Estados de fluxo e desempenho de natação em águas abertas: estado da arte e relações com resiliência, ansiedade de estado e ansiedade de traço

Abstract

The state of flow is defined as a mental condition of deep engagement with the present task, that is, an optimal cognitive state for a particular activity. Thus, it is evident that highly trained athletes benefit in their performances when reaching high levels of flow state. Open Water swimmers, a sport discipline of long-distance swimming contested in uncontrolled environments, can leverage this variable to improve their performances. Objective: To investigate the relationships between flow state and sports performance in open water swimming, and its relations with resilience, trait anxiety, and state anxiety. Methods: This study is organized in the Scandinavian model, comprising the production of two studies. The first, a systematic review, based on the PRISMA statement, in five databases: BVS; SCOPUS, Sport Discus, PubMed, and Web of Science. Using the terms: "flow state", "flow theory", "athletes", "top athletes", "sport", and "performance". SPIDER recommendations were followed. While the second article is a cross-sectional descriptive study (n = 77), conducted at the Flamengo Urca Crossing 2022. Subjects answered the following questionnaires: Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety, and Flow State Scale – 2. Statistical treatment was performed using the Student's T-test for gender and experience level evaluation. In addition to the Pearson correlation test for the analysis of associations between the variables of interest. A p-value of <0.5 was adopted. Results: In study 1, 1743 articles were observed, of which only 30 were included in the review. It was found that the flow state is a concept, although consolidated, still little explored in the sports environment, especially in the swimming modality. In the second study, it was found that experienced swimmers finished the race faster (547.09 sec) and in better rankings (15.91) than beginners. Additionally, the following correlations were found: state anxiety and resilience (r= 0.322); age and resilience in female athletes (r = 0.641); state and trait anxiety (r =0.336); flow state and age (r = -0.382), and flow state and state anxiety (r = -0.352). Conclusion: Despite no correlation between flow state and performance in the competition in question, there is still a long way to go in this thematic area