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What Is 'Being In The Zone'?
Buddy Biancalana • 2021-06-15
Dylan Carnahan:Welcome back to the Simple Questions Podcast. I'm your host, Dylan Carnahan. That introduction was provided by AJ Cronk from Mudflap Mafia. It was called A Dark and Lonely World. If you want to show AJ Cronk or Mudflap Mafia your support, go ahead and check out either of the two on Apple Music or Spotify, as well as you can go to mudflapmafia.com to see the venues that they will be at this year. Now, let's get into the question for today's episode, which is, what is Being in The Zone? Some of you may have already heard that term before, and that's good. That'll provide a little context for what we're about to get into. If you haven't, don't worry, we're going to get into it. We're going to explain what that exactly means. We're going to talk about what that feels like, and we're going to talk about the benefits of Being in The Zone. So who are we going to be talking to about this topic of Being in The Zone and Focus? Well, we are going to be talking to a former shortstop for the Kansas City Royals, a 1985 Royals World Series Champion, the co-author of The 7 Secrets of World Class Athletes, and Zone Motion founder. I introduce to you, Buddy Biancalana. Well, I'm glad to have you on here. I know we've spoken a little bit through Avila University's baseball season, but here you are. You care a little bit to talk about how you got started with baseball and your professional career and what you've done since.
Buddy Biancalana:Sure, so you know, I took a loving to baseball as a very young boy, probably five years old, a plastic ball and a plastic bat. My dad loved the game. So we spent a lot of time in the front yard, you know, playing catch and hit hitting and do the whole bit and go into a lot of games. We grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. So I was initially a giant fan. Then we had a friend who pitched for the Dodgers and I became a Dodger fan. So there are not too many giant fans become Dodger fans or Dodger fans become giant fans. That was a very, very unique experience for me. And so, yeah, and I just, you know, I played, we had a really great high school program, Redwood High School in Larkspur, California. We were mythical national champions our junior year, runner-ups our second, my senior year. Had a really great coach in Al Andres. And, you know, I had three, three tools, three, you know, it's, you know, kind of the scouting system. It might say three plus tools I could run, throw and field, didn't hit much. And ended up being a first round pick by the Royals in 1985, much to my surprise. I thought I was going to go on the third or fourth round. Got to call the morning of the draft from John Sherhall, it's the farm director of the Royals at the time now in the Hall of Fame as a general manager. Not because he drafted me first. That's not why he made the Hall of Fame. But, and he said they were going into the draft and that they were planning on making me the first round pick. If I was still available, would I be interested in signing? I said, if all things were right, I would. And I was a shortstop, as was Cal Ripken, and they drafted me head of Cal Ripken. The poor scout who made that recommendation, but that's okay. So, that was the beginning, you know, I spent four and a half years in the minor leagues before my first call up to Kansas City. And, you know, I spent five years in the major leagues, and certainly the highlight of my life at the time was, you know, being able to play in the World Series, have a good series, win the series. And that was quite a thrill, being able to bring, be a participant in something that brings so much fulfillment to other people is really, really wonderful. And I'm blessed to be able to still do that, in my opinion, with what we do with Zone Motion.
Dylan Carnahan:Can you talk a little bit, I know you mentioned quite often, kind of the story about kind of your experiences that you felt during that World Series?
