IMAGINATION, COGNITION AND PERSONALITY, Vol.

28(1) 69-91, 2008-2009

FLOW IN SPORT:
A STUDY OF COLLEGE ATHLETES

EDWARD J. CHAVEZ
The Institute of Optimal Performance, Colorado

ABSTRACT

The study investigated how the flow state is experienced by college athletes.
Sixteen NCAA Division I college athletes, representing both individual and
team sports, participated in the study. A phenomenological method was
used in capturing the subjective experiences of participants in the flow state.
There was a central focus on which factors athletes perceived as being
most important for facilitating entry into the flow state, which factors are
perceived as preventing/disrupting flow, and which are involved in rein-
stating flow. The study also attempted to determine which factors athletes
perceived as having volitional control. Finally, the study examined the tem-
poral proximity, as phenomenologically determined, between flow and
body sensations reported during peak performance episodes. Results indi-
cated that having limited or no cognitive conscious thought process was
the most salient characteristic of describing the flow state. Most athletes
described experiencing some form of body sensation during the flow state.

INTRODUCTION
Charles T. Tart, Professor of Psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal
Psychology in Palo Alto, California, has spearheaded the movement for expanded
research into the broader field of altered states of consciousness. Tart (1990),
whose well-known anthology Altered States of Consciousness, gave the fol-
lowing definition of an “altered” consciousness state:

69

Ó 2008, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.

doi: 10.2190/IC.28.1.f
http://baywood.com
70 / CHAVEZ

An altered state of consciousness for a given individual is one in which he

clearly feels a qualitative shift in his pattern of mental functioning, that is,
he feels not just a qualitative shift (more or less alert, more or less visual
imagery, sharper or duller, etc.), but also that some quality or qualities of his
mental processes are different (p. 2).

While it is evident that individuals experience different and various levels of an

altered state of consciousness, there is still some ambiguity of what constitutes
such states. It could be said that alternate states of consciousness are part of our
daily functioning, when we daydream, when we have a flash of inspiration or
intuition, when we are so engaged in an activity that we lose all track of time,
when we are so familiar with a repeated behavior or pattern that we can perform
the task with little to no effort. In the field of sport this shift of consciousness
is often described as an optimal state.
Researching optimal states of consciousness is relatively new in sport
psychology. Numerous accounts exist about how during athletic activity, when
the body is usually maximizing energy expenditure, there occurs a seemingly
altered state of consciousness that may accompany an optimal level of per-
formance. More recently, these performance-enhancing altered states of con-
sciousness have been termed by Csikszentmihalyi (1988) the flow or simply
flow. A pioneer in this area of flow, Csikszentmihalyi, built upon Maslow’s
(1962/1999) area of peak experience and self-actualization, leading to the devel-
opment of peak experience as an important area of study.
Ravizza (1977), who extensively studied peak experience in sport, found a
number of qualities of peak experience during his interviews with athletes. These
included; losing fear, having no conscious thoughts while performing, becoming
totally immersed in the activity, maintaining a narrow focus of attention, feeling
in control, and that performance is automatic and effortless.
Flow is an extension from the peak experience literature made by Csikszent-
mihalyi (1990), who wanted to examine the subjective experience that made
behavior intrinsically rewarding. Additionally, he wanted to know how par-
ticipants felt and why such behavior was rewarding. This led him to conduct
research (1988) with individuals who spent a lot of time in activities for which
they received no extrinsic rewards such as money or recognition. He studied
amateur athletes, chess masters, rock climbers, dancers, high school basketball
players, and composers of music. He wanted to focus on how people described the
activity when it was going well. This led to the term flow in Csikszentmihalyi’s
book Beyond Boredom and Anxiety (1975). Csikszentmihalyi concluded that
there was a common autotelic, or rewarding-in-and-of-itself, experience in all
participants. It was this experience that was referred to as flow. A more
specific term would be autotelic experience, but respondents seemed to prefer
flow when describing their feelings while involved in their favorite activities
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as a “dynamic state”
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 71

and “the holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement”
(1975, p. 36).
To achieve a state of flow, a balance is required between the challenges
perceived in a given situation and the skills a person brings to that situation.
A challenge includes any opportunity for a person to respond with action
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). Any possibility to which a skill corresponds can pro-
duce flow. Thus when a person’s skill matches the challenges of the situation,
the ability to achieve flow becomes possible. Additionally, an activity that has
relatively clear goals and that provides rather quick and unambiguous feedback
is a likely candidate for flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). This allows the person
who is involved in the activity to know what exactly needs to be accomplished
as we assess his or her progress in meeting the desired goal.
People who have experienced flow also mention that they are completely
immersed in the activity. All of their attention is so focused on the task at hand
that they do not have anything left to distract them (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988).
Many athletes describe the flow state as a shift of the mind; they state that they
experience total calmness and a complete awareness of what is going on, often
mentioning that they experience complete silence and that time seems to slow
down, as if everything shifts to slow motion. Further, there is a sense of control
over the outcome of the activity, a loss of the awareness of self, and a feeling of
transcendence or oneness with the activity (Kimiecik & Jackson, 2002). Jackson
(1992), in her interviews with elite athletes, found that many of them described
the flow dimension as “being in the groove.” Others said, “I am not thinking about
anything, it just happens automatically.” In his flow model Csikszentmihalyi
(1988) categorizes these dimensions of flow: challenge-skill balance, merging
of action and awareness, clear goals and feedback, total concentration on the
task at hand, sense of control, loss of self-consciousness, time transformation, and
an autotelic experience. These dimensions were extensively examined in their
relation to the current study.
Although many athletes state that they have experienced being “in the flow,”
many are unable to shift into this state at will (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). There
has been a broad range of interest in discovering the varied factors that facilitate
the flow state (Kimiecik & Jackson, 2002). There is a degree of uncertainty as
to when these flow states occur. Many investigators believe these states may
be voluntarily controlled or can be increased in frequency and intensity while
other investigators believe they “just happen.” If flow is indeed a controllable
state, capable of being conditioned under volitional will, it would be important
to examine the psychological and physiological factors that are involved
during this process. As such, studies are needed to investigate the type of overt
and covert psychological factors, if any, that may contribute to the frequency
with which one experiences flow, particularly relative to athletic performance.
Currently, very little research has targeted the kinds of psychological variables
72 / CHAVEZ

