The Role of Meditation in Enhancing Athlete Performance During High-Pressure Conditions
Rezwan Hossain, A. K. Azad, H. Khatun
International Journal of Arts, Sciences and Education March 31, 2026 DOI: 10.64358/ijase.v7i1.551 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Quasi-experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 40 |
| Population | Male university football players aged 20-25 from Jashore University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh |
| Intervention | Meditation |
| Duration | 4-week intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Penalty-shooting accuracy improved from a mean of 3.10 to 3.65 out of 5 after the meditation program, a statistically significant change with a large effect size (r = 0.65). The authors propose that brief structured meditation enhances performance stability and psychological readiness, supporting its integration into routine sport psychology programming. |
Abstract
Background: University-level athletes often experience performance deterioration under pressure due to anxiety and attentional lapses, yet psychological support remains limited.
Objective: This study investigated whether a 4-week structured meditation program improves penalty-shooting accuracy and reduces anxiety in male university football players during simulated high-pressure conditions.
Methods: Using a single-group pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design, 40 male football players (aged 20–25) from Jashore University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh, underwent 16 sessions (45 min each, 4×/week) of a standardised meditation protocol—including diaphragmatic breathing, Anulom-Vilom pranayama, guided imagery, and mindfulness meditation—followed by identical penalty-shooting assessments before and after.
Results: Mean penalty accuracy improved significantly from 3.10 ± 0.79 (pre) to 3.65 ± 0.95 (post), Z = −4.12, p < 0.001, with a large effect size (r = 0.65). Inter-rater reliability was excellent (κ = 0.96).
Conclusion: Brief, structured meditation training enhances performance stability and psychological readiness, supporting its integration into routine sport psychology programming—especially for non-elite or resource-constrained athletic settings. Grounded in the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) model, this low-cost intervention offers scalable mental skill development.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |