Self-Compassion, Flow, and Strategies in Judokas

In the last decades, studies on sport practice have showed positive relations between self-compassion and flow and sport enjoyment, satisfaction, and performance. Despite this, little research concerns the relation between self-compassion and flow in martial arts while these relations were not examined in judo. The main aim of this study was to examine the role of flow and self-compassion in judo practice. In addition, we assessed the strategies judokas experienced before and during combat and examined their relations with these psychological constructs. A total of 52 judokas (34 males) with different degrees of experience (belt) participated in the study and answered questionnaires on flow state during combat, personal self-compassion, and judo strategies. The results showed no correlation between the participants’ experience levels and their flow and self-compassion scores. However, we found a positive relation between the use of judo strategies and flow during combat. In conclusion, even though we found no relation between self-compassion and any of the variables considered, learning and using judo strategies, as already showed regarding other martial arts, seem to be important for developing flow states.