that might be associated with flow states in sport. Additionally, there has been
no documented study that has attempted to descriptively identify a behavioral
link between flow and body sensations. If indeed there is an identifiable link
between body sensations and the flow state, examining it would increase our
understanding of the variables that may increase the likelihood of flow occurring.
The current investigation represents an initial attempt to address this need.
There seems to be valuable descriptive and qualitative research that supports
the notion, on the basis of subjective consensual validation, that indeed this special
state of consciousness exists. Although there have been several quantitative
studies that have examined the experiences of flow states with athletes, most of
these studies have had difficulties correlating factors associated with the flow
state. The difficulties are in trying to obtain reliable information from instruments
such as questionnaires, survey forms, or rating scales, which have only provided
limited knowledge on which factors are involved in the flow state.
According to Kimiecik and Jackson (2002), the quantitative approach seems
to be limited in providing information about the relationships among different
psychological variables with flow. Qualitative methods fare much better when we
attempt to understand lived experiences (p. 521). Although Csikszentmihalyi’s
Experience Sampling Method was effective in measuring flow characteristics
in a multiple of activities, such as work, leisure, studying, and so forth, when it
comes to sport competition this method would be very difficult to implement,
simply because having athletes respond to an electronic pager or beeper while
competing would be difficult if not impossible.
Flow is an optimal experience, a state of consciousness, and therefore, at
least initially, more practically studied from an introspective methodological
standpoint rather than a psychometric one. Valuable and often reliable infor-
mation comes from athletes’ subjective descriptions and interpretations of this
special state of consciousness. The existence of flow seems to be apparent during
high levels of performance. However, the factors involved in achieving flow
need to be extensively researched to yield a better understanding of which
variables are involved in the frequency of experiencing the state of flow. Just as
the introspective school of psychology attempted to determine the structure of
human consciousness through subjective descriptions of the stimulus environ-
ment, it is fundamental at this stage that studies direct their focus on a qualitative
approach. What is clear is the need for a more comprehensive qualitative model
of flow observable with self-report methodologies.
It is essential that we hear the athletes’ stories of this phenomenon; the in-depth
richness of their perspectives will provide researchers with a descriptive paradigm
of how flow affects their performance levels. The strength of this approach is
that it allows the athlete to describe in his or her own words the naturally occur-
ring events that surround this special state of consciousness. In-depth intro-
spective assessment could provide valuable information to help identify both the
universality and the specific factors associated with this optimal state.
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 73

The primary purpose of this study was to observe and describe how flow is
experienced by collegiate athletes. In addition the study will evaluate the variables
often associated with achieving flow as well as those that prevent or hinder flow
in collegiate athletes. Moreover, the study attempted to determine the factors
athletes perceive as important for getting into flow, which ones, if any, do they feel
they have volitional control over. In addition, this study examined the temporal
proximity, as phenomenologically determined, between flow and body sensations
of collegiate athletes as reported during peak performance episodes.

METHOD

Participants
The project involved a sample of 16 (N = 16) NCAA Division I college athletes,
representing both individual and team sports. It is important to note that four of the
16 athletes participated from the tennis team, which comprised both individual and
team participation, since all the tennis players competed as partners in the doubles
matches. The other five athletes representing soccer and volleyball with the
addition of the four tennis players (n = 9) constituted the team sport participants.
The individual sport participants constituted of two athletes from skiing, golf, and
swimming, and four (n = 10) from tennis There were at least two athletes from
each sport, with the exception of volleyball in which one athlete participated. The
participants were purposefully selected based upon their experiences with flow.
First, a short demographic questionnaire on all athletes’ experience with flow was
handed out to various members of each team to obtain background information,
such as for how many years the individual has participated in the sport, highest
achievement in the sport, placements at the national or international level, if any,
what year in college, age, gender, and most importantly, has he or she ever had
a flow experience during the sport? Sixteen athletes were selected from the 164
demographic questionnaires that were handed out. The basic criterion for athletes
being selected for the research study was their having had at least one flow
experience during one of their sport performances. However, participants with
the most frequent and most current experiences of flow took precedence in the
selection of participants for the study. Nine of the athletes were female and seven
were male. The mean age of the participants was 20 years old, with a range of 18
to 24 years old. Something unique from the sample is that five of the athletes
were from countries other than the United States. The countries included Norway,
Mexico, South Africa, England, and Slovenia. These athletes were fluent in
English and required no special considerations during the interview process.
Of the 16 athletes, 7 competed at the international level. Three of the 16 athletes
were NCAA Division I champions, which included two athletes in skiing and
one in tennis. In addition, one of the athletes that participated in skiing was a
three-time NCAA champion. The sample also included five athletes that were
74 / CHAVEZ

NCAA All-Americans, including a skier that was a two-time All-American

and another skier that was a three-time All-American. Nine athletes made All-
Conference in their sport. It is also important to include that two of the athletes
representing tennis were Junior National Champions.

