Flow and fun: Are they the same thing?
Another look at "effortless effort" and peak experience
If you have done any research into a phenomenon known as flow then you might have noticed the state, which is sometimes referred to as "peak experience" or the "pinnacle of intrinsic motivation," could also be described simply as fun. An operational definition of fun would contain many components of flow.
When I first wrote about flow in 2015 (see the article below), I described environments where flow could take place. I was interested in how the psychological state could be leveraged into a coaching tool. I say could take place because there is a degree of uncertainty as to when and how flow states occur. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (CHEEK-sent-mee-HA-yee) was the modern go-to researcher for the phenomenon until his death in 2021. His work with flow centered on identifying routines and circumstances that could produce the state or at least make it more likely to occur.
His subjects, which came from all walks of life and socioeconomic levels, all told him the same thing. They felt their best when they were in optimal states that many of them described as “flow.” The history of flow science from Nietzsche to neurons
The phenomenon has been recognized for a while. Rausch, which Friedrich Nietzsche described as "the great stimulus of life," has several similarities with flow such as peak experience and loss of self-awareness. Nietzsche, though, was not a psychologist, so when both Sigmund Freud and B.F. Skinner argued behavior was mostly a result of external motivators -- we do this to get that -- rausch lost favor, at least for a while.
It wasn't until Abraham Maslow suggested human behavior was based on more than simple extrinsic rewards that we get to where we are today in our understanding of flow.
Maslow studied motivation. He believed significant behavior was motivated by both internal and external factors in combination with age and circumstance. Children, for example, are easily motivated by external rewards, but as they age their motivational triggers become more internalized. Rather than doing things to please others, which is common in youngsters, self-actualized individuals (recall this is why Maslow is famous) are motivated by things that please them, things they are interested in.
Later, Csikszentmihalyi observed that intrinsically motivated tasks were central to the flow experience. He referred to these as autotelic experiences, or those done for the pure joy of doing them; ones where the individual can temporarily lose their self-consciousness and their sense of time. In a sports context where activities have clear goals and the individual's skills are equal to the task, flow is more likely to be experienced. Autotelic experiences are also known as type I fun.
What does this sound like? It sounds a lot like what many describe as fun, a term that is hardly ever defined. Understanding what flow is and how to create flow-prone environments is a fancy way of describing how to have fun.
However, of the nine components listed in my original article only some of them can be manipulated in ways that increase the likelihood of a flow experience. The others are the result of being in a flow state. So when shaping flow environments keep in mind some things that can trigger flow:
By increasing levels of dopamine (also known as the "feel good" hormone) with routines like meditation, reducing cognitive load, and being aware of times of the day when dopamine production is highest. One way to reduce cognitive load is to discourage the use of mobile phones before practice sessions or to design practices where a phone-free period is created by default such as in a team meeting or a stretching session.
Focusing on the task. Dopamine also aids in concentration. Intense focus is one of the reasons athletes report losing self-consciousness and having a distorted perception of time during flow experiences. Being able to focus is a result of having a good challenge/skill balance.
Balancing the challenge with skill level. Flow states are more likely where the athlete's skills either match the challenge or are slightly below what the challenge requires. This agrees with a more pedestrian definition of fun being an achievable challenge. Challenges where the athlete's skills are far above what is required are boring, and those requiring skills far above what the athlete has are frustrating. In both cases focus isn't possible and no one would describe the experience as enjoyable. Flow cannot be achieved when the challenge/skill balance is out of sync.
Creating challenges where the athlete is intrinsically motivated. Most importantly, the athlete has to be interested in the activity. This is inline with the autotelic experience. Note that fun in this case is defined by the athlete rather than the coach.
You'll notice that the items above work together. The challenge/skill balance won't matter if the athlete isn't interested in the task. Likewise, if the practice session is built on what the coach thinks is fun then intrinsic motivation might be lessened or missing.
Flow is elusive and creating environments with all of the components described here only make it possible for athletes to experience it. Some factors are hard to control with youngsters, like reducing cognitive load before and during practice sessions. Older athletes though may have more success achieving a flow experience.
This article was originally published in 2015:
Coaching ‘flow’
The concept of flow is used to describe optimal performance. Characteristics of flow include time dilation (or contraction), using psychic energy to concentrate only on the task at hand, loss of focus on self, and a feeling of oneness between the athlete, the action, and the environment in which the action occurs. In athletic events flow might happen by chance in seemingly random or unplanned activities but it is more likely to occur in structured situations.
Swim training offers a good example of how flow can occur since much of the endurance type of training in swimming consists of repetition of specific distances on an interval. For example, a training set might consist of 10 x 200 on 3:15 ("ten times two hundred meters leaving every 3 minutes and 15 seconds"). The amount of rest the athlete gets between efforts is determined by how fast they swim each 200 m distance.
