HighFIVE: Scott Ford
The following HighFIVE profile appears in the 2018 Summer issue of Colorado Tennis newspaper.
Many of you may have had the experience of “being in the zone,” at some point or another. It’s that elevated performance where your brain, body, and soul simultaneously ignite and you play beyond your own expectations.
For renowned author, clinician and performance specialist, Denver resident Scott A. Ford, this peak performance state can occur accidentally, but his mission is to show athletes of all levels how they can achieve this “flow state” on demand.
Scott’s passion to share this unique knowledge has led him to author several books on the subject, beginning with Design B: How To Play Tennis In the Zone (1984), Welcome To The Zone: Peak Performance Redefined (2014), and Integral Consciousness and Sport: Unifying Body, Mind and Spirit through Flow (2016).
He is a Founding Member of the Sports, Energy, and Consciousness Group, as well as a contributing author to Sports, Energy, and Consciousness: Awakening Human Potential Through Sport (2014). Scott has also written numerous articles that have appeared on TennisOne.com, ADDvantage Magazine, Sports Vision Magazine, and Colorado Tennis. His groundbreaking 2005 video, Welcome To The Zone, gives an overview of the Parallel Mode Process — his method for accessing, maintaining, and competing “in the zone.”
Stumbling into the zone quite accidentally in 1978, Scott explains that the phenomenon happens when people intentionally make a few fundamental changes in the way they use their visual and mental focus on the court.
“Regardless of skill level, players can use this technique to play to the peak of their abilities, to experience this oneness with the game,” Scott said.
Diving into complex components in his books and website, such as contact sequences, spatiotemporal dimensions, and the Quadratic Structure of Performance states to name a few, he said some of it is fairly basic. “It comes down to timing and being in the present,” he said, describing at a high level the technique of visualizing an imaginary window and using immediate yes/no verbal feedback. Scott, who has been a member of USPTA since 1977, is especially passionate about helping coaches use this technique in supplement to their own unique coaching styles, explaining that mastery of these techniques doesn’t interfere and will only improve outcomes.
Scott grew up in Aurora, and began coaching tennis at the very early age of 12. “I watched an instructor teach. I learned what worked and what didn’t. He let me coach some little kids to keep them out of his hair,” he joked about the defining moment. His first professional job was at Skyline Acres. Since then he has worked at numerous clubs and continues to work with young players at Rocky Mountain Tennis Center.
Scott’s unique concepts of flow and the zone have been presented at the prestigious USTA National Tennis Teachers Conference, USPTA World Congress on Tennis, the Canadian National Tennis Teachers Conference, and the 2000 Pre-Olympic Congress of Sports Science and Health in Brisbane, Australia. In 2008, Scott and Team Areté gave a presentation on Visual Dynamics in Combat to the Commandant and Senior Training Staff of the Navy SEALS in Virginia Beach, VA.
MidFirst Bank is one of the largest privately owned banks and this combination of size and private ownership provides our customers with a special brand of banking. We are a strong supporter of the communities we serve, investing time and money in important educational, charitable and civic organizations. Our volunteerism is powered by our employees from all of the communities in which we live and share with our customers. MidFirst Bank is a proud partner of USTA Colorado.