Buddy Biancalana:Sure. So, as a kid, I always knew I wanted to play in the major leagues, and I was able to achieve that, but I could never fathom playing in the World Series. It was just like too big an event. You know, it's like, you know, asking someone, you know, are you going to be president of the United States? And they'd be like, are you kidding? It's like it never crossed their mind, most likely for most people, right? And that's how it was for me in the World Series. Never thought about it. And even when I got to the major leagues, it still wasn't in my mind that, you know, World Series. Like, I'm a major league player. It's great. World Series, that's something that I watch on TV in October in front of the fireplace. Well, you know, all of a sudden, I found myself sitting in my locker before game one of the 85 World Series. I had to be in the dugout in 20 minutes for introductions. And I was sitting there, and usually when I'd get nervous before a game, I'd make myself a sandwich just to kind of change how I felt. It was kind of my coping mechanism at the time. And, however, I, 20 minutes ago, got hit by, as I like to say, a wave, a 2x4 of fear. To the point where I knew for sure that I couldn't catch a ball if it was thrown to me from about 20 feet away. That's how I felt. I was completely paralyzed with the most intense feelings I'd ever experienced in my whole life. And I'm thinking, what am I going to do? I said, I can't play shortstop. I'm in the starting lineup. I said, I can't go play shortstop in this state of mind. And again, it was a feeling that I'd never experienced before. So it wasn't like something that I knew that I would come out the other side with or the other end. It was like paralysis, like, whoa, now what do I do? Like, do I tell them I can't play? Do I get my street clothes on and go watch it on TV? And I just sat there. And it's first time I like life, I said, wow, this is really scary. And because I knew, I intuitively knew there was no sandwich or glass of wine or anything that was going to change how I felt in that moment. And so I was just forced to sit there with it. And what happened was it just kind of dissolved. And I ended up grabbing my helmet, bat and glove and walked down the runway there at the time Royal Stadium, now Coffin Stadium, waited for my name to be introduced and took the field and ended up playing arguably the seven best baseball games my whole life, including Little League. It was a feeling of not being able to do anything wrong, even if I tried. Everything just really slowed down for me. I was in my own little world out there. I wasn't thinking. I felt like I had way more time at the plate. Literally and I don't exaggerate, I make a real point to be precise in my life with my words. Literally every single ball hit me right in the sweet spot of the glove at shortstop. And every ball came out of my hand like butter off a hot knife. There was one play in St. Louis, it was in game five, I believe, four or five, where someone stole second base, Frank White took the throw and the ball kicked out into left center field and I ran after it to pick it up and I picked it up bare handed and I kind of just wheeled and turned and threw to second base just to keep the guy at second base. It's really no big deal. You know, being a major league infielder, it's like, you know, no one said, oh, what a great play. It wasn't a great play. But what was very interesting was in that moment, I felt like that I could have kicked the ball to second base perfectly. It was that force that had really overtaken me that, you know, I felt like I couldn't doing wrong. It was crazy. And so that was the experience that I had and we ended up winning that series, as most people know, and I almost won the MVP. I was told I was the leading vote getter for MVP and position players. Brett Saberhagen, our Cy Young Award-winning pitcher that year, got the award right for himself. He had a great series. And then 18 months later, I was out of the Major Leagues because I had no idea what happened in my mind that allowed me to play at that level where everything just slowed down. I wasn't thinking and everything I did was fluid and effortless, timing great. And so my life's journey, Dylan, has been since that time to go, you know, figure out what that happened and more importantly, try and help others, you know, access and that's what I do.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, no. So how have you kind of gone about that at Zone Motion?
Buddy Biancalana:Well, what we've been able to do is figure out, you know, what happens in the brain when an athlete's playing their best. I was fortunate to meet a guy by the name of Stephen Yellen and together we figured out a lot of things about the brain body connection. And so my work, the main essence of my work takes place on the field, but as you know, there's a lot of work we do off the field that's essential. As I've learned more about neuroscience and the brain body connection and neural pathways in the brain, you know, I figured out, you know, what's really, really essential to allow an athlete, to give an athlete the best chance to really perform at a high level on a consistent basis because as humans we're either strengthening or weakening neural pathways, you know, all the time, which is rather daunting to think about that. It's true, you know, and so ongoing practices to strengthen these neural pathways that allow an athlete to experience their sport as slowing down and not thinking and fluid effortless motion and great timing is essential. So you know, most of the initial we call it nuts and bolts takes place while an athlete's performing in practice or in a game and then we have the ongoing support that is again essential to maintain those neural pathways and continue to strengthen them.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it's rather unfortunate that, you know, the atrophy, right?
Buddy Biancalana:Yeah, and there are actually studies taking place now that they're showing that if you're not learning something new, you're actually forgetting what you already know. And so it's great. It's great having a podcast because you learn a lot of new things. So you're going to you're going to remember what you already know, Dylan.
Dylan Carnahan:There you go, buddy. So can you kind of tell us kind of who who have you who's used this? So motion, who have you been dealing with?
Buddy Biancalana:I've worked a lot of professional athletes. I've worked with athletes in 13 professional sports. I've worked with, you know, Scott McCarran is kind of a real poster boy for me. He's won 11 tournaments since we started working together. He did that in four years. Matt Kane of the Giants, I worked with Jeremy Affelt, Barry Zito, Todd Wellmeyer, Jake Petrishka, did work with the Chicago Bulls, Portland Trail Blazers, and done work with KU's baseball team, Princeton, Michigan, Arizona, race car drivers, Indy 500 drivers, and Moto GP drivers in Europe. And so I'm really, I feel so blessed to be able to work in multiple sports because the zone experience is, for the most part, the same in sports. The kinetic chain, the angles, the proper angles of the specific sports have something to do with it. And a lot of people say, well, you teach the flow state. And I say, well, it's not really the flow state, it's the zone. It's a bit different, because the brain body connection is a two way street. And the processes of the mind affect the processes of the body, and the processes of the body affect the processes of the mind. So in a game like baseball and golf, the mechanics based on physics are essential, because if the brain senses some weakness in the body, where the kinetic chain is broken, it's going to throw things off in the brain. And you're just kind of hoping, and most athletes are just kind of hoping that they can go out and perform the best. I'd like to share the anecdote that a baseball hitter goes four for four, and he goes home feeling great, had a great game, goes to bed, wakes up feeling great, had a great game. And the next day goes to ballpark, and he says, all right, I got to make sure I put my right sock on before my left, and right cleat before my left cleat, make sure I put my lucky t-shirt on, and can you go take my 10 off the tee, 10 front toss, and then I'm just going to hope that I can perform as well tonight as I did last night without understanding what happened last night at the most fundamental level, which is the brain that took place to allow him to perform so well. And so we have a real systematic way to teach someone how to systematically access the origin of their emotion, which is the brain, and build the pathways. And it's not a substitute for anything that's being done right now, but it works very well in conjunction with someone who really understands biomechanics, and we help integrate that. And it's tremendous for expediting development and minimizing soft tissue injuries while we maximize performance.
Dylan Carnahan:So you mentioned a lot about the zone and body-brain connection. So how does that work? I know you've mentioned in our talks the autonomic nervous system and kind of what's some of the science behind that connection brain-body.
Buddy Biancalana:Yeah, so the main process for fluid motion in the body is to access the alpha theta state, a quieter deeper state, and then move the information that you're processing to what's called the cerebellum, part of the motor system, the back of the head, and not allow it to get interrupted by the intellect, like the prefrontal cortex, right? And we all, as athletes and people in general, we know that when we start to think a lot, it doesn't serve us in life, you know? But when we're able just to react, then it's like, oh, yeah, things are easier whether you're doing anything. You know, it doesn't matter what you're doing. And as it pertains to motion, you know, accessing a deeper, quieter state and allowing signals to travel the cerebellum uninterrupted by the prefrontal cortex allows all the muscles to fire synchronistically. And again, the kinetic chain has something to do with it. So that's the key. That's how fluid motion is produced in the body. That's how zone motion is produced. And then just strengthening those neural pathways and the brain-body connection and identify, you know, what else may be in the way that is keeping that athlete from being as successful as he can be.
Dylan Carnahan:So how does the kind of this zone compare, say, compare it like this whole process to say meditation? How does that compare?
Buddy Biancalana:You know, that's a good question. Certainly similarities, right? You know, whatever, if you are putting your attention on, you know, anything with strong intention, that could be considered a meditation. You know, whether you're walking down the street, listening to birds sing or, you know, or using a mantra meditation or, you know, whatever, watching a candle flame or whatever it may be. So there's certainly similarities that can help put the mind in a better state to function at a level that's more conducive for success in whatever we're doing.
