The "zone" and why Arshavin may be out of it

There's a place a men can reach where his technical ability is mastered, and he is able to execute his will to near perfection. this is true in any technical ability, playing an instrument for example, You need to direct conscious attention in order to learn a new piece of music, but after you've mastered it, you can play it (and with it) without thinking about the next note. this kind of memory is different then factual memory for example (e.g naming the first year Arsenal won the F.A cup) and is believed to be stored and manged differently in the brain. it is the same memory you use when speaking or writing as you don't have to think about the movement of your lips or fingers as you do them. many such technical abilities take time to master and demand time to retain at a high level. football playing demands many such abilities mastered and retained and so constant training is required. but, these abilities are useless without a will to direct them. they are mere tools for the mind to use in order to create.

when faced with a new situation, we are more alert. we start to instinctively study it, noticing many details, net yet knowing which are important, interesting for us, and potently harmful. this is a place where, if entered with confidence, can be exiting and productive, and it may release creative potential that is otherwise stifled with habituation. this place is very difficult to retain as it demands a very high level of energy to maintain. by default we drift towards habituation, for the alternative is the depleting of our mental resources. When an ability is mastered to near perfection, and a new situation is presented in which our skill is valuable, we can enter a unique state where our unconscious skill can be fully deployed while our conscious mind is Sharpe and creative.The catch is, that while retaining a skill demands endless repetition, our ability to remain on high alert is temporal and demands constant change to be maintained.

A recent example, is the way Arshavin played last season. his superb abilities as a player coupled with his transition to a new and exacting club, got him playing like a demon, seeing every move in advance and seizing every half chance. the same can be applied to Sanga in his first season. he did not have Arshavin's ability, but he did have his own, and he was a massive player for most of the season. but this season Andrey doesn't seems as sharp. this may be do to the fact his mind habituated to his new situation, and so he is out of the so called "zone". this is not a one way street though, and a player can retain his sharpness. this again, is the product of a change in the situation.

motivation may be play crucial part in the time we can spend in the "zone" , if it's reached in a time close to the end of the season, then the site of the end goal may be all a player needs to retain his "zone" for a longer period of time, but click too soon, and you are doomed to lose your sharpness before too long. I believe this applies to teams as units as well. but this is a subject of another post.

Next time: how this may apply to a team and this bombshell: "if we win in two days time, we lose the season. " stay tuned...

(I am not a native english speaker, so if you see mistakes, you are welcome to let me know. thanks!)

is this a good idea?

Is it a good idea to write this blog? who will read it? For one thing, my English must get better as I go, and that is as good a reason as any to write (though personal). A place to think about Arsenal FC is another. I say "think", because I see very little of that going on in Arsenal blogs on the net. Yes, many of them check the right boxes in previews, and some can make you chuckle from time to time, buy very few give you something to think about. So my aim here is no simple one, and maybe a tad presumptuous, but it is to make the reader think.

Football may be a simple game with simple rules on paper. A round ball is all you need to play it. But people are ever more complex, and they are what makes this game so unpredictable. so nothing is as simple and as complicated as a game of football, and that I Think, is the secret charm it holds on so many. so here I am, writing a blog. hope it lasts . next time, we get to the FOOTBALL.

till next time...