Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) : Development and Applications

chapter 8
Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE)

Development and Applications
Keith A. Kaufman, Carol R. Glass, Timothy R. Pineau
Many traditional mental training strategies for athletes are based on the
assumption that negative cognitions need to be altered or stopped in order to
optimize performance (Gardner & Moore, 2006). However, attempting
to change negative internal states may ironically lead to greater focus on
these states, potentially increasing their frequency and interfering with
performance (Wegner, 1994; Wenzlaff & Wegner, 2000). Rather than trying
to control or eliminate them, athletes may thus benefit more from develop-
ing skills in present-moment awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance of
negative internal states (Gardner & Moore, 2004, 2007; Kaufman, Glass, &
Arnkoff, 2009). This paradigm shift is a central tenet of mindfulness-based
interventions, which represent an emerging direction in sport psychology
(see Birrer, Röthlin, & Morgan, 2012; Gardner & Moore, 2012).
There are various ways to define mindfulness. One definition, which
stems more from Buddhist philosophy, is “paying attention in a parti-
cular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally”
(Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 4). This view of mindfulness involves maintaining
attention on immediate experience while taking an orientation of open-
ness, acceptance, and curiosity (Bishop et al., 2004). Langer (2000) has
proposed an alternate conceptualization of mindfulness as “a flexible
state of mind in which we are actively engaged in the present, noticing
new things and sensitive to context” (p. 220). Her view entails observing
the context in which one acts, actively processing new information,
and recognizing that stimuli can be seen from multiple perspectives
(see also Chapter 5). The former approach to mindfulness has been used
more widely to date in psychological research and practice, and is the
primary perspective underlying mindfulness-based approaches to sport
performance enhancement. For a review of the literature on mindfulness
and sport, including relevant studies and associations between sport
performance and both conceptualizations of mindfulness, see Pineau,
Glass, and Kaufman (2014).
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154 keith a. kaufman, carol r. glass, tim r. pineau
The growing emphasis on mindfulness for athletes derives, at least in
part, from an explosion of interest in mindfulness throughout the entire
field of psychology and society at large. Due to its rapidly expanding
popularity, mindfulness has become a media buzzword. For example, a
recent cover story of TIME Magazine (Pickert, 2014) dealt with “The
Mindful Revolution,” and a Huffington Post article (Gregoire, 2014) imme-
diately followed, arguing that TIME had only hit the tip of the iceberg.
This follow-up article boldly claimed that mindfulness is for everyone,
regardless of gender, race, age, income, and culture. To date, hundreds
of studies have been conducted that support the effectiveness of mindful-
ness approaches. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have evidenced
that mindfulness-based interventions can significantly improve anxiety,
stress, depression, pain, emotionality, and relationship issues (Goyal
et al., 2014; Hofmann et al., 2010; Khoury et al., 2013; Piet & Hougaard,
2011; Sedlmeier et al., 2012).
The sport psychology research group at the Catholic University of
America has developed one of the two most-studied approaches to bring
mindfulness into the domain of sport psychology. Our Mindful Sport
Performance Enhancement (MSPE) program (Kaufman & Glass, 2006;
Kaufman, Glass, & Pineau, in press) is based on Kabat-Zinn’s (1990)
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). MBSR similarly played a
major role in the development of Segal, Williams, and Teasdale’s (2002)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), another primary influ-
ence on our work. In this chapter, we will discuss the foundations of
MSPE and empirical support. The MSPE protocol is then presented in
depth, followed by recommendations for how both MSPE group leaders
and participants can maximize their experiences of the training, with the
goal of affecting greater change in athletes’ mindfulness and performance.
Mindfulness and Sport