Data Collection
A pilot interview was applied to two collegiate athletes to familiarize the
researcher with the methodology of the study, including the interview questions
and the interview technique. Although not a complete duplicate of the main
research study, informal interviews provided practice and refinement of formu-
lating questions for the formal interviews. Additionally, they helped in struc-
turing the amount of time needed for the interviews.
The first interview lasted approximately 90 minutes and involved a list of
structured questions being given on how they make meaning of flow. An interview
guide was created with a complete listing of these questions.
The second, or follow-up, interview took place two weeks after the first
interview and lasted approximately 30 minutes. The weeks between the first and
the follow-up interview allowed athletes time to process the previous information
and provided each participant with an opportunity either to include additional
information or make changes on the information already provided. The follow-up
interview was designed to clarify information from the first interview to ensure
the authenticity of the data. All interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. All
athletes were required to review, clarify, and verify the interview transcripts.
This process also afforded the researcher the opportunity to begin to develop
analytical categories, as well as to confirm conclusions regarding what the par-
ticipants were saying. Both the participants and the researcher were able to
cross-check (Janesik, 1994, p. 217) what was said and interpret it in a way that
made the study stronger and more credible.

Data Analysis
The transcribed information was thoroughly read to assure full understanding
and the clarity of the information. The transcribed information from the interviews
was analyzed with a careful eye for themes and categories that connected the
experience of the athletes. Essentially, the purpose of this process was to capture
the data in a meaningful and understandable manner. During the analytical process
the focus was on identifying salient themes and patterns that linked athletes’
experiences of flow to the topic of the study. An inductive analytical process was
used with the data. However, the categories for sorting segments were tentative
and preliminary in the beginning. For instance, during the interview process,
familiar categories were identified, but as similar topics began to emerge, more
salient categories were implemented. The process of coding was used to sort
out and categorize the data. The interview transcriptions were read and analyzed,
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 75

and codes were developed to categorize the information. Participants’ descrip-

tions of their flow experience were analyzed. Raw data themes consisted of
participants’ quotes and the coded descriptions. As connections and patterns
emerged, categories were formed. At the completion of the coding, part of the
section categories were organized in multiple higher order themes, depending
on each respective question of the interview. This process of data analysis made
it possible to detect which responses were prevalent in each respective category
for a given question.
To increase the ability to make connections between participants’ responses,
an Access database was created. Data entered were either textual or numeric,
depending on the question asked. Text responses provided all raw data themes
for qualitative analysis while numeric responses provided the themes to be
quantitatively analyzed.
In addition, an external checker was brought in to assist in categorizing the
raw data into higher order themes. This addition was invaluable to the analytical
process in that it increased neutrality and helped reduce any biases on the part
of the researcher.

RESULTS

Characteristics of Flow

The first purpose of the study was to understand, in-depth, how college athletes
describe and make meaning of their flow experiences. The general themes in
Table 1 cover types of questions asked of the athletes, with their direct responses
listed as raw data themes. Those higher order themes with higher frequencies
reflect a higher incidence: more athletes had similar or explicit responses.
The most salient characteristic of the flow state in this study, also associated
with one of Csikszentmihalyi’s dimensions, was the merging of action and aware-
ness. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) defined this as an involvement so deep that it
becomes spontaneous or seemingly automatic.
It is important to note that both merging of action and awareness and having
limited or no cognitive thought represented a combined 42% of all the raw data
themes in describing the flow state. This no doubt provides researchers with a
better understanding of the psychological experience of flow. It can be determined
that, in order to achieve the flow state, it is essential that the athlete eliminate any
extraneous thoughts, thereby allowing him or her to be fully absorbed in the
performance, thereby allowing the performance to feel effortless or automatic.
Although there were other factors incorporated into descriptions of flow state,
these two themes were so dominant that it would be plausible to indicate that this
is the basis of the description of flow. A female swimmer provides an excellent
explanation:
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Table 1. Characteristics of Flow

% Athletes N of raw % of raw

citing Characteristics of flow data themes data themes

94% Action & awareness merging & 74 26%

Effortless & automatic

75% Limited cognitive thought processes 36 14%

56% Focus & concentration 36 14%

56% Heightened confidence level 19 8%

44% Transformation of time & 31 9%

Unconscious of the performance

44% Enjoyable experience 18 2%

38% In the moment 23 5%

31% Relaxed & calm aspects of experience 15 5%

25% Self-consciousness goes away 9 3%

19% Heightened visual perception 7 3%

19% Auditory sensations 12 2%

19% Perception of control 6 2%

44% Miscellaneous descriptors 9 4%

[Y]ou don’t have to think about it because . . . like I said before, it all
comes together. It just . . . it’s not like you have to think of how it has to come
together. Like you don’t have to study like you do for a test, it just should
come automatically.

Her experience was predominantly reported by athletes in this study. Other

relevant themes consisted of: “You aren’t really thinking,” “Don’t have to con-
sciously think about trying to do specific things or tasks,” “It’s almost like
I’m blank,” “It’s like autopilot,” “Everything became easy,” “It was weird, I
didn’t try hard.” There was such a strong association within these two themes,
it could be argued that they both need to be experienced together for an individual
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 77

to be in the flow state. It could be that when an athlete becomes so absorbed in

his or her sport, with limited cognitive processing, the deep involvement doesn’t
allow the conscious mind to be aware of the physical effort, thereby allowing
the performance to feel automatic or effortless.
A somewhat surprising salient theme was the experience of transformation
of time. Transformation of time, reported originally by Maslow (1962/1999) in his
subjects, involves a loss of the sense of the ordinary passage of time. Jackson
(1996) noted that it is usually the flow dimension mentioned least frequently
by athletes (usually time seems to speed up in flow [Jackson, 2000). Yet 44% of
athletes in the current study described experiencing transformation of time during
their flow state, which provides evidence that there seems to be a shift of con-
sciousness during the flow state that seems to cause a distortion of time when an
athlete is deeply absorbed with their performance. A female swimmer explained
that the only thing she was conscious of prior to her experiencing the distortion
of time was that she was in a deeply concentrated state:
I was focusing on one thing, and so nothing else came into my mind . . . it’s
like I turned some switch off, like of thinking of anything . . . it was just, I don’t
remember anything in between, like stretching and getting on the block and
diving in. Like, it was like all the in-between didn’t occur, so it was like, after
I got out it was like, wow, that was really fast . . . like I was there, but I wasn’t.

