“Flow” in the beautiful game.

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of football players and spectators.

Steve Baldwin.

Abstract.

This is an investigation into the phenomenon of “flow,” discovered and named by

Csikszentmiha (1975), in the activity of watching and playing football. What is the personal

perspective of “flow” in football? How does the individual’s thoughts and feelings “flow”

relate to playing, viewing and development of their experience in football? Participants’

with an interest and amateur career in football were interviewed. An interpretative

phenomenological analysis was performed on the collected data to discover the key themes

that related to all participants and what was personal significant to individuals’. It was

discovered that a sense of connection to the team is a vital component for “flow” and

progression.

Introduction.

When investigating the question of psychological fulfilment that people often report from

activities where no discernible extrinsic rewards are present; the psychologist,

Csikszentmihalyi discovered an optimal window between the activity’s level of challenge,

and level of skill that an individual possesses to meet that challenge. He named this

phenomenological state “flow” (Csikszentmiha, Abuhamdeh, Nakamura, 2005) which is

reflective of one of the most common features found from his interviews. The paper

characterises this particular psychological state by three main qualities. The first is merging

of action and awareness, the second an altered sense of time and the third a sense of

personal control or agency. The experience itself seems to be tied into an individual’s

enjoyment and motivation for an activity. It is also important to an individual to develop and

improve their skills. Csikszentmiha (2005) points out that as the skill improves beyond the

challenge, in order to experience the enjoyment of “flow,” the challenge must also increase.

He (2005 p.p.605) goes on to suggest that, “Flow is not only an important mechanism in the

development of the person, but it also plays an important role in development of culture.”

He is thinking of individuals who spend much of their free time creating software that can

be distributed to anyone for free. This highlights the main message, that “flow” is an

essential phenomenon for a flourishing individual and society. Understanding it and

applying it to other areas of human endeavour will bring great benefits individually and

socially.

It is the power of this psychological state that has been of interest for its insights into

creativity and growth of an individual personally not just an individual’s technical mastery

(Walker and Burgess2011). It might seem rather surprising that many other areas of

individual’s lives would be affected by their development in one area but the study suggests

that “the process of being creative and spontaneous itself fuels an individual’s personality

development” (Walker 2011p.p132) This may also be related to the psychology of the

autotelic personality that Csikszentmiha thought to be most common with “flow”

experiences. A study of such personality types in Japan and their advantages over non-

autotelic personalities to tackling challenging situations was conducted by Asakawa (2004)

for this and other reasons “flow” has also been looked at for its application to teaching

practices in education. Tardy and Snyder (2004) suggest ways for “flow” experiences to be

introduced into teacher training. There are efforts to apply “flow” in other specific domains

such as religion and spirituality, the arts and sports.

“Flow” can be seen to be a critical experience to the enjoyment of an activity and

development of personality. But what is the personal perspective of “flow”? This research is

concerned with the phenomenological aspects of “flow,” what are the thoughts and feelings

an individual experiences in and out of their “flow” experience? Specifically this study aims

to show an understanding of how those thoughts and feelings relate to playing, viewing and

development in the sport of football.

Method.

In order to discover the psychological meanings of individuals’ personal experiences of

“flow,” the semi-structured narrative interview has been chosen. The narrative interview

used in this study is based on Wengraf’s Qualitative Research Interviewing (2001), which

uses three sections in order to achieve the most accurate and detailed picture of the

participant’s experience. The first section is designed to allow participants to decide the

aspects and the depth of description that they think is relevant to the experience. The

second section serves as an opportunity for the interviewer to prompt further description of

particularly meaningful areas that the first section raised. The final sub-section was used to

ask questions informed by theory, the questions here are particularly pertinent to the

research question. This method allows the individuals reflective meanings to be investigated

through from their own perspective and from that of the “flow” theory.

