Stefan Koehn

Correlates of Dispositional and State Flow in Tennis Competition

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between psychological correlates and flow in tennis competition. Using a cross-sectional design, the sample of 261 junior tennis athletes showed moderate-to-strong correlations between flow (dispositional and state) and confidence (r disp = .59; r state = .35), imagery use (r disp = .58; r state = .32), and action control (r disp = .41; r state = .40), whereas absorption was orthogonal to flow. Commonality analysis revealed that imagery and confidence accounted for 34.2% of the variance in dispositional flow. The results are discussed for the development of intervention studies in order to enhance flow in competition.

Effects of confidence and anxiety on flow state in competition

Abstract Confidence and anxiety are important variables that underlie the experience of flow in sport. Specifically, research has indicated that confidence displays a positive relationship and anxiety a negative relationship with flow. The aim of this study was to assess potential direct and indirect effects of confidence and anxiety dimensions on flow state in tennis competition. A sample of 59 junior tennis players completed measures of Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2d and Flow State Scale-2. Following predictive analysis, results showed significant positive correlations between confidence (intensity and direction) and anxiety symptoms (only directional perceptions) with flow state. Standard multiple regression analysis indicated confidence as the only significant predictor of flow. The results confirmed a protective function of confidence against debilitating anxiety interpretations, but there were no significant interaction effects between confidence and anxiety on flow state.

The Effect of Performance Context and Skill Level on the Frequency of Flow Experiences

Abstract The main purpose of this study was to examine interaction effects between skill level and performance contexts on the experience of flow in adolescent tennis players. The study employed a factorial design to examine differences in flow frequency between competition and training settings and the independent groups factor of ranking list and club players. Junior tennis players (55 males, 29 females) completed the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 in training and competition settings. A repeated-measure ANCOVA, with years of tennis experience and training hours per week as covariates, showed a significant main effect for skill level, F(1, 82) = 6.67, p<0.05, , a significant main effect for performance contexts, F(1, 82) = 7.69, p<0.01, , and a significant disordinal interaction, F(1, 82) = 9.93, p<0.01, . Lower skilled athletes experienced flow with similar frequency across performance contexts, whereas advanced players experienced flow more often during training than competition. Qualitative results showed that club players’ involvement in both performance contexts was mainly based on intrinsic reasons, whereas ranking list players reported intrinsic reasons for training, but a high number of extrinsic reasons for competition. Future studies should take propositions of the flow model into account in order to advance theoretical developments on interaction effects and shed more light into the complex processes underlying flow in sport.