How much rudder? What ever it takes. How much stick pressure? What ever it takes. Right now! So how do we best manage these instant demands? We enter what sports psychologists call the zone.

You are completely focused, tuned in, switched on, super alive, in the tunnel, or as it is most universally known, in the zone. Tennis champion Billie Jean King says it is a perfect combination of "violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility." World downhill-skiing record breaker Steve McKinney knows it as "the middle path of stillness within speed, calmness within fear." And while the white coated psychologists on the side of the sports field have a good appreciation of the zone, we should know that there is a much older, more complete, deeper knowledge of the zone. Samurai swordmasters studied this as a matter or life or death for centuries. The zone is another place where ancient wisdoms, modern psychology, martial arts and flying airplanes meet.

Two old wise Samurai facing each other with swords will be perfectly still. Waiting for the other to move, to signal an attack. An attack that can be countered by an instantaneous reaction. The observer sees nothing. Two men motionless. For a long long time. We notice not a thing. Then a flash of blade and there is a winner. The master saw a weakness, saw an opening, and moved faster than the other could hope to correct. As a pilot we must become as the Samurai. Sitting still in the cockpit. Waiting for the change. Waiting for the slight movement. Waiting for the gust of wind. And reacting faster than thought to pick up the wing and land straight.

Zen calls this 'mushin', which can be translated as no-mind-ness. The zone is the unfettered mind of 'Samadhi', a state where you are not thinking about next week's union contract negotiations or a pretty girl's comment on your beer belly last night, but your mind and body are one with the moment. Power to idle, touch of rudder, flare the plane and land.

In the movie Top Gun—that cheesy classic where a maverick learns a lesson and becomes the teacher, told with fighter jets and hot chicks—Tom Cruise's character is an instinctive flyer. He wins a training dogfight by trusting his inner game, and going against the book. In a tense debriefing room scene the civilian instructor Charlie asks, "The MIG has you in his gunsight. What were you thinking at this point?" Maverick famously says, "You don't have time to think up there. If you think, you're dead."

There is more to this than movies. The zone is not just a perceptual idea, it is an actual real state of the brain. Neurological studies of people experiencing the zone show that the brain expends less energy when they are in harmony than when they are wrestling with a problem. One reason seems to be that the parts of the brain most relevant for the task at hand are most active, and those that are irrelevant are relatively quiet(Goleman, 1992). EEG brainwave scans have shown calm states in athletes that report being in the zone. Sean McCann, a sports psychologist at the United States Olympic Committee headquarters, has experimented with several biofeedback machines. He reports success using EEG feedback from the frontal lobes of the brain (Lawson, 2000). Professor Dan Landers at Arizona State University, where I am now a graduate student in applied psychology, says with EEG feedback he can teach athletes to improve their performance. Brain-imaging research at Syracuse University recently found that when athletes relived an 'in-the-zone' performance there was greater activity in parts of the brain that control coordination, while other brain areas became less active. This is the physical process that allows mental focus and precision performance. And yes, there has been some research on pilots, including United States Air Force bomber crews wired up while flying simulators and airplanes to allow study of the human factors associated with pilot error. (Sterman & Mann, 1994, Sterman et al., 1995) This work is still at an early stage. EEG readings are usually studied for people with problems, and using them to study master pilots is still in its infancy.

Being in the zone can be described in many words. Sometimes people use the term 'ecstasy.' It really does feel that good. The word is also appropriate as in Greek 'ecstasy' meant literally 'to stand to the side.' It can happen when full concentration on the task rather than thinking about the self flows you into the sunshine of the endless sky. Let yourself stand aside, then let your whole body and brain and soul fly in ecstasy. In a magic moment of letting go that is somewhere between a sneeze and an orgasm.

Patty Wagstaff, who won the U.S. aerobatic championship three years in a row, puts it this way:

"When people ask if I get frightened, I shake my head. "No" is the simple answer. The more complex, and unspoken, response is that in the air, I let myself go. It is cosmic, a Zen mode. I don't think about anything but symmetry and dancing, lines and pirouettes. I indulge myself."

George Moffat, who won the National Soaring Competition five times and the World Soaring Competition twice, says that when he is in the zone, "it almost seems unfair [to other competitors], as though another self, intuition, has taken over.” Wing Commander Bob Doe, one of the highest scoring ace's in the Battle of Britain, said, "you're not flying an aeroplane, you've got wings on your back. You are just flying. It's a dream. It's the most wonderful sensation I have ever known." Captain Rob Graeter, a USAF F-15 pilot and Aggressor instructor, describing one of his Gulf War air-to-air victories says, "you kind of drop into auto mode, where all the training you've done for so many years kicks in and you proceed almost subconsciously." Captain Steve Robbins, another F-15 pilot and Fighter Weapons School instructor, recalls evading a surface-to-air missile; "your mind is on a different plane. . . . It's so receptive to input that the normal time frame is slowed down."