The interviews were recorded using a portable Dictaphone and later transcribed verbatim

with the exception of names and places which were changed in order to maintain

confidentiality. The research was carried out by the author, Steve Baldwin.

The question for section one of this study was an adjusted variant of a generic

autobiographical question (please see appendix). This was done to allow maximum free

range to the participants’ descriptions. The questions of section three were formed from the

key factors that Csikszentmiha work highlighted (sample transcript with questions include in

appendix). These were the skill/challenge interaction, the motivation that developed from

the challenge, the temporal experience, the sense of control, the affective states and

spontaneity.

A pilot interview was conducted to give an insight into the process; a few changes to

question phrasing were implemented to a more general format. A homogenous sample

selected by the researcher was used in order to compare experiences. Participants were

university students who were available for an approximately 40 minute interview and

reported having experienced a “flow” experience in football.

The analysis was conducted in the interpretive phenomenological analysis framework

(Smith, Jarman and Osborne 1999), which allowed the researcher to view, as closely as

possible, the participants’ perspective, and recognises and reports the researcher’s

presence. The transcripts were read once to familiarise the researcher with the content and

then read through again noting descriptions of interest into codes. A third reading was used

to pick out themes that were reflective of wider meaning. Care was taken to ensure that the

interpreted themes were formed from the original meaning. This process was repeated for

each transcript and once completed, the initial themes were developed into overall themes,

on the basis of similarity, frequency of appearance and the importance they had to the

individual. For example “atmosphere” appears in all the transcripts and is included under

the theme of emotional experience; good feelings of winning appear frequently also

included under the theme of emotional experience. Competition is included under personal

development, because it is particular significant to Jim’s story.

Analysis.

This analysis will use quotes from the narrative interviews to demonstrate how the key

themes of emotional experience and personal development have been interpreted in the

participants’ activity.

Positive first experience.

All participants have an initial positive experience that sparked their interest into pursuing

football further. BC said “I went along at one point just to see what it was like and it was one

of the best games… so that’s where my love of football began.” Jim said, “When I was five…

I saw all those people cheering,” and he became a player after that. Participant 3 said, his

father took him to his first match when he was around 4 years old, “I’ve grown up loving

football.”

Emotional atmosphere.

Jim explains that the match atmosphere was special, “…it was just that atmosphere… wow

that’s great.” He also found watching a high level game inspirational and boosting

confidence in his training, “…I knew it, I can do it, even if it wasn’t true… so I knew that next

day will be the best practice.” The emotional atmosphere of football is an important part of

the game; Jim describes it as “almost like a religion.” Participant 3 found it to promote a

close feeling of solidarity with other supporters “like everyone’s together” and it becomes

infectious “everyone’s there singing for the same team… you can’t help but sing with them.”

Winning and losing.

One of the key aspects of the game of football is that teams win and lose. The participants

described the thrill of winning and the disappointment of losing and how this is an integral

part of the dynamic narrative of the activity.

BC describes scoring the winning goal to place the team in the finals as “overwhelming,” it

was a defining point for him. Likewise when the team had to win against their “big rivals,”

and “had never beaten them before” winning “was a pretty cool feeling.” BC thinks of it as

stages, “the stage of losing every game… and going from that to winning every game.” He

also sees a difference in how the game is won; “the thrill of winning” is only really present

when it is “winning in a good way.”

Participant 3 describes promotion for his team as, “it was the best feeling in the world.” He

describes an ecstatic winning moment, “when your team scores in like the last minute and

you win the game you get the best feeling ever.” Which is in contrast to relegation, “it was

so sad… there was no hope for our little club.”

Jim describes his feelings matter-of-factly “when it’s going good… you have that feeling you

are a winner. But if you lose of course you are a loser and you have that feeling about it.”

For him the enjoyment is not just about winning, “because even if you lose you know you

put all your heart in it.”