Her description provides an excellent illustration of how time is distorted during

the flow state.
It was interesting that not all athletes experienced this perception of time as
speeded up. In fact, three of the seven athletes who experienced time trans-
formation during their flow state experienced time slowing down, and one of
these athletes, a women’s downhill skier, experienced time both accelerating and
slowing down during her performance. She described it in this way: “[I]t’s kind
of weird because it feels like it slows down, sort of, because you have so much
control, on everything you do . . . but at the same time it’s going extremely fast.”
One explanation of this type of occurrence is the individual difference of the
sport. Downhill skiing requires such a high velocity that in a moment’s time
the race is over, and it appears more so when an athlete is in the flow state. It
would seem that in order to vividly see the course when experiencing a high
level of speed, a shift in focus is required. This in itself could induce the altered
perception of time slowing down. Nideffer (1992) explains how changes in
attention can induce an altered state of consciousness experience in which the
passage of time seems to slow down. He says:
Playing in the zone tends to occur when an athlete’s focus of attention is
almost exclusively external. Performance is so automatic that there is very
little need to shift to an internal focus of attention in order to analyze, make
adjustments, and so on. Because the athlete is making fewer shifts, attention
stays focused on task-relevant cues for longer periods of time (p. 40).
78 / CHAVEZ

He explains this can result in an alteration in awareness in which time seems to

slow down. This appears to be evident with the women’s downhill skier, yet this
would not explain the perception of acceleration during her performance. It seems
that she is shifting to the most essential attentional focus required at the moment.
These perceptions of slow motion and accelerated speed would then seem to
indicate that her focus of attention is shifting between different levels of focus,
depending on what type of attention is needed during her performance, which may
be inducing two separate perceptions of time. This would seem to explain the
disparity of athletes experiencing a perception of a performance being speeded
up or a performance that is in slow motion.
It could also be that the high level of concentration and absorption in the sport
performance results in the passage of time speeding up or losing consciousness
of the performance. Three of the athletes in this study described their flow
experience as involving not being consciously aware of parts of or of the entire
performance. This is illustrated by a men’s downhill skier: “I’d get down and
I’d remember nothing or maybe you’d remember a turn . . . here and there . . . but
you wouldn’t remember the performance.” But then he explained that as he
progressed through his career he would remember everything during his flow
experience: “Later in my career I would remember, almost remember everything.
Remember little bumps at certain gates, transitions, different feelings, different
weather.” The contrast of the two descriptions again seems to be connected to
an athlete’s focus level. Nideffer (1992) explains that when athletes become
immersed in their performance “their minds are free to examine every aspect of
the performance because they don’t have to concentrate on what their bodies are
doing. They can take in the entire atmosphere, watching the crowd and paying
attention to the sights and sounds around them, without any interference” (p. 32).
This seems exemplified by the male skier’s experience. Perhaps, then, as
athletes progress through the flow state, their focus of awareness heightens.
Clearly there needs to be further research to fully understand when and what
type of specific situations cause an athlete to experience the different types of
time transformations; however, the current study does provide researchers with a
better understanding that time transformation is part of the flow experience and
seems to be dependent on one’s level of attention focus. Another general theme
that was not mentioned as one of Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) flow dimensions,
and was cited by 56% of the study’s participants, was the relaxed, calm aspects
of the flow experience. Several athletes described their experience as having a
state of calmness or of everything feeling relaxed. A male tennis player was
asked, when looking back at his flow experience, what stands out, and he stated,
“Just the calmness. . . . I’m just so relaxed, so calm.” His description was shared by
other athletes. Its relevancy to the flow experience lies in providing researchers
with an indicator of what athletes may be experiencing physiologically.
Researchers have discovered “in general, results from hemispheric studies in
sport show that elite athletes have a higher degree of alpha activity in the left
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 79

hemisphere than in the right seconds before performing their task” (Kimiecik &
Jackson, 2002, p. 522). Alpha waves are patterns that indicate a state of relaxation,
“which is considered useful for sport performance because this would mean
that the left hemisphere is less active, thus reducing cognitions unnecessary to
task performance” (p. 522). Other altering states, such as hypnosis, meditation,
or just waking and before sleeping, have also been shown to be in the alpha state
and linked to relaxation. Thus it would seem that the state of relaxation is an
essential aspect of the flow experience.
Similar to Jackson’s (1995) study with elite athletes, the second purpose of
the study was to assess the factors associated with achieving flow and making
flow difficult, and what are the factors that break or disrupt flow. However, this
study went a step further by assessing the factors associated with reinstating
flow after disruption.

Facilitation of Flow

As seen in Table 2, factors facilitating the flow state provided most of the raw
data themes for this particular purpose of the study. Of the 10 general themes, the
most cited were: positive thinking (81%), mental preparation (75%), and task
orientation (69%). In her 1992 and 1995 studies, Jackson asked athletes what
they perceived to be the most important factors in achieving the flow state. Her
analysis of research also indicated that positive mental attitude and preparation
were the most relevant factors in helping athletes get into flow. Equally important,
she explained, this allows for other factors conducive to the flow state, such as
focusing on the task at hand, which has been shown to be a critical component
in the achievement of flow. “Being well prepared and knowing clearly what
you are going to do in an event allows for complete focus on the task at hand,
and this ability to tune in to the event facilitates the occurrence of flow (Jackson,
1992, 1995)” (Kimiecik & Jackson, 2002, p. 509). In accord with Jackson’s
studies, a positive mental attitude was such a prevalent factor in athletes’ accounts
of the facilitation of flow that it represented nearly one-fifth of the raw data
themes. In addition, 81% of the athletes indicated this to be an important factor
in getting into the flow state, in this study. It can also be linked to the general
theme of having confidence in oneself. Norman Vincent Peale stated in his
famous book The Power of Positive Thinking:
Feelings of confidence depend upon the type of thoughts that habitually
occupy your mind. . . . Practice thinking confident thoughts, make it a
dominating habit, and you will develop such a strong sense of capacity
that regardless of what difficulties arise you will be able to overcome them
(Peale, 1952, p. 15).

