Football Flow Analysis

Flow is a complete, naturally stirring awareness that people feel when they are totally involved in an activity or are on automatic pilot. The essential elements of the flow state include the balance of a task and the skills necessary to perform it. The most important part of Csikszentmihayi’s definition of flow is the balance between one’s perceived skill and challenge. The athlete has complete absorption in the activity and they are so involved in the activity that nothing else seems to matter. Goals are well defined and the athlete knows exactly what to do. The athlete is aware of his/her actions but not of the attentiveness itself and there is total concentration on the task at hand. Performers report that they feel like they are full …show more content…
Three individuals were selected with different viewpoints on their experiences with flow in their athletic pursuits. Two of the interviewees have experience playing and coaching football and the other interviewee was beginning to train for a marathon. The interviews were conducted for approximately thirty minutes over a three day period. Each interviewee was asked the same questions in order to to evaluate their views on experiencing …show more content…
He also played football for the University of Florida and had a brief career as a player in the NFL. He explained is flow experience during a particular football game against the Russellville Cyclones. It was more than ten years ago in Russellville, Arkansas. He was an assistant defensive coach with Fayetteville High School. Russellville had an incredible offense that featured a good quarterback, quick and athletic skill positions as well as an aggressive offensive line. They were well coached and had been scoring a lot of points on all of their previous opponents. “Our coaching staff worked to develop a game plan that we felt would be the most disruptive to their offensive scheme.” Mr. Black stated that they worked for many hours planning and preparing for the many possible outcomes and situations. He indicated that they spent the entire week preparing the players with a scheme and showing them hours of film of their opponent. When the game finally took place it was as if everything they had prepared for happened exactly the way it was planned. “Our players executed the game plan with intensity and aggressiveness, and our opponent had no answer.” He indicated that thy made play after play, sacks, tackles for loss, interceptions, and forced punts, everything that you want to occur as a defensive coach. “The feeling was of confidence, a confidence that we were not going to see anything that we had not already