Participant 3 describes how his emotions influence his perception of time passing. He feels it

as moving quickly if the team is doing well, but slowly if they are losing. “It feels like time is

passing really quick cause… it’s a really good game, whereas if you are playing really poorly…

you feel like time is going really slow.” This is different to the other players’ description of

elapsed time by how tired they felt, BC “usually you feel like you’ve played ninety minutes

purely because of how tired you are… I feel it in my body and that tells me.”

Solidarity to team, but isolating elsewhere.

All the participants describe that while football brought their group closer together it could

also be quite isolating from the wider community. BC describes being somewhat separated

from other friends “I’ve been a lot of places… just watching football, it was a bit rubbish

because all my mates at school always supported premiership football and I would not really

have a clue… so that’s always sucked a bit.” Jim describes how the intense training program

at his club kept him away from his friends. “I can’t go with my friends because I have

practice in the evening,” and teammates were not an adequate substitute, “…but they are

not the same.”

Personal progression.

The participants’ accounts make it clear that football can be intensely competitive. BC says it

can seem “daunting,” Jim said it is “quite difficult” at first to be technically inferior to most

other players, but this can be used to provide momentum in the player efforts to improve.

To “Find out a place,” as Jim puts it, “I just have to practice.” This requires a degree of

confidence for Jim it was something internal, “I just had that feeling I can do it.” Whereas BC

said he gained it from others, “It was pretty cool to realise everyone thought I was quite

good, even though I never really rated myself that much.” Jim said it getting into “the flow

of the game.”

It’s a team game.

The participants describe the way in which their performance is always dependent on others

in the team. BC said, “Sometimes it’s a good way sometime it’s a bad way.” Jim said, “It’s

not only about growing your abilities, you have to think about growing your team abilities.”

“Football’s like a big team game so you’re always going to be dependent on other people”

said BC.

Jim’s story emphatically illustrates this fact when, after moving to a new team he describes

the difficulty of settling in, “I couldn’t find my place” and “I didn’t see any improvement.”

Feeling more and more isolated his confidence and motivation dropped until, “Then it just

stopped.” It was the lack of any feedback about team performance that he found

distressing, he was “trying so hard, and… nobody appreciated it.” With the result that he

returned to his old team.

Discussion.

Football is an interactive, highly dynamic, team game which tends to produce strong

emotional responses in players and spectators. It may be suggested that this is because,

certainly in these participants, they experience group identification with the team. The

participants reported a high emotional involvement along the lines of, the team’s success is

their success and its failures are their failures. It is drama that is at the centre of many great

stories. Conflict and jeopardy are ways to produce powerful drama, both of which are

present in the game of football. These qualities entice and engage the participants to have

genuine and meaningful dramatic experiences as both they themselves and their team

progress through the league. Being in “Flow” is when all these elements are brought

together, pleasure, engagement and the connection to something greater.

“Flow” experiences are not just important for enjoyment but progression of personal

development as well. Csikszentmiha (2005) discusses the relationship of “flow” and

competence motivation. Given “flow’s” propensity to raise competence it has great

importance for players of football who need to develop their skills. Jim’s story shows that

when feedback is not received, progress can become impossible, no matter how hard one

tries. So “flow” could be described as an integral part of developing footballing skills.

The participants’ stories seem to highlight that quite apart from being a somewhat solitary

state of mind, “flow,” for them was very much about being at one with the others of their

group, being in tune with the thoughts and intentions to overcome the immediate

challenges that the team faced. Again Jim’s story makes the requirement for a sense of

connection apparent. To feel connected is as important as competence and happiness. It is

interesting that both players spoke about returning from a higher level team to a lower one

and although under-challenged they would try to make up for it. Walker and Burgess (2011)

found that players would try to spontaneously find ways to increase the challenge of an

otherwise too simple task, allowing them to gain more. Walker and Burgess (2011) suggest

this may be because the participants have autotelic personalities; it certainly seems to be

connected to the activity they are engaged in. Whether they engage in the activity because

they have an autotelic personality or as a result of engaging in the activity is a possible

question for further research. In any case, having a deep love for the game, which all the

participants expressed, leads one to hypothesise that challenging themselves is an

expression of that emotion in any opportunity available.