This has been found to have relevance in the process of increasing the frequency
of athletes getting into the flow. In addition, it can be said that positive thinking is
80 / CHAVEZ

Table 2. Factors That Facilitate Flow

% Athletes % of all raw

citing Factors data themes

81% Positive thinking 17%

75% Mental preparation/Visualization 15%
69% Task orientation/Focusing/Concentration 16%
56% Optimal arousal level 9%
50% Limiting cognitive thought 8%
50% Motivation to perform 6%
44% Physical preparation 9%
44% Confidence 5%
38% Optimal environmental & situational factors 6%
19% Enjoyment/Having fun 5%
31% Miscellaneous 4%

interconnected with part of Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) dimension of perception

of one’s skill level.
As previously mentioned, this is a critical component in his flow theory,
explaining that the quality of the subjective experience is the highest during
situations when an individual simultaneously experiences a presence of high
perceived challenges and high perceived skills, which will provide the opportunity
to experience flow. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) explained that having a belief in
one’s own ability to meet the challenge was of utmost importance in generating
the flow experience. He illustrates the importance of this by stating “it is not
the skills we actually have that determine how we feel, but the ones we think we
have” (p. 75). He further explains that the flow state does not depend on the
objective nature of the challenges present, or on the objective nature of the skills
of the individual, it solely depends on one’s perception of the challenge and skills
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1975).
Raw data themes extracted from this area consisted of athletes’ responses:
“Belief in myself,” “Tell myself that I’m good,” or “Not doubting myself.”
Themes similar to this were shared by several athletes. A men’s downhill skier
provided this statement: “Changing the mind-set . . . trying to turn everything
into a positive situation . . . going in with the belief that it’s going to work out or
be successful.” A men’s tennis player shared a similar response: “I think it’s a
realization that I can do anything.” Accounts like these reveal the significance
positive thinking has for the facilitation of flow. During this study, it was perhaps
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 81

the single most critical factor, without which the chances of experiencing flow
are presumably nonexistent.
Mental preparation was shown to play a pivotal role in the facilitation of flow,
with 75% of athletes indicating this to be a significant factor in producing the
flow state. Several athletes from the sample described a form of visualization or
mental rehearsal as a way to get themselves mentally prepared for the race. A
women’s downhill skier described mentally rehearsing the course in her head
prior to getting into flow:
It was just putting my mind into it, like I was concentrating so much on
different parts of the slope, what I’m going to do and just seeing the course
in my head, over and over again, like, so I knew exactly what to do . . . so
the course was like all in my mind. . . . Before the start of the race I was
just going through the course . . . so it came automatically.

Other athletes shared similar descriptions. Visualization or mental rehearsal

in sport has been known to improve an athlete’s performance level; applying all
the five senses increases the quality of the imagery. Orlick (1990) explains the goal
of imagery is to bring in all of your senses to feel yourself performing perfectly:
This allows a slight firing of the neural pathways that are actually involved
in the performance of these skills. It can be viewed as a way of pro-
gramming your circuits. What you are trying to do is to program a positive
performance into your brain and nervous system so that you will free your
body to follow (p. 69).

Thus it can be said that by rehearsing their performance in their minds, and
applying all the five senses, athletes have come one step closer to making a perfect
performance a reality. Because athletes have vividly rehearsed the performance
in their heads, they know exactly what to do to execute their skills perfectly;
therefore they don’t have to think of technique or any extraneous thoughts that
may be distracting them from the task at hand or from being in the moment.
Interestingly enough, task orientation—which is the ability to focus on the
task at hand during a given sport—was reported by 69% of the athletes to be a
significant factor in the ability to get into flow. It has been hypothesized by many
researchers that athletes with a task-involved goal orientation may experience
flow more frequently when participating in their sport than athletes with an
ego-involved goal orientation. Kimiecik and Jackson (2002) found: “In flow
terms, being task-involved should enable athletes to focus on the task at hand,
leading to task absorption, higher levels of concentration, and feelings of control,
all characteristics of the flow state” (p. 510). This study’s findings provide strong
support for the notion that task-orientation is a significant factor in the ability
to get in flow. In addition, they support the findings of Jackson and Roberts
(1992) that athletes high in task-involvement indicated experiencing flow more
frequently than athletes low in task-involvement. Being task-involved, therefore,
82 / CHAVEZ

should enable athletes to focus completely in the moment, thereby developing

the opportunity to experience flow.