Dylan Carnahan:So what this state, you know, trying to achieve this zone, or as you mentioned, some people refer to it as like a flow state. What are kind of the benefits of being in that state of mind?
Buddy Biancalana:Wow, way more than I ever thought. Let me say that. When I started doing this, I knew that it was going to play a huge part in the sports, you know, down the road, which it is. And so first of all, the, you know, one benefit is increased performance, you know, very quickly. We've seen amazing results. My first 11 or 12 professional and amateur pitchers saw an increase in strikeout to walk ratio of 59%. And an increase in, a decrease in whip, walks and hits per inning pitch of 28%. You know, so we've seen, you know, off the chart success. My first four professional baseball hitters, three of them were independent league hitters in one AAA major leaguer, saw an average increase in batting averages, 79 points each. And I was completely blown away by that because I didn't really understand at the time what I was doing. I didn't understand the science behind it. You know, I just kind of knew, oh, this works, this works, and let's just kind of experiment with these guys. And, you know, they had crazy success. And then I realized, oh, I'm teaching them how to access the origin of the motion, which is the brain. And so anytime you have access to the origin of anything, you know, you then have a better chance for, you know, to control what comes after. And if you have access to the origin of the foundation of the home, well, then you have a chance to have a strong third story. But if you're just careless with the origin of the foundation and you're just pouring concrete wherever you want to pour it, well, the third story, you know, the house is going to be a little shaky. Well, it's the same thing in sports with motion. If you're not making the brain the priority, and I actually had some posts today on LinkedIn and Twitter, Ken Rosenthal, the great writer and broadcaster, I guess brought up the point that there, you know, just a bunch of hit by pitches issue, hitters are getting hit, I guess, at record rates, I guess. I didn't read the article, I saw it. And, you know, and I told him, I said, you know, as long as the processes in the body are, you know, are the priority for the pitcher, you're not going to be able to, you know, throw hard and command like you want. You know, the whole key is we do want to throw hard. We want to command the body and to command the body, you've got to command the brain and the brain's operating system to the muscles. So, you know, that's what we're after.
Dylan Carnahan:So can you kind of elaborate more on, you know, someone that hasn't been in that state, kind of what it feels like?
Buddy Biancalana:Yeah, so what it feels like is that you feel like you have more time that you're not rushing, you know, that you're in the moment, and it's the experience of time that controls the muscles. Anytime our mind is in the future, we're not taking our full power in this very moment right now, and we're not going to function as well as we could in that next moment. And it doesn't mean that you're not taking, you know, it doesn't mean you don't have intention for the next moment, but you're very, very present in this moment right now. And so things slow down, right? And you start, the mind starts to become just relaxed, you know, it's like, okay, you're willing to wait, you know, that you're, I'm not impatient anymore, you're willing to have patience. And you're more interested in this moment than the next moment. So that's wonderful. And that's nice, you know, when the mind starts to operate on that at that level, it's really beneficial in many ways. So, and you're not thinking as much, you know, you'll have thoughts will come to you. I always say to clients, don't go looking for answers, but do put your mind in a state where the answer will come to you, right? And you know, you know, student athletes, if you're taking a test and you know, you're just grinding and you're looking, you know, some answer is not coming, you know, you know, don't force it, but be in a state where the answer will come to you.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, they can kind of exacerbate things a little bit forcing that.
Buddy Biancalana:Exactly, right. So that's, you know, another one of the benefits. And then, and the motion is pertains to sports is much more fluid and effortless. And, you know, Zone Motion is, this is a strong statement, but it's the truth is the primary solution of the injury epidemic taking place in baseball right now with all the arm injuries. It's not the sole answer, right? I mean, there are a lot of things that go into producing fluid motion and keeping the body healthy. And, you know, there's strengthening and nutrition and a lot of factors, but as far as the missing link, you know, when the motion is in process, if the brain is not the priority, it creates a muscle imbalance, which will pull on ligaments and tendons.
Dylan Carnahan:So I just want to bring this up just for some of our listeners that may not be actually athletes. How could they use this process?
Buddy Biancalana:Yeah, so I've been doing some corporate work and it's gone extremely well because intention with detachment is really, really powerful, right? So knowing what you want is very important. But when we're able to detach from the outcome, it doesn't mean you're going to lose sight of the outcome you want. But when you're able to detach from the outcome, it reduces fear. And there's going to be less resistance. So you can think about it as a salesperson who's trying to make a sale and he's pitching his product. And I think we've all kind of felt where someone's starting to nudge a little too hard or kind of push and they're trying to get you to buy, right? It doesn't work very well. And it's like, whoa, this guy's pushing a little bit. I'm going to back off. So as far as can really help people in sales and start to understand, you know, from a neurophysiological perspective, not an intellectual perspective, but from a neurophysiological perspective, how powerful detachment is in achieving your desired results, you know? So it's intention with abstraction, as I like to say. Both are extremely important. And working, so the integration of that is the key.
Dylan Carnahan:So you kind of mentioned kind of this abstract state of mind, you know, this level of dissonance. How long can that last?
Buddy Biancalana:Well, you know, regular practice is essential, right? Because we are affected by our environment. In fact, environment is greater than will, right? You put yourself in an environment that is not conducive for your well-being. No matter how hard you try, you're going to weaken. And so we need to be aware of our environment, but and have, you know, steady practices that are going to keep you in that state of where you, you know, it's the state of alignment, as I call it. And alignment is huge, you know, it's for me, it's 80 percent. My good friend David Meltzer says 80 percent alignment, 20 percent action. I agree with him. And I know when I'm aligned, things happen, you know, I tell a story that one time there's just several years ago, I was like, you know, business was kind of dry for whatever reason. I was like frustrated. The deals were kind of like weren't, you know, weren't happy at the pace, I thought. And finally, I just said, I'm just going to go hang out and sit at Whole Foods today and hang out with a buddy. We just hung out and all of a sudden the phone started ringing off the hook, you know. So I completely let go of I detached from the, you know, the result I wanted. And, you know, things started to happen. And so, you know, when you when you can understand that that experience from a neurophysiological perspective, it's a big difference from someone trying to get you to buy in and believe that, you know what, hey, just trust that it's going to happen. Right. Oh, thanks a lot. You know, meanwhile, I'm stressed out because something's not happened. You're telling me, oh, don't worry. Well, that's easy for you to say, because, you know, right. No, but when you can understand from a neurophysiological perspective how it all works, then it's like, oh, I get it. And that's a huge help. Right. That's a huge help in building the faith and the trust that you can, you know, that you don't have to push upon yourself upon somebody. And I used to put, I used to, it used to be what I did with this. I used to really push, you know, you speak to general managers around Major League Baseball. I asked them about me 10 years ago. And man, that guy was like pushing, pushing Zone Motion so hard. You know, it's because I, you know, it's really, really good. And I thought, oh, everybody has to know about this. Why, you know, why wouldn't someone want to know about this, right? Well, it just doesn't work. People feel that and they, you know, they feel that push. And it doesn't matter how good something is. They're going to feel the resistance.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. So we've talked like kind of, you know, just generally about the zone and kind of benefits and how people can use it and the results they get. But how can you access it?
Buddy Biancalana:Right. So, you know, you access it by, you know, we use a lot of different drills and concepts and what I call paradigm shifting thoughts to put the brain in that state that, you know, so someone has that, you know, undeniable experience and then just can, and then just train them over time, you know, with the, you know, different, you know, we now have a platform for the ongoing zone motion process that we're, you know, it's not ready yet, but we're close to having it ready with all the practices necessary to, you know, to stay in that state on a regular basis because it, you know, we all know we have those days in life where we're really locked in and there are other days where we're not. And so, you know, really understanding what needs to happen and providing someone the practices is what we're looking to do.
Dylan Carnahan:So can you, I know that some of kind of the methods that I've seen on kind of the Zone Motion are kind of like breathing exercises and visualization and meditation. Can you talk a little bit more exactly about the processes?
