Current research involved in sports psychology does not employ the idea of mindfulness. “Traditional sport psychology interventions, such as imagery, self-talk, and goal setting generally aim to facilitate optimal performance by helping to control the internal, mental factors that can affect athletes. (Weinberg & Gould, 2011) Mindfulness is a practice that requires us to bring our attention into the present moment. Goal setting would therefore be a stark contrast to mindfulness because it has the participant envisioning the future.
The definition of mindfulness that is going to be used for this paper is that “mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future. Greater Good Foundation, 2013)
“Although mindfulness originated as a Buddhist meditation practice (Kabat Zinn, 2003 p 145), its secular adaptations have recently received a great deal of interest in Western empirical phycology literature. (Baer, 2003) Athletes are presented with numerous difficulties both on and off the field of play. Traditional techniques used to help athletic performance include Psychological Skills Training. Through my research, I hope to prove that mindfulness based therapy can be more beneficial than PST. Previous Work:
Previous research has found that many of the facets of mindfulness could theoretically be linked to increased performance. Attention is the an important facet of mindfulness. If a successful mindfulness practice is used, the individual should see increased levels of attention and attention skills, which could in tern help an athlete, focus on the goal at hand. “Mindfulness practice improves attention and perceptual cognitive skills directly. ” (Chambers et. all) This may “free up” cognitive resources and allow them to be used for achieving the goal.
Attitude is also a very important facet of mindfulness when relating it to sports psychology. Mindfulness can help us maintain a positive attitude, which can have an effect on our motor control skills. Motor control skills are vital for performance in the sporting world, so a practice that could help improve motor skills would be beneficial to all athletes. Having a mindful attitude while engaging in sporting activities allows athletes to better accept discrepancies in their performance, the good and the bad.
The tendency to control automatized movements with declarative knowledge is reduced, and athletes could therefore enhance their performance of well learned motor skills because automatic processes are not interrupted. A third facet of mindfulness that is particularly important in the sporting world is non-attachment. If we are less attached to negative or positive outcomes this can lead to an increased development of personal and life skills.
Cofey et all (20010) found that “The belief that one’s own happiness is independent of obtaining positive outcomes is a consequence of mindfulness. If athletes are able to avoid becoming discouraged by poor performance they are more able to rebound and fix the problem. The final facet of mindfulness that is important for athletes is self-regulation. If athletes are able to better self regulate emotions, this can lead to better coping skills. When athletes are able to cope with discouraging events better they will ultimately be able to overcome these discouraging events such as fear and anger. “Dispositional mindfulness as a result of formal and informal mindfulness practice enhances self regulation. ” (Carmody et al. 2009: Coffey et al. 2010: Sgarpiro et al. 006)
Proposed Study: I would like to examine the effects that a mindfulness based practice can have on golf scores for armature players. Previous work has only focused on performance enhancement on the professional level, not amateur. Participants would be recruited and asked to take an initial survey assessing their golf performance, satisfaction with said performance, mood while playing, and their personal best round for the previous season. This study will aim to determine which facet of mindfulness has the greatest impact on athletic performance; attention, attitude, self-regulation, or non-attachment.
Participants: For this study I would like to recruit 200 participants from throughout the nation. 100 men and 100 women would be selected (n=200). It will be required that the participants be 40-55 years old to reduce discrepancies in data collection caused by age differences. It would also be required that participants not complete the study at the same time as their spouse or partner. This will be done to reduce the temptation to “fabricate” results that are better than the person’s spouse. Individuals will be excluded from the study if they report ever practicing mindfulness or meditation.
Finally, it will be required that individuals belong to a local golf club, and only scores obtained at said club can be included for the study. Procedure: After initial recruitment, participants of each sex will be randomly assigned to three conditions. Participants assigned to condition A will be required to participate in a four-week mindful sport performance enhancement program designed by Kaufman et al before the golfing season. Participants assigned to condition B will be asked to practice walking mediation while playing golf, and participants in group C will be told to let their mind wonder freely while playing golf.
Measures: For this study trait measures will be conducted before the study (winter) and after the study (fall) that season. The Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills will be used to assess levels of mindfulness. The Thought Occurrence Questionnaire for Sport will be used to determine the amount of “noise” athletes are dealing with inside their thoughts. The Sport Anxiety Scale will be used to determine the athlete’s attitude, self-regulation, and non-attachment.
All participants of the study will also be required to submit their personal best score for the previous season, their best score for this season, and the score of their final round played for this season. Anticipated Results: I believe it will be found that participants assigned to walking meditation will see the greatest increase in the four levels of trait mindfulness we were interested in (Attention, attitude, self regulation, and non attachment) Of these four facets I expect to see non-attachment to significantly decrease therefore ultimately leading to lowering the golfer’s score.
Attitude will also be significantly affected. I believe that individuals assigned to the four-week mindfulness program will initially see a slight decrease in posted scores but there will be no significant difference in pre and posttest scores. I expect not to see any differences in pre to post test for this group because mindfulness is like weight training, you can’t go to the gym for a week and expect to stay “fit” forever, you are always building on what you did yesterday. For the group that is instructed to let their mind wonder, I expect that they will see no differences at all.
