UNDERSTANDING FLOW EXPERIENCES IN PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the optimal mood of the professional athletes and to examine the direction of these variables. While 506 participants from different branches who are doing sports in a professional sense are selected through sampling for the purpose of the research, the data is obtained by Dispositional Flow-2 scale. The scale form is developed by Jackson and Elkund (2004), adapted by Asci et al (2012) in Turkish and determined by Dasdan Ada et al. (2012) through validity and reliability studies, consisted of 36 items and 9 sub-dimensions. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, one-way analysis of variance Anova tests were used in the analysis of the data. The internal reliability coefficient for the entire DFS-2 was determined as .94. According to the findings, significant relationships and differences were determined based on the fact that professional athletes constantly display optimal mood level at average values, sports branch, duration of doing sports, number of weekly training sessions, participation in international matches, and comparison to their previous experiences. As a result, it was determined that the professional athletes who do sports in the volleyball branch, the ones with the highest sports year, the ones who train the most a week, those who have participated in international competitions and those who find the general development levels are higher than the other professional athletes. Therefore, it can be said that successful athletes who are engaged in team sports and do sports for a longer period of time have better dispositional flow level. Article visualizations: