Experiencing flow, mindfulness and body consciousness in karatekas

Katrin Češčut, Lea Kopač

 Full article (pdf)  |   Written in Slovene  |  Published: 13. September 2020 |  Reads: 322

Abstract

Karate is a martial art, which is supposed to encourage the experiences of flow, mindfulness and body consciousness. We were thus interested in how these constructs are represented during competition and training, as well as how they differ between karatekas with varying experience in practising karate. Ninety-five Slovenian karatekas (of which 36 women and one undefined) participated in the research. They filled in an online survey consisting of Core Flow State Scale – 2, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale – State and Body Consciousness Questionnaire. The results show no significant difference between competitors and non-competitors in the experiences of flow, mindfulness, and body consciousness. The correlations between the duration of training and flow or mindfulness were also statistically insignificant. There are more few possible explanations for the results that go against our hypotheses, one of them being the uneven sample of karatekas regarding the competition/training and regarding the duration of training. We encourage future research in this area, mostly because it could help understand the influence of karate on the constructs of positive psychology.

Keywords

karate, flow, mindfulness, body consciousness, positive psychology

Cite

Češčut, K. & Kopač, L. (2020). Doživljanje zanosa in čuječnosti ter zavedanje telesa pri karateistih [Experiencing flow, mindfulness and body consciousness in karatekas]. Eksperimentator, 4, 43–49.