by Wayne Thompson

The concept of "being in the zone" during an athletic performance is not just some invention of a sports writer to describe a Herculean feat on the field of play. It's very real -- a kind of out-of-body experience in which the athlete performs sensational feats while almost stepping aside and watching himself do it.

These are rare moments in sports and if you've ever seen anybody in one of these zone moments, you'll probably remember it for the rest of your life.

One of those moments emerged Jan. 5 at the Rose Garden when the Trail Blazers' Martell Webster took over the game in the third quarter against the Utah Jazz with an outside shooting exhibition for the ages.

Summing up, Webster, a young player with a handsome shooting stroke, yet more of a streaky shooter than a pure one, scored 24 points in the quarter, connecting of 7 of 9 shots, including 3 of 4 three-point bombs, and 7 of 7 free throws.

But those are just numbers. It's the way Webster did it that mesmerized a sell-out crowd of 20,451, many of whom felt they were witnessing an historic occasion as they marveled at a player deeply immersed in a zone.

Martell started his zone run with an 18-foot jump shot less than two minutes into the third quarter. He followed with a 12-foot jumper. Then a 13-foot jumper. With 8:27 left in the quarter, he scored his ninth consecutive Blazers point by swishing a three-pointer from the baseline that cut Utah's lead to 54-50. After that one, Martell waved his arms, put his hand over his heart and blew a kiss to the crowd, most of whom were in a state of awe, as were his teammates.

Brandon Roy, for instance, told The Oregonian's Joe Freeman. "What Martell did was unbelievable. I've never been a part of something like that."

Webster's frolic in the zone, however, wasn't done. He added another three-pointer. Even when Utah apparently decided to foul him in order to stop him, Webster made three free throws. A 17-foot jumper followed. Then there was another three-pointer. Then there were four more free throws.

Webster's zone moment, which propelled the Blazers to a come-from-behind 103-89 victory over the Jazz, was like seeing your first rainbow, but one that lasted for 12 minutes.

So what is this zone, really? Psychologists say it is a state of mind -- or rather a mindless state of mind -- in which the cerebrum, or thinking part of the brain, shuts off and allows the cerebellum to take over.

Well-learned complex physical movements are better handled by the cerebellum -- a part of the brain that functions outside of conscious awareness and manages very complicated movements with greater speed and efficacy than the cerebrum where we consciously solve problems and think about what we're doing.

The zone experience fits perfectly within Hungarian psychologist Mihly Csíkszentmihályi's discovery and description of the Flow experience -- a mental state of operation in which the person is immersed in what he is doing.

When in the moment, or in the zone, or in the groove, as some improvisational jazz musicians sometimes feel when performing a solo (as John Coltrane often did), that person is overwhelmed with a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

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