Flow State between Open and Closed Skill Athletes: A Psychological Probe

Abstract

The present study was conducted to examine the flow state between open and closed skill athletes. To obtain required data, the investigators had selected one hundred and twenty (N=120) male university level athletes of 19 to 25 years of age to act as subjects. They were divided into two groups; sixty (n=60) open skill athletes and sixty (n=60) closed skill athletes of various games and sports. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the subjects. All the subjects, after having been informed about the objective and protocol of the study, gave their consent and volunteered to participate in this study. To measure the level of dispositional flow state of the subjects, the flow state battery constructed by Jackson & Eklund (2004) was administered. The?t‘ test was applied to find out the significant differences between open and closed skill athletes with regards to dispositional Flow Scale-2. To test the hypothesis, the level of significance was set at 0.05. The results revealed significant differences between open and closed skill athletes on the sub-variables; challenge skill balance, action awareness merging, unambiguous feedback, autotelic experience and overall dispositional flow scale-2. It is further revealed that the open skill athletes have performed significantly better than closed skill athletes on the above said sub variables. However, no significant differences were found with regard to the sub-variables; clear goals, concentration on the task at hand, sense of control, loss of self-consciousness and transformation of time.