Achieving Flow in Sport

Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who popularized the term Flow and demonstrated how anyone could achieve focused contentment, died recently. In light of his passing, I felt compelled to write this post as his work has profoundly influenced both my life and coaching philosophy.

The Psychology of Flow

Flow is a state of mind in which a person becomes fully immersed in an activity. In this mental state, people are experiencing joy as they become fully involved and focused on what they are doing.

“The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost,”
Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi

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Train to Trust, Trust in Train

“Mastery is achieved through deliberate practice…”

The quote holds true not just in sports, but also in most fields of human endeavor.

Indeed, expertise requires deliberate practice. This means being intentional about assessing and improving both the tactical and technical aspects of your game.

But did you know that the same mindset that steers your practice could actually limit your performance?

There are different demands on you when you practice, and when you perform. Your goals are different.

Hence, your Mindset needs to be different too.

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Is Perfectionism Limiting your Performance?

Have you ever wondered if you are a perfectionist?

Chances are, you would consider perfectionism as a positive trait – who doesn’t want to be perfect?

What is Perfectionism?

Perfectionism is defined as a broad personality style characterized by a person’s concern with striving for flawlessness and perfection and is accompanied by critical self-evaluations and concerns regarding others’ evaluations (Stoeber & Childs, 2010).

Here are some signs that you might be a perfectionist:

Procrastinating on a task until you know you can do it perfectly
Deem the results as the most important part of completing the task, you disregard the process you take to get your results
To view a task as incomplete until it meets your expectations
Take a longer time to finish a task that others typically take lesser time to finish

(Haase, Prapavessis & Owens, 2013)