Psychology of Sport And Exercise
January 1, 2024
Thomas O. Minkler, Samuel J Zizzi, D Jake Follmer
4 citations
Collegiate athletes who completed a mindfulness-based program (Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement, MSPE) reported fewer depressive symptoms, fewer difficulties with emotion regulation, and better self-rated sport performance compared to a control group. At a six-week follow-up, they also showed increased mindfulness and sport enjoyment, and the improvements in emotion regulation were sustained. Readiness to practice mindfulness before the program did not predict changes, but higher readiness after the program was linked to greater mindfulness, life satisfaction, sport enjoyment, and more engagement with the practice. The findings suggest that readiness after an intervention may matter more than readiness beforehand for long-term mindfulness practice and outcomes.
Psychology of Sport And Exercise
January 20, 2026
Jeffrey Yu, Jui-Ti Nien, Mu-Yen Chu et al.
3 citations
Among collegiate Taekwondo athletes (N = 105), mindfulness is linked to higher pre-event self-efficacy by reducing cognitive anxiety. This pathway was especially strong for injured athletes, for whom mindfulness had a greater effect on lowering cognitive anxiety. Injury status did not alter the overall indirect pathway, but it did moderate the direct link between mindfulness and cognitive anxiety. The findings suggest that mindfulness can help combat sports athletes, particularly those injured, feel more confident before competition by easing anxious thoughts.
Psychology of Sport And Exercise
May 31, 2025
Tomer Gutman, Dalit Lev-Arey, Amihai Gottlieb et al.
3 citations
A coaching program that combines mindfulness, acceptance, and commitment principles with self-determination theory helped coaches become more supportive of athletes' psychological needs. In two phases, 12 youth basketball coaches and 4 competitive climbing coaches first, then 10 basketball coaches later, completed eight weekly sessions of mindfulness exercises, values exploration, and acceptance training. The second phase also included strategies for supporting athletes' needs. Interviews with the coaches revealed three themes: they looked forward to the sessions, they gained self-awareness and self-regulation (pausing to consider how to behave), and they developed better relational skills and sensitivity to athletes' experiences, promoting athletes' flourishing. The findings suggest potential for this integrated approach, though the homogeneous sample calls for further research.
Psychology of Sport And Exercise
July 1, 2025
Wei Wang, Matthew J. Schweickle, Karin Hägglund et al.
2 citations
Among 226 elite athletes, trait mindfulness predicts mental wellbeing through two parallel pathways: increased gratitude toward pleasant moments and greater self-compassion toward unpleasant moments. The mediation analysis controlled for age, gender, sport type, fitness status, and country of residence. Cultivating gratitude and self-compassion through mindfulness-based programs may help protect and promote athlete wellbeing.
Psychology of Sport And Exercise
July 1, 2026
Violetta Oblinger-Peters, Kristoffer Henriksen, Andreas Küttel et al.
Meaning in elite sport—experiencing life as coherent, significant, oriented, and belonging—has gained attention, yet its conceptualization remains fragmented. Interviews with 13 international Olympic athletes from February 2022 to August 2024 revealed two routes to meaning: self-actualization, arising from self-determination, competence, personal purpose, and mattering to oneself; and self-transcendence, emerging through a wider purpose, mattering to others, contributing, and nurturing relationships. The model integrates dimensions of coherence, significance, purpose, belonging, and psychological needs for autonomy, competence, relatedness, and contribution. Findings suggest practitioners can support both routes to enhance athlete wellbeing.
Psychology of Sport And Exercise
July 1, 2026
Jiao Liu, Jian-Fen Pan, Wen-Jing Liu et al.
Mindfulness during treadmill running shifts attention toward internal bodily sensations and self-regulation in real time, rather than toward external distractions. Thirty-six adults completed three 20-minute moderate-intensity running sessions under mindfulness, distraction, and control conditions. Think-aloud verbalizations captured moment-to-moment experience showed that mindfulness consistently increased an index of internal versus external focus compared to both distraction and control conditions. This provides direct evidence that mindfulness changes how exercise is experienced by strengthening interoceptive monitoring and adaptive self-regulation, supporting proposed mechanisms for how mindfulness-based exercise may increase positive affect and promote continued physical activity.
Psychology of Sport And Exercise
March 1, 2020
Ebrahim Norouzi, M. Gerber, Frough Fattahi Masrour et al.
An 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, consisting of 16 group sessions, reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression and improved psychological well-being among male retired Iranian football players compared to an active control group. Improvements were maintained at a 12-week follow-up, while the control group remained stable. The study did not assess underlying mechanisms.