Prevention of Flow
This study also investigated what athletes perceived as preventing the flow from
happening. Table 3 reflects the most commonly cited themes were: negative
thinking, non-optimal arousal level, and not being physically prepared.
Ten of the 16 athletes reported negative thinking to play a significant role
in debilitating the flow experience, providing additional support that one’s
thoughts are an important part of the flow state. Raw data themes consisted
of: “Losing belief in yourself,” “Negative self-talk,” “Criticizing myself,” or
“Thinking negative.”
The salient theme of negative thinking also has supported conclusions of
other research studies, such as Jackson’s (1992, 1995), which indicated that it
has a debilitating effect on the achievement of flow. Again, what this seems to
indicate is that there is a link between attitude toward oneself and performance.
A women’s swimmer plainly states: “My perception is, like if my attitude is
bad then I’m gonna perceive what I’m gonna have to do as something that’s
just gonna be awful. . . .” In many ways, it is not surprising that negative thinking
plays a significant role in preventing the occurrence of flow, since positive
thinking had the highest percentage of athletes citing it to be the most important

Table 3. Prevention of Flow

% Athletes % of all raw

citing Factors data themes

63% Negative thinking 12%

63% Non-optimal arousal level 12%
56% Not being physically prepared 12%
50% Non-optimal environmental & situational factors 13%
44% High-level cognitive state 8%
38% Lack of motivation 9%
38% Perseverating on mistakes 8%
25% Lack of focus & concentration 8%
25% Negative relationship with coach 8%
19% Lack of confidence 4%
19% Not being mentally prepared 4%
19% Miscellaneous 4%
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 83

factor in facilitating the flow state. Having a negative belief also seems to be linked
to Csikszentmihalyi’s perceived skill-challenge balance. If an athlete perceives
their skill level not to be at the level of the challenge, in all respects the athlete is
doomed for failure. Norman Vincent Peale (1952) once said, “Think defeat and
you are bound to feel defeated.” This could explain why so many teams lose the
game before they set foot on the field or court. In addition, negative thinking seems
to be linked to non-optimal arousal levels, more particularly to the high level of
anxiety which has been shown to have a negative effect on the flow state.
Another significant theme that developed into one of the categories of the
prevention of flow was not being physically prepared. Fifty-six percent of the
athletes reported it to be debilitative to achieving flow. Most raw data themes
for not being physically prepared related to not being physically in shape or to
experiencing fatigue. Themes consisted of “Being tired,” “Being in bad shape,”
tiredness, or physically hurting. This would seem to indicate that in order to get
into the flow state, being in good physical shape is a significant part of the process.
Having the proper physical training seems to be vital in its role in helping an
athlete achieve the flow state.
In addition to this, a men’s golfer correlated his flow experience with being
prepared nutritionally as he stated:
Preparing yourself nutritionally, I’ve always found that there’s direct correla-
tion with that, for me. You know, if I don’t keep my blood sugar up during the
day, I mean it’s just . . . wshoo! It’s hard to keep a mental level of energy goin’.

Other themes that were relevant to the prevention of flow were overtraining
and injuries. Both of these themes seemed to overlap as athletes attributed their
injuries to overtraining, which resulted in burn-out, thereby affecting oppor-
tunities to experience flow.
Breaking or Disrupting Flow
The general themes reflecting what was most conducive to breaking or
disrupting flow consisted of non-optimal environmental and situational based,
focusing on the outcome, and performance errors.
Non-optimal environmental and situational-based was such a commonly
reported theme that it made up 25% of the raw data themes of the nine categories
and, as Table 4 shows, it was cited by 70% of athletes to be a significant factor
in the disruption of flow. Themes in this area consisted of bad weather conditions
or a break of the game by time-outs or injuries. A women’s tennis player explains
that opponents will often purposely stop the game in order to get the other
opponents out of flow:
A lot of people are doing . . . are taking bathroom breaks for a reason, just to
bring the other person out of an optimal state. That’s why you’re now only
allowed two bathroom breaks . . . you know, because somebody would do
it all the time, to take the other person out of flow.
84 / CHAVEZ

Table 4. Factors That Break Flow

% Athletes % of all raw

citing Factors data themes

70% Non-optimal environmental & situational factors 25%

44% Focusing on the outcome 15%
31% Performance errors 11%
31% High-level cognitive thought processes 8%
25% Losing focus & concentration 10%
19% Lack of confidence 5%
19% Losing rhythm 7%
13% Heightened expectations 7%
13% Miscellaneous factors 13%

The relevancy of environmental and situational factors to flow disruption in this

study supports previous conclusions by Russell (2002), whose investigation of
the flow state found that “Non-optimal environmental conditions had the largest
impact on disrupting flow . . . and was the single largest element in disrupting
flow” (p. 104). Focusing on the outcome was another relevant theme that was
significant to the disruption of flow. A men’s golfer described its disruptive effect
like this: “It’s extraneous thoughts about where you might stand, where you
think you are, you know. Usually when I start thinking about the score.” The sport
of golf was unique to this study because of the fact that there is so much time
in between play and breaks in the game. In fact, both men’s golfers in this study
regarded thoughts on the standings or score as a way to break or disrupt the flow
state. Most importantly, both golfers stated that they were in and out of flow during
their performance, which made it even more of a challenge for them to refrain
from extraneous thoughts of the outcome during the long periods without play.
Another important general theme that emerged as a factor in the disruption of
flow was having performance errors. It is not surprising that a performance
error can disrupt or break the flow state. The most pertinent issue then would be
how athletes restore flow after this type of disruption.

Restoring Flow

The majority of athletes (81%) agreed that flow could be restored after
disruption. Table 5 shows the general themes most relevant in this area were:
positive thinking, which was also the highest-cited theme for the facilitation of
flow; task orientation; and relaxation.
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 85

Table 5. Factors That Restore Flow

% Athletes % of all raw

citing Factors data themes

70% Positive thinking 26%

50% Task orientation 20%
38% Relaxing 21%
31% Clearing mind 10%
19% Through performance 8%
13% Building confidence 8%
13% Miscellaneous 5%

As strongly indicated by the Results section, positive thinking was often

intertwined with an internal dialogue with the self. Most of these athletes seemed
to apply this self-talk to regain the positive belief that they had the potential to
accomplish the feat. A male soccer player restored the flow by dialoguing with
himself to focus on the enjoyment of the game, rather than perseverating on
the mistakes, with the result that he was able to rebuild his confidence level.
He explains:

Just don’t even worry about the mistakes you made. This is a game, it’s
supposed to be played for enjoyment and so that’s all you should be thinking
about. So that would usually help me . . . build my confidence back up again.