Buddy Biancalana:Well, those are a lot of the follow up trainings, right? The main essence of Zone Motion, the real, what I call the real nuts and bolts takes place while an athlete's practice in their sport, practice their craft on the field in whatever sport. And the additional trainings and meditations and breathing techniques and visualizations are utilized to continue to strengthen those neural pathways that, you know, the athlete's been introduced to that are essential. Years ago, Dylan, I thought I could work with a professional athlete three days and they'd be off and they all did really well. I was blown away by how well they did, but I would see just a very slow decline to the point where it wasn't even alarming to the athlete because it wasn't falling off a cliff, but it was just a steady, steady, steady decline. It was before I really understood, you know, the brain-body connection like I do now. So being able to have ongoing practices to keep someone closer to that zone, which is, you know, where you want to be, is really, really essential.
Dylan Carnahan:So what are, I know you've kind of mentioned kind of some pitfalls people can fall into that kind of inhibit them from getting in that zone.
Buddy Biancalana:Yeah. So, you know, one pitfall that is very common in life, I just came to you, one pitfall that's very common in life is that if you do this, you can expect this result. And there's certain things that's very, very true to, you know, if I'm driving my car and I turn my hands to the right, I can expect the car to go right. And that's how our mind operates in many things, in many areas of life. Like in school, if you have to memorize 20 vocabulary words in a month, right, or 20, whatever foreign language words in a month, if you learn five this week, five the next week and five the third week and five the fourth week, there's your 20. And that's how our mind is conditioned to work. However, with Zone Motion, you know, when let's just say, say, okay, I'm going to work on my mechanic, and I really have it, so I'm going to really make my mechanic the priority. And I can expect this result, quite often, you don't get the result you want. And the reason is, is the brain is not functioning how we want it to function because we're attached. We're making the mechanic the priority, which is very important to have the mechanic, you know, good biomechanics, good physical mechanics are important for sure. But when the brain makes the desired result, the outcome, right? Your chances, your chances of achieving it are diminished, it doesn't mean you can't have some success. There are plenty of people that are, you know, outcome oriented and are having success. That being said, they don't know, they may not understand that, you know, if they shifted their priority, how much more success they could have, and how much more ease they could experience in their pursuit of their outcome, right? So, there are plenty of people that are driven, and they're completely worn out, yet they're achieving their success. Well, we want to achieve our success, and we want it to be with more ease and efficiency, and we want to be able to be present for all of the things that are important in our life. We don't want to have to work eight hours a day and go home and be, you know, a couch potato and not be available to our partners and our kids. No, that's not what we want. We want to be, you know, have intention, go after it with an abstract state of mind as it pertains to sports, right? More ease, more proficiency, more efficiency. And when we're done with it, we're going to be present in the next moment for whatever it is we need to do.
Dylan Carnahan:Can you kind of talk about how do you know you're in that abstract state of mind?
Buddy Biancalana:Well, you'll know when you're very consistent with your motion, number one. If you're a hitter, you'll know because you're going to be squaring the ball up pretty consistently assuming your mechanics are pretty good. Or if you're a pitcher, you're going to be feeling that ball come out of your hand real well and you're going to be locating better and your spin rate is going to be higher. But you'll know when, you know, an athlete knows when they're where they need to be. They know that feeling. It's like, wow, okay, I really feel good here. This is easy. I feel more ease in what I'm wanting to do here. And oh, interesting, as I feel more ease, I'm having more success. So it's something that you're aware of and you realize that, you know, you're just kind of, this is different, that's how I found the World Series, I was like, well, it's just, it was me and me, I was aware of my teammates, and I was aware of the opposition. And I was just kind of in my own little world out there, which is how Maria Sharapova described her upset win of Serena Williams and Wimbledon. She said, I was just, you know, I have no idea how I beat her. I was just in her own little world out there.
