In football, being “in the zone” is a familiar experience. Those moments where everything clicks, decisions are instinctive, movements effortless, and the game seems to slow down. This state is often referred to as flow – a psychological sweet spot where presence and performance intersect.
But what if flow isn’t just something that happens? What if it’s something we can train? Not by doing more or thinking harder, but by developing the subtle skill of feeling.
What Is Flow?
The concept of flow was introduced by Hungarian American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Me-high Cheek-sent-me-high). A leading voice in positive psychology, Csikszentmihalyi studied how people enter states of deep focus and optimal experience, whether they’re athletes, musicians, or artists.
In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, he described flow as:
“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”
Flow is marked by:
- Total absorption in the moment
- A merging of action and awareness
- Loss of self-consciousness
- Time distortion
- A sense of control
- Effortlessness and intrinsic reward
In football, it looks like freedom under pressure. A player who isn’t thinking about the game. They’re simply inside it.
But how do you access that more consistently?
Feeling as a Gateway to Flow
Here’s a working hypothesis from years of experience inside elite football:
Flow becomes more accessible when a player develops the capacity to feel. Not just naming emotions but staying present with the felt sensations in the body without needing to escape them.
This isn’t about overthinking. Flow involves the absence of thought. What we’re pointing to is something quieter. The ability to remain open to the physical, emotional, and energetic shifts happening inside, with softness and without resistance.
You might call it embodied emotional agility. A capacity to feel clearly and move freely, even under pressure.
Face it. Feel it. Let it Go.
This ability to feel, stay open, and release pressure can be trained. One tool I’ve developed for this is a simple process:
Face it. Feel it. Let it go.
It helps players meet intensity without collapsing or overcompensating. And it works in real-time, not just in seated meditation.
Face it: Recognise what’s arising; nerves, tightness, fear, frustration. Meet it directly without turning away.
Feel it: Tune into the sensation in the body. Not the story, just the experience. Notice it in your chest, shoulders, breath, belly. Stay with it.
Let it go: Allow it to move through. Letting go doesn’t mean pushing it away. It means giving it space to shift naturally, without clinging or suppression.
Using It in Real Life and Performance
This process works in everyday training, high-stress moments, and extreme challenges. For example, I used it during a 100km ultra-run from London to Brighton. Whenever fatigue or overwhelm kicked in, I returned to this process. It changed the nature of the experience. I wasn’t fighting my way through. I was feeling my way forward. That’s a massive difference.
Other places to train this:
- Tough training sessions
- Cold immersion
- Endurance events
- Rehab and return-to-play moments
- Pre-match intensity
- Quiet daily life
This is not the only way. It’s simply a way. A practical, repeatable system to build emotional agility and presence – skills that open the space for flow to arise.
More Than Performance
This isn’t just a performance tool. It’s a human skill. The more you practise feeling and releasing in the everyday, the more available you become during competition. You carry less internal resistance. You access more clarity. And you move with a freedom that can’t be forced.
The best part? You can train it anytime, anywhere.