Confidence is such an integral part of the facilitation of flow that without it, it
would seem inconceivable to experience the flow state. Kimiecik and Jackson
(2002) observed: “For any athlete to experience flow, he must be confident in his
abilities to meet the challenge of the situation” (p. 509). Often when athletes
experience self-doubt or a lack of confidence in their ability to meet the challenge,
they will resort to other means, such as pressing too hard in an attempt to
consciously control the situation. This usually leads to catastrophe. A men’s
golfer described an experience of a disruption of flow when he began to focus on
the standings, which led to a chain reaction of events that took him out of flow,
resulting in him experiencing a high level of anxiety:

You start panicking, you start pressing. You know, you try to hit the accel-
erator a little harder and the next thing you know you get tight. You know,
your heartbeat goes up . . . you’re just totally out of rhythm. You don’t
feel comfortable walking, everything feels kind of funny, you know, you
start talking a little faster. You know, I mean it’s just, it’s weird.
86 / CHAVEZ

This is a classic example of when suddenly everything goes wrong. The aptitude
to restore flow within this current research is to maintain a positive belief in
one’s ability to meet the challenge.
In addition, task orientation and relaxing all were relevant in helping to
reinstate flow. This same golfer provided these methods he used to reinstate flow
after his panic episode:
This is from a personal standpoint. . . . It was, you know it was a flashing
light saying “Okay, relax now, you need to focus here, focus on one thing,”
and so . . . you hit one shot good and you’re relaxed.

A men’s tennis player, in addition to applying relaxing techniques, also used the
time in between sets to gather himself by applying visualization techniques:
I’ve had a breakdown, but I’ve been able to gather myself and pick it up. . . .
I do that through sort of different techniques, like breathing techniques,
visualization at the change of ends, when we have a two-minute break . . .
putting myself together.

The consensus of this portion of the investigation is that flow can be reinstated
after disruption.

Controlling Flow
The third purpose of this study was to assess whether the flow state was
controllable, and if so, which factors athletes thought they could control and
why, or why they thought they couldn’t control such factors. Table 6 reflects
the data.
Most (69%) of the college athletes in this study indicated that they thought the
flow state could be controlled. There was relatively little difference between
individual (71%) and team (67%) sports, as the majority in both perceived it to be
a controllable state. To date, there has been only minimal research investigating
the perceived controllability of the flow state. Two known studies are Jackson’s
(1995) investigating elite athletes and Russell’s (2002) examining flow state
occurrence in college athletes using the Flow State Scale. The current study has a
slightly higher percentage of athletes perceiving flow as controllable than the
64% reported by Russell (2002); however, it is smaller than the 79% of athletes
reported by Jackson (1995). The significant disparity between Jackson’s 1995
study and the current study can be attributed to the fact that Jackson’s population
sample were elite level athletes whereas the current study, while including some
college athletes competing at an international level, had mostly athletes com-
peting on the amateur level. The disparity of results could be due to these differ-
ences or it could be that, as athletes progress within their sport, they develop higher
psychological mechanisms to control the flow state. However, more research
needs to be conducted that examines the variance between collegiate and elite
athletes. Even drawing comparisons from high school or recreational athletes can
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 87

Table 6. Perception of Control Factors

% Athletes % of all raw

citing Factors data themes

Perception of Control
81% Preparation 28%

69% Positive thinking 22%

50% Optimal arousal 16%

44% Task orientation 14%

31% Motivation 11%

19% Concentration 5%

19% Miscellaneous 4%

Perception of Limited or No Control

81% Environmental & situational factors 50%

31% Optimal arousal 19%

31% Negative attitude 14%

25% Concentration 12%

19% Motivation 7%

6% Miscellaneous 2%

provide researchers with more conclusions on whether there is a wide disparity on

perceived controllability of the flow state among different sport skill levels.
Factors that were associated with the highest perception of control were
preparation and positive thinking. The fact that both preparation and positive
thinking were also shown to be the most important for athletes in this study to
help them get into flow provides support that athletes can increase the frequency
of flow. However, it is important to be aware that flow is a cumulative process
of several factors working together. This could explain why flow is not a more
frequent experience; however, the better understanding of the varied factors
associated with this state, the more predictability can be brought to increasing
the opportunity to experience flow.
Flow and Body Sensations
The fourth purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship
between flow and body sensations. Participants were asked if they had ever
experienced any type of body sensations during their flow experience. The
relationship between flow and body sensations has never been formally studied
88 / CHAVEZ

in the sport psychology literature. The importance of identifying a behavioral

link between flow and body sensations could be critical in advancing the ability
to control the flow state.
This study revealed that indeed athletes experience some form of body
sensation during the flow state. Of the athletes interviewed, 68% stated that
they have experienced body sensations during flow.
The awareness that athletes had when describing their body sensations is
notable. A male skier, a three-time NCAA champion, described in great detail
the heightened sensitivity he had during his flow experience:
It’s almost every time that I’ve gone into it . . . I’ve had a body sensation.
The biggest thing I notice is extra sensitivity in my feet, and that allows me
to feel the terrain better in skiing. And it’s everything from ankle roll to
knee roll . . . more aware of the articulation of my ankle, you know I can feel
it bending an extra 15 degrees or turning, and it’s not just my quad, my
quad muscle and my knee bending. I can feel the little muscles doing the
twisting and turning. That’s the biggest thing I feel. . . . I think whenever
I’ve felt that sensation, my confidence level goes through the roof. When I
feel aware and have extra feeling, then in my head I know hey, this is going
to be a good day because . . . I can do whatever I want.