Dylan Carnahan:So I kind of want to go back. I like kind of, you always mentioned kind of the embedded goal is always there, right? You always know that I need to throw a strike or I need to hit this ball, but kind of achieving that balance of just maintaining that without being so concentrated on it.
Buddy Biancalana:Right. Yeah. So knowing, you know, as you're walking to the plate, you know, the coach doesn't need to say, hey, you know, drive them in, make sure you get a hit, right? You already know that. And so any time, and we've shown this with our studies and research, you know, scientific research and studies, small sample size, but we've shown them, any time the desired result or the physical biomechanic becomes a priority for the brain, it creates a muscle imbalance. That very moment, your chance of soft tissue injuries, muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia increases and your chances of success diminishes. Now, that doesn't mean you're going to get hurt that very moment, and it doesn't mean you're not going to get hit driving the run or throw a strike. It's not worth saying, but the chances of doing it are diminished and the chance of injury increased. So that's the embedded goal is to get the hitter throw the strike. So that cannot be the priority for the brain.
Dylan Carnahan:That's really interesting. So what are kind of some tips that our listeners could use to kind of get in that abstract state of mind?
Buddy Biancalana:So number one is just, you know, making sure that there's nothing more important than setting one as I mentioned, the foundation of a building, there's no, there's nothing more important than the foundation of the building of the home. And if it's not strong, to some degree, that third floor, 50th floor is going to be weak. And it's the same thing with an athlete, that if we're not setting one in the more of that alpha brainwave state, your chances of success are decreasing in that moment. So allowing the mind to settle into that deeper, quieter state is the absolute most important thing for an athlete to achieve. And then we, as you know, we use these abstract goals of numbers and different ways to think that start to allow the information to move through your brain to the cerebellum that allows all the muscles to fire synchronistically, and then just continue to strengthen those pathways and also address the energy centers in the body and making sure that we're freed up so that everything can work the way we want it to work. And we have, most athletes have had glimpses of these heightened states of awareness and proficiency, and, you know, like myself in the World Series, I had no idea what happened in trying to repeat it. The level of anxiety to try and repeat my play in the World Series was crazy. You know, I had no idea what happened, but we want to help a lot of athletes and love doing it. I feel really, really blessed to be able to help people. In my opinion, there's nothing more gratifying than help others. I'm doing that and making plenty of money at the same time is like really wonderful and doing good things with that money. So I just, you know, I'm blessed.
Dylan Carnahan:Can you kind of tell us where we can learn more about Zone Motion?
Buddy Biancalana:Yeah, you can go to our website, zonemotion.com. Pretty simple. zonemotion.com or buddybiancalana.com will take you there as well. And if anybody would like to send me an email, they can access through the website. If anybody would like to get on, I do a complimentary 10-minute call just to help someone understand more so and see if it's a fit for them. So I'm happy to do that.
Dylan Carnahan:All right. I hope we can get you some emails and some people checking out that website, buddy.
Buddy Biancalana:Great Dylan. Really nice to visit with you. Great job.
Dylan Carnahan:Well, that concludes the interview with Buddy. I hope you guys got something out of it. I know that's a little bit of a different topic that you may not be accustomed to and that's what makes it nice to have someone like Buddy come in and kind of clear the air on that. We talked about quite a bit. We talked about, you know, the feeling, the sensations of being in the zone, kind of what an abstract mindset is, kind of some tips potentially to get into that zone and the application of what that zone can do and what you can apply it to. Now it is my favorite time. Shameless plugging. Yes, that's right. I'm talking about you, the listener, going to simplequestionspodcast.com, checking out the show notes, checking out the resources that I've painstakingly put in there. I'm talking about you, the listener, going to subscribe to this podcast. I'm talking about you, the listener, going and checking out AJ Cronk and the Mudflap Mafia and you, the listener, going to check out zonemotion.com. Next episode is going to be on a topic that is perhaps a little less informative, more entertaining, more humorous, and all around it's just going to be a little bit different than the topics that we've discussed here on Simple Questions Podcast. I think you guys are going to enjoy it, so stay tuned to hear what that's all about. And like always, keep asking questions.