Susan A. Jackson is a sport psychologist at the University of Queensland, Australia, who conducted the primary empirical work on flow-state in elite athletic performance. Her research and her collaboration with csikszentmihalyi on flow-in-sports brought the flow framework into sport psychology with a level of empirical rigor that distinguished it from popular accounts of "being in the zone."
Flow measurement in athletics
The central methodological challenge Jackson addressed was how to measure flow retrospectively in athletic contexts. The experience-sampling-method, csikszentmihalyi's standard tool, is difficult to apply during athletic performance — one cannot interrupt a tennis match or a gymnastics routine to have athletes complete self-reports. Jackson developed the Flow State Scale (FSS), a retrospective questionnaire that operationalizes the nine dimensions of flow-state (concentration, merging of action and awareness, loss of self-consciousness, time distortion, autotelic-experience, sense of control, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, and challenge-skill balance) in terms applicable to athletic experience.
The FSS and its derivatives became the standard measurement instruments for flow in sport psychology research, enabling systematic empirical investigation where ESM was impractical. This methodological contribution extended flow measurement into physical performance domains and provided the tool that subsequent sport psychology researchers used to study flow frequency, correlates, and interventions.
Empirical research on athlete flow
Jackson's qualitative and quantitative research with elite athletes documented the conditions under which athletic flow occurs and what prevents it. Her interview studies gathered accounts from elite-level athletes across multiple sports, identifying consistent themes: the importance of optimal preparation and physical readiness, the role of confidence (a pre-condition rather than a product of flow), the disruption caused by self-consciousness and outcome focus, and the relationship between team cohesion and individual flow in team sports.
These findings confirmed that challenge-skill-balance operates in athletic contexts as theory predicted — athletes reported flow most reliably when competing at or slightly above their current performance ceiling. But Jackson's research also identified athletic-specific conditions, including physical arousal state and pre-competition mental preparation, as significant additional factors that csikszentmihalyi's original model, developed primarily in cognitive and aesthetic domains, had not foregrounded.
Flow in Sports
flow-in-sports (1999), co-authored with csikszentmihalyi, synthesized Jackson's empirical findings in a form accessible to coaches, athletes, and sport psychology practitioners. The book explained the flow concept, presented Jackson's research findings on conditions and disruptions, and provided practical guidance for creating the psychological conditions under which flow becomes more likely. It distinguished sharply between controllable preparation factors (where coaches and athletes can act) and in-the-moment performance states (where deliberate control is counterproductive — trying to force flow typically prevents it).
Position in the lineage
Jackson represents a domain extension rather than a theoretical innovation. She took csikszentmihalyi's construct, adapted it for athletic measurement, conducted primary empirical research to test it in a new domain, and produced both academic validation and practical application. This pattern — rigorous domain extension with measurement development — is the legitimate form of concept transfer in the flow tradition, in contrast to the looser applications in popular performance literature. The FSS she developed sits alongside the experience-sampling-method as one of the field's core measurement instruments.