The mental skills cultivated through mindfulness training (e.g., enhanced
attentional capacity, emotion regulation) seem especially well matched
to sport performance enhancement and can also potentially promote
wellness in athletes by helping them cope better with stress. News stories
focused on the use of mindfulness with athletes have been appearing with
increased frequency, suggesting that the word is spreading throughout the
sports world about the potential impact of mindfulness on performance.
For instance, around the time of their 2014 Super Bowl run, ABC News
reported on how Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll encourages his
Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) 155
players to meditate daily with the goal of improving their attention
during games (Neoporent, 2014). Also, the Huffington Post featured a story
(“Athletes Who Meditate,” 2013) identifying elite athletes such as Kobe
Bryant, Derek Jeter, Ricky Williams, Misty May-Trainor, Kerri Walsh,
and the University of Michigan basketball team as practitioners of mind-
fulness. A Philadelphia Inquirer article headlined “Athletes Using Medita-
tion to Improve Performance” (Rush, 2014) described meditation practiced
by the Penn State University basketball team and Villanova University
football team. Within a recent article in the Atlantic (Khazan, 2014),
mindfulness is included as one of the seven ways Olympians stay motiv-
ated through training, and Jamie Anderson (gold medal winner in slopes-
tyle snowboarding at the 2014 Olympics) talked about trying to “do a little
bit of yoga and meditate” the night before competition to cope with pre-
performance anxiety. Perhaps the best-known reporting on mindfulness
in sport was done by legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson (2006), whose
book Sacred Hoops describes his philosophy of mindful basketball and the
use of meditation sessions with his teams.
Benefits of Mindfulness for Athletes

Mindfulness is gaining traction in athletics because people are realizing that
certain mental states crucial to sport performance, such as flow, attention,
and relaxation, are positively impacted through mindfulness training. We
will now discuss the links between mindfulness and these factors, which in
part inspired us to develop MSPE.
Flow and the zone

When reflecting on their sport experiences, successful athletes often speak,
almost in a mystified way, about periods of time in which they were able to
achieve peak performance, a state commonly referred to as the zone.
Among the various characteristics attributed to being in the zone are a
fusion of body and mind, deep concentration, low self-consciousness, a
present-moment focus, feelings of relaxation, and perceptions of effortless-
ness (Alessi, 1995; Cooper, 1998).
Sport scientists interested in further elucidating the nature of the zone
have compared this condition to the psychological state of flow (Jackson &
Csikszentmihalyi, 1999; Young & Pain, 1999). Flow is a mindset that
typically occurs when an individual perceives a balance between the chal-
lenges associated with a situation and his or her capabilities to meet those
demands, which reflects the sense of effortless action felt when experiencing
the best moments in one’s life (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, 1997). Jackson
(2000) concluded that there is a clear relationship between the mental
characteristics associated with peak sport performance and this conceptual-
ization of flow.
The sport psychology literature has identified characteristics that could
promote the occurrence of flow, including elevated confidence, prepar-
ation, maintaining constructive thoughts, achieving optimal arousal,
appropriate focus, and feeling good during the performance (Jackson,
1995; Russell, 2001), with anxiety elements such as concentration disrup-
tion and worry most likely to prevent flow (Jackson et al. 1998). A recent
systematic review of the occurrence and experience of flow in elite athletes
(Swann et al., 2012) found that the most commonly cited dimensions of
flow were concentration on the task at hand and the merging of action and
awareness (i.e., moving without having to think about it).
With its emphasis on focusing on the present moment, appreciating the
process without judgment, and accepting both internal and external
experiences without latching onto the expectations and memories that
can foster pressure and doubt, mindfulness training appears to be a logical
way to help athletes enter flow states and achieve peak performance. The
similarity between characteristics of mindfulness and flow suggests that
mindfulness-based interventions for athletes may be helpful in achieving
this state, thus leading to optimized performance (Gardner & Moore,
2004; Kaufman et al., 2009).
Research has supported this proposed connection between mindfulness
and flow, with a number of studies finding not only a robust relation
between measures of these two constructs in athletes (Bernier et al., 2009;
Cathcart, McGregor, & Groundwater, 2014; Kaufman et al., 2009; Kee &
Wang, 2008; Pineau et al., 2014b), but also significant increases in athletes’
levels of flow after receiving mindfulness-based interventions (Aherne,
Moran, & Lonsdale, 2011; Kaufman et al., 2009).
Attention
Attention in sport generally includes four components: selective attention,
sustained attention, situational awareness or orienting attention, and
attentional flexibility or divided attention (Memmert, 2009; Weinberg &
Gould, 2011). In other words, athletes must be able to focus on relevant
cues while disregarding irrelevant ones, maintain an appropriate level of
focus throughout their performance, remain aware of relevant environ-
mental stimuli, and shift attention