The Negative Aspects Of Flow In Football

According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a state of consciousness where one is completely immersed in what one is doing. It is a moment when peak performance meets peak performance, and tends to be one of the most intense and memorable occurrences in one’s life. For me, one of these occurrences was during the 2017 Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California. Although I did not play football at this game, I experienced flow as a member of the Trojan Marching Band. This was not the first time I experienced flow as part of the band, but it is among the most memorable moments in my life. This experience encapsulates the nine characteristics of flow in a fashion similar to flow experiences in sports.

First, the performance was an ideal example of

As per Csikszentmihalyi, goals should be set beforehand so that the performer knows that is expected of them. In my case, the overarching goal was the perform well. This means accurately hitting every spot on the field, marching the appropriate style, remembering all the dance moves, playing all the notes and rhythms, and maintaining high energy throughout the performance. These may seem like fairly challenging goals, especially when compounded on one another – however, with the appropriate skill set and after practicing for about forty hours for this performance, these goals were clear and

In order to experience flow, the individual must be able to ignore everything besides the task at hand. This is relatively easy to do in a college marching band setting, as it requires intense multitasking. Musical experiences often require focused concentration, and when you add on the marching component, it is very difficult to execute your goals if your attention slips, even for just a few seconds. Furthermore, the Rose Bowl performance was less than ten minutes, and I find that this made concentrating easier than if the show were to go on for a longer period of time. Additionally, when in flow, you experience a loss of the feeling of self-consciousness. Self-consciousness refers to looking at ourselves from the outside and worrying about how what we are doing is affecting everyone else. In the college marching band setting, I have found that one is not extremely self-conscious since the band operates in a group mentality. There are no individuals in the band, meaning that everyone has to match in marching style and musicality in order to achieve our goals. Since our competitors (rival bands) are not performing at the same time as we are, it is also easy to ignore them and focus on the moment at