Football is a deeply engaging and enjoyable experience for the participants of this study.

“Flow” is particularly important emotionally in reaching a sense of connection with the

wider group and important developmentally to improve competence of action. It seems that

players often find ways of challenging themselves over and above a given easy task. It seems

important to discover if this is due to the autotelic personality or if a deep involvement in an

activity such as a “flow” experience develops an autotelic personality.

References.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond boredom and anxiety. London. Jossey-Bass Ltd. Journal of Happiness Studies

Csikszentmihalyi, M. Abuhamdeh, S. Nakamura, J Elliot, J and Andrew J. (Ed); Dweck, Carol S. (Ed), (2005). Flow. Handbook of competence and motivation. Guilford Publications, pp. 598-608 Asakawa, K. (2004) Flow Experience and Autotelic Personality in Japanese College Students. How do they Experience Challenges in Daily Life? Volume 5, Issue 2, pp 123-154 Smith, J., Jarman, M. & Osborne, M. (1999). Doing interpretative phenomenological analysis. In M. Murray & K. Chamberlain (Eds.), Qualitative Health Psychology. London: Sage. Tardy, C, M. and Snyder, B. (2004) ‘That’s why I do it’: Flow and EFL teachers’ practices. ELT Journal Volume 58 Issue 2. pp 118-128 Walker, B and Burgess, M. (2011) Creating voice creating being. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Professional Jazz Musicians’ Experiences. Existential Analysis vol22 issue 1 pp 119-139

Wengraf, T. (2001) Qualitative research interviewing: biographic narrative and semi-structured methods. London. SAGE

Baldwin. S. 11075292

Appendix.

Theme Participant 1 Player

Participant 2 Player

Participant 3 Spectator

Emotional experience. Yes Yes Yes

Motivations Yes Yes Yes

Attentive awareness Yes Yes No

Personal development Yes Yes No

The culture Yes Yes Yes

In the moment Yes Yes No

Themes and sub-themes.

Emotional experience.

Engrossing

Can be overwhelming

Powerful feelings very affecting

Feelings of power or weakness

Excitement and alertness

Adrenaline rush

Annoyance and disappointment when play goes wrong or game lost

Thrilling and good feelings when play goes right or game win.

Surprise win, perhaps best win

Winners and losers the high of winning the low of losing

Can seem daunting and worrying to begin with, lack of knowledge

Winning and losing

Fun

Match atmosphere.

Nasty moment new club and challenge

Infectious atmosphere

Recognition in the newspaper,

Fame a happy moment

Positive first experience

Solidarity to team but Isolating else where

Motivations

It is about getting results

Geographical location is important

Reputation and rank climbing

Recognition

Enjoyable for its own sakes

Commitment and dedication to improve

Hope

Rivalry and competition

Dedication to activity, team and club

Attentive awareness

Heightened awareness on the pitch

Unconscious counter of performance

Time measured in tiredness, but not always a good measure

Realism awareness

Time passes quickly if going well slowly if not

Personal development

Affirming of self-worth

Role-models for coaching and play

Positive feedback is important negative feedback can end pursuit needs to be realistic

Comparative

Personal progression

It’s a team game

Start is difficult highly challenging

Improvement with time

Control having an impact on the game

Fans emulate heroes/ mimesis.

Desire, aspiration to new level

Self-worth

Personal identification to team/ individual role models

Performance is always dependent on others

Finding a place in the team

Personal sacrifice and investment commitment

The culture

Can be cliquey

Football as a masculine religion

Passing it on to next generation

In the moment

Each action changes with the flow of the game.

Highly dynamic interaction

In own world during game, lost in the moment

Only recalled afterwards