So what can we do to encourage the Inner Game? Totally intuitive action can not be forced, but it can be helped. We can set the stage for the zone. Sam put it this way, "you do not produce it, you discover it." He believed that you passed through knowledge to simplicity, passed from book to brain to being. The steps we have already talked about bring you close, and then you have to let go. Allow the plane to fly. Visualize the path in the sky, note the configurations and airspeeds desired, see the wind. But you must reach a point where you let go and just fly. I noticed when flying as an airline pilot during the week, while meeting with Sam on weekends, my best landings were off a low ceiling IFR approach in gusty crosswinds with other weather or operational factors. By the time I flared I was so one with the plane that I just flared and landed. My concentration was complete.

To get good landings under normal conditions I would try to concentrate as hard on all the details as I could. Set up defined gates, places in the sky where I had to be at a certain airspeed plus five minus zero knots. Accept nothing other than right on the middle of the centerline. And with this I could sometimes enter the zone and just let my hands and feet fly the airplane as only they can. Mushin. I was watching, ready for a go-around should a runway incursion or somesuch happen, but I was trusting the Inner Game. I was not the first to discover that it takes a lot of initial effort and practice to be effortless.

The smoothness and control you can achieve with this technique is quite remarkable. You are not longer thumping the controls around, holding onto the yoke with a death-grip forceful enough to impress new finger marks on the back. You do not force things, you do not drive against the grain. Rather than a bull, you are a bird. You are using just enough effort to get the job done, what is called basal effort or optimal tonus. And with this gentle effort you can feel the airplane, you can feel the wind. A light touch on the controls works wonders. You are now graceful pilot, grooving with gravity.

There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do it hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.

— Johann Sebastian Bach

The management of a flying machine should become as instinctive as the balancing movements a man unconsciously employs with every step in walking.

— Wilbur Wright

You just start getting on a roll. Everything that you do is working. . . . It's like you can do anything, you can take your time, you say anything to people, you seem to be just like you're on a playground all by yourself.

— Michael Jordan

During the race I felt like I wasn't even moving fast. It felt like a comfortable jog around the track. It was easy; there was no struggle, and I felt a floating quality to the race . . . almost like I was in slow motion. I felt like I had been in that race in Stuttgart in those weather conditions in my mind already. I looked up and couldn't believe my time. . . . It didn't feel like a world record.

— Danny Everett

When I'm in this state everything is pure, vividly clear. I'm in a cocoon of concentration. And if I can put myself into that cocoon, I'm invincible. . . .  I'm living fully in the present. I'm absolutely engaged, involved in what I'm doing. . . . It comes and it goes, and the pure fact that you are out on the first tee of a tournament and say, "I must concentrate today," is no good.  It won't work.

— Tony Jacklin

You're involved in the action and vaguely aware of it — your focus is not on the commotion but on the opportunity ahead. I'd liken it to a sense of reverie . . . the insulated state a musician achieves in a great performance . . . not just mechanical, not only spiritual; something of both, on a different plane and a more remote one.

— Arnold Palmer

The soaring became effortless as I forgot about the bank angle, airspeed, flap settings, speed-to-fly calculations, rate of climb and G-force leaving only the air around the plane. . . . Without any conscious effort, my body, my mind and the ship flowed into the lift, meeting it at just the right speed and bank and configuration. I was truly soaring.

— Marc Arnold

Everything goes by in slow motion. Your swing feels like it's in slow motion, it seems like you've for forever, timewise, to make a decision. You're at peace with yourself. You never second guess when you pull out a club. Your hand goes automatically to the right club. There's never an in-between yardage. It's the most singular experience any athlete could ever have.

— Greg Norman.

When you're in the zone no one can even get close.

— Jeremy McGrath

Through preparation and hard work, you can prepare yourself for a mental attitude — a 'zone.' When it happens, all you see is the ball and the hole.

— Payne Stewart

People ask from time to time if we were scared or afraid. . . . That word, scared or afraid, I guess if you allow that to grab hold of you, it paralyzes your ability to think clearly. . . . En route to the Moon, not much is happening, but you're thinking, what should I be ready to do if things go wrong? . . . Give me clarity of thought. Give me the unfettered mind to be ready to react, to respond.

— Buzz Aldrin

The body moves naturally, automatically, without any personal intervention. If you think too much, your actions become slow and hesitant. When questions arise, the mind tires; consciousness flickers and wavers like a candle flame in the breeze.

— Taisen Deshimaru

In all activities of life, the secret of efficiency lies in an ability to combine two seemingly incompatible states:
a state of maximum activity and a state of maximum relaxation.

— Aldous Huxley

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

— Bruce Lee

When I play my best golf, I feel as if I'm . . . standing back watching the earth in orbit with a golf club in my hands.

— Mickey Wright

I can almost feel it coming. I am able to transport myself beyond the turmoil of the court to some place of total peace and calm. I know where the ball is on every shot and it looks as big as a basketball.

— Billie Jean King

I felt like I was floating in cruise control, as if other energies had taken over. Reflexes were at work but my body had given itself over to a perfect oneness of mind, body and spirit. I was dancing to an inner rhythm with everything.

— Evonne Goolagong Cawlay

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