This experience was closely shared by other athletes who experienced body
sensations. In addition, intensified body sensitivity and attunement was the most
commonly cited theme by athletes. Raw data themes included: “Heightened sense
of feeling in fingers,” “Toes are more sensitive,” and “Sensitivity changes.” There
seemed to be a direct correlation between body sensitivity and environment. For
instance, all the swimmers described having a sense of being connected with the
water as it felt against their bodies. A male golfer described that it felt like his golf
club was an extension of his hand. A female soccer player described knowing
that she was going to experience flow by the way the ball felt against her foot.
All of these descriptions indicate that there is a heightened perception of
the body in the environment in which the athlete is competing. The major question
seems to be whether body sensations are only a descriptive component of flow
or a part of facilitating the flow experience. In this research, a link was found
between how the body felt and being in flow. In most cases, it seemed that the
body sensation was the trigger for experiencing flow, as with the aforementioned
male skier who reported that the moment he experienced the heightened sensi-
tivity in his body, his confidence level heightened and he knew it was “going
to be a good day.” Of central importance is to discover whether athletes can
create the situation for experiencing these body sensations on a consistent basis,
thereby leading to more opportunities to experience flow. However, knowing this
is a theoretical possibility is much simpler than actually applying it successfully.
In support of this, two athletes described the warm-up as crucial to their body
sensations, which led to the flow experience, thus indicating an identifiable
behavioral link between flow and body sensations.
 FLOW IN COLLEGE ATHLETES / 89

Physiologically, it could be that as the muscles loosen and relax, a biochemical

response is triggered that is conducive to the facilitation of flow, or it could be
simply that as the body feels loose and relaxed, the tension and anxiety that are
detrimental to flow decrease, thus bringing the athlete to his or her optimal arousal
level. However, further research is needed to discover the varied elements that
may be associated with body sensations, more specifically on whether body
sensations facilitate the flow state.
DISCUSSION
This study has helped to better understand the many variables involved in the
flow state. In addition, it has increased our understanding of other descriptors
that seem to be part of the flow experience, most importantly the role of body
sensations, which to date had not been identified as part of the flow experience.
Yet there are still many unanswered questions on this subjective experience. In
the sports literature, subjective states are merely in their infancy; investigators are
barely breaking ground, and it is recommended that more research studies be
conducted to increase understanding of how flow is experienced.
Researchers should be encouraged to use multiple methodological procedures,
applied specifically to address psychological and situational factors in multiple
contexts. Moreover, there need to be studies that focus more on how flow is
experienced by teams. Equally important is to conduct a study that compares
and contrasts other forms of altered states with the flow state. For example, it has
been known that meditation and hypnosis or trance state produce an altered state
of consciousness that activates the alpha waves in the brain. So with this in
mind, it would seem that flow would induce the same brain wave patterns.
Although the flow state is not easily recorded by electroencephalogram test,
since these states are occurring in a playing field, understanding and contrasting
the characteristics and the factors that are involved in these states may yet provide
researchers with a better understanding of flow as simply a function that is
naturally experienced in our daily lives. One example is the altered state of
consciousness experienced when driving a car along a familiar route. An indi-
vidual driving home from work each day at times functions in a trance-like state,
not realizing how many stops have been made at red lights or when that turn
was made onto his own street. Just like the flow state, the drive was made on
“autopilot”: no conscious effort was made. These are common themes heard
throughout this study. In contrast, driving to a new place that is unfamiliar, a
driver will resort to higher cognitive faculties and perhaps experience panic if
feeling lost, similar to how an athlete would feel if he or she was suddenly in a
sport situation that required him or her to try a new position with which he or she
was unfamiliar. Certainly this is only a theoretical explanation. Clearly there needs
to be additional research studies that examine other forms of altered states in
relation to flow to determine whether this is a similar state. Thus, it is deemed
essential to begin to compare other forms of altered states with flow, increasing
90 / CHAVEZ

our understanding of the varied factors involved in the flow state. In addition, it
would eliminate the belief that this state is a magical experience or phenomenon.
Indeed, it is commonly shared that this is an extraordinary experience; on the
contrary, with the current research literature, it is a state that could be potentially
increased by setting up the most conducive factors associated with its facilitation.
However, it is important to keep in mind that flow is a uniquely experienced
state. Thus, it is imperative to be aware of the individual differences in how
athletes experience flow. This brings forward the need for more research on
understanding the disparities among experiences of flow. This, in turn, under-
scores the need for assessing flow in relation to degrees or levels. An interesting
possibility that permeated this research study was that flow was experienced on
multiple levels. It is conceivable that flow is a state that could be defined by a
hierarchical system which could be determined by level of intensity and descrip-
tion of the characteristics associated with flow. For instance, time transformation
and loss of self-consciousness have been the least-reported characteristics asso-
ciated with flow by most researchers, indicating that perhaps there are different
levels of flow which are more adaptable to inducing these types of occurrences.
Time transformation and a loss of self-consciousness would be likely to occur
when an athlete is in a deeply absorbed, concentrated state where all cognitive
faculties are decreased, thereby activating the subconscious mind to take over.
This would explain the loss of self-consciousness, since the conscious mind is no
longer the dominant state. This could also explain the differences in flow experi-
enced in specific sports, since some sports require different attentional focus
levels, which may affect an athlete’s altered state from conscious to subconscious.
For instance, rock climbers may have more opportunities to experience the
subconscious state, since the sport requires one to be more involved in one task
at a time, whereas another sport such as basketball requires thinking of many
different things at once, putting the athlete more in tune with the cognitive
faculties and thus the conscious state.
However, this process needs to be empirically researched to better understand
how it may be affecting the different experiences of flow, particularly as to
whether time transformation and loss of self-consciousness are conducive to a
deeper level of flow. In addition, there needs to be more research investigating
how flow is experienced in specific sports, providing more understanding of
what characteristics and factors are more relevant to each respective sport.

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