If the athlete's skills match the requirements of the training set then an achievable challenge has been created and it is possible to achieve a flow state during the set. If the athlete's skills are such that the interval is not challenging or the opposite, that the athlete can't possibly cover 200 meters even once in 3:15 then the flow state cannot be achieved and something has to be adjusted. Either the distance has to be made shorter or the interval increased. For flow to occur the activity must challenge the athlete's ability but not so much where success is unlikely.
Enough psychic energy needs to be used to accomplish the training set in order to prevent other distractions from interfering. Here the level of the challenge also plays a role. Sets that are too easy or too difficult will not engage the athlete enough to devote psychic energy to accomplishing it. If the set is too easy then psychic energy will be used to concentrate on other things; too hard and no concentration on the set will occur at all.
A well designed training must meet the following criteria:
It is designed to that desired training effects are actually reached.
It presents an achievable challenge to the athlete.
The set encourages the athlete to focus attention on the task.
Creating a flow environment
It is one thing to understand the concept of flow but quite another for coaches to be able to implement training and practice strategies that encourage flow states in their athletes. Flow is a psychological state and consists of nine components:
Balancing challenge and skills
Merging action and awareness
Having clear goals
Receiving unambiguous feedback
Concentrating on the task
Having a sense of control
Losing self-consciousness
Feeling a transformation of time
Being rewarded simply by performing the activity (autotelic experience)
Coaches must create an environment where these components work together. Based on the nature of some of the components coaches may not be able to affect all of them and should focus on those they have control over. The athlete's role cannot be discounted. The old saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink," applies to any training environment. Coaches can structure the environment so that flow becomes possible but they can't create it directly, that's up to the athlete.
[Flow] offers a state of being that is so rewarding one does it for no other reason than to be a part of it.
As Jackson and Csikszentmihalyi noted in their 1999 book Flow in Sports, the flow experience "offers a state of being that is so rewarding one does it for no other reason than to be a part of it." It's easy to see why athletes would seek to repeat flow experiences. Since liking an activity enough to repeat it frequently is essential to becoming better at it, coaches naturally have an interest in creating environments where these experiences exist. At the youth level especially, a coach is able to shape the practice environment so young athletes will look forward to their sport experiences.
The good news is that sport provides flow experiences almost half the time while other less physical activities provide far fewer opportunities to experience flow. So whether the activity is based on individual or team participation the most important part of the flow equation may simply lie in making it fun. But manipulating flow components varies a bit between team and individual sports.
Individual sport
A swimming coach could create a flow environment when teaching technique by having the athlete focus on specific parts of the technique. Counting strokes per length is a tool for developing efficiency: The fewer strokes an athlete takes the more efficient the stroke becomes. Focusing only on this, however, leads to very efficient but slow swimming since it's easy to exaggerate the stroke so much that the athlete moves slower and slower as the number of strokes decreases.
Efficiency is only part of effective technique so a quick 'flow fix' would be to have the athlete continue to count strokes per length but also focus on hitting a certain time in each effort. This requires a broad internal awareness of stroke length and rate, and maintaining a steady streamlined kick during each effort. At the end of each effort the athlete checks the time to see if the prescribed goal has been reached. The athlete has several options on each effort to help keep their mind on task, changing stroke rate or length, and kicking faster can be used in different combinations. The challenge is hitting the right time with the lowest stroke count on each effort and since the variables are independent of the student's skills they already have the requisite skill level.
Though only a very basic example, this kind of set illustrates how mental and physical focus can be achieved. Almost any level of swimmer would be able to use the variables and achieve some measure of success. Paying attention to the variables would help create a flow environment because the athlete would have to be focused on what he was doing to achieve success.
Team sport
Creating flow experiences in team activities is different because multiple team members are involved in most activities. Practicing individual skills in a training session resembles individual sport more than a team activity since individual efforts are the focus. Coaches can design flow experiences into team activities by emphasizing the merging of action and awareness, identifying clear goals, and providing unambiguous feedback.
Simulation training can be used to create a flow environment in team activity. The simulation resembles the actual competitive environment athletes will play in, much like a dress rehearsal. After the athletes have learned the skills involved in the activity (usually a play or series of plays) the simulation allows the skills to be practiced as a whole. An effective simulation will allow the plays to be repeated enough so athletes will be able to perform them without anxiety. Simulation also helps remove the competitive novelty from actual competition environments.
Practicing the plays as a team allows players to merge their actions with an awareness of how those actions are important to the overall strategy, which includes the other players, where they are on the field, and how their actions affect those of the other players.
Coaches who create flow experiences in practice situations will have better practices because athletes will want to be there more often. This addresses two problems found at the youth sport level i.e. attitude towards practice and frequency of practice. Understanding how to manipulate the components of flow to create better experiences for young athletes could result in fewer athletes dropping out of sport, a goal that both coaches and national sport organizations can embrace.