An Evaluation of Mindful Psychological Skills Training Poster

BMC Psychology

Background Mental training intends to support athletes in mastering challenges in sport. The aim of our study was to investigate the differential and shared effects of psychological skills training and mindfulness training on psychological variables relevant to athletic performance (e.g., handling emotions or attention control). We assumed that each approach has its own strengths (e.g., mindfulness has a differential effect on the acceptance of emotions), but for some goals (e.g., attention control), both training forms are expected to be equally successful (i.e., shared effects). Methods A total of 95 athletes (Mage = 24.43, SDage = 5.15; 49% female) were randomly assigned into three groups: psychological skills training intervention (PST), mindfulness training intervention (MT), and wait-list control group (WL). Participants completed a questionnaire battery before and after the training (pretest and posttest). We assessed mindfulness, use of mental strategies, handling of emotion...

2018

The purpose of this review is to summarize the empirical findings on the effectiveness of mindfulness-based programs to enhance elite athletes sport performance. A literature research was undertaken using Medline, Psych info, Web of Science, Cochrane, Ebscohost, Isi Web of Knowledge databases and references of retrieved articles. The search included original articles published from 1985 to March 2017. The main search terms were mindfulness programs, sport performance, elite athletes, in different combinations as needed. All articles were coded for their design, type of control, study population, and outcome measures. Search returned 26 articles, and set out 2 main mindfulness-based interventions on the field of elite sport performance. Despite methodological limitations in the research design, the results show MAC and MSPE programs as effective on enhancing elite athlete’s sports performance. To confirm these preliminary results, further research, with improved experimental designs...

BMC psychology, 2016

Struggling to deliver performance in competitions is one of the main reasons why athletes seek the advice of sport psychologists. Psychologists apply a variety of intervention techniques, many of which are not evidence-based. Evidence-based techniques promote quality management and could help athletes, for example, to increase and maintain functional athletic behavior in competitions/games (i.e., being focused on task relevant cues and executing movements and actions in high quality). However, well-designed trials investigating the effectiveness of sport psychological interventions for performance enhancement are scarce. The planed study is founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and examines the effectiveness of two interventions with elite and sub-elite athletes. A psychological skills training (PST) and a mindfulness-based intervention (MI), administered as group-program, will be compared to a waiting-list control group concerning how they enhance functional athletic beh...

Top athletes face various challenges in their career on and off the sports field. Sport psychologists teach techniques to help athletes to cope with these challenges. Over the last 30 years, the techniques used stem mainly from psychological skills training (PST), which is influenced mainly from cognitive-behavioral theories. Recently, interest in mindfulness-based interventions has increased in sport psychology. This article identifies the limits of PST and presents theoretical considerations how mindfulness-based interventions can amend PST. Further, it addresses in what form and by what mechanisms athletes could benefit. In reviewing current mindfulness literature, we conclude that it is important to distinguish between mindfulness practice and dispositional mindfulness. Mind-fulness practice means the methods through which mindful-ness is fostered, whereas dispositional mindfulness describes the tendency to be mindful in everyday life. In our conceptualization, we differ between three interwoven facets of mindfulness practice (intention, attention, and attitude), which are associated with six components of disposi-tional mindfulness. We consider that athletes with a higher degree in mindfulness practice and dispositional mindful-ness will enhance the level of several required psychological skills through various impact mechanisms. Based on theoretical considerations, we suggest bare attention, experien-tial acceptance, values clarifications, self-regulation/ negative emotion regulation, clarity about one's internal life, exposure, flexibility, non-attachment, and rumination as possible impact mechanisms. A greater knowledge of the conceptualization of mindfulness and its impact on psychological skills could develop and improve the effectiveness of mindfulness based interventions in sports.

Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences, 2021

Mindfulness practice has become an increasingly popular intervention in optimizing athletic performance in sports. Numerous studies have reported on applying mindfulness for improving the performance of various sports such as tennis, table tennis, shooting, cricket, archery, golf, running, hockey, swimming, and cycling. This narrative review addresses different existing mindfulness programs that enhance sports performance, the outcome measures of mindfulness therapy, and identifies the anxiety and depression that affect the performance of sports individuals. To cope with the issues, the efficacy of mindfulness in performance enhancement and future research directions on mindfulness needs attention.

2017

Sports Medicine, 2017

2017

Mindfulness is essentially awareness and acceptance of what is occurring. This simple idea has profound implications when you apply it to the sport and performance context. How could mindfulness education and training matter in sport? Aren’t you always aware? And isn’t acceptance precisely what you do not want to do in performance? Doesn’t acceptance lead to complacency and laziness? And how in the world would sitting down, meditating, help you score more baskets or run faster on the track? How could the practice of doing nothing and practicing not reacting help on the athletic field? These are all good questions and will be addressed throughout The Power of Mindfulness.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Mindfulness For Performance is a programme that has been developed over 15 years. It aims to help athletes maintain effective attentional focus regardless of the disruptive sensations and thoughts induced by the performance situation. It is inspired by Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Acceptance Commitment Therapy programmes and has been adapted to the specificities of sport. It is composed of three steps: (a) psychoeducation and identification of the focus of attention, (b) mindfulness and acceptance training, and (c) integrating skills acquired into training and competition. This article reports the effects of MFP in two studies in national basketball players and in young table tennis players. The first study showed that mindfulness skills and free-throw accuracy during basketball games increased more in the experimental group than in the control group. Table tennis results revealed that participants who showed the highest percentage of adherence to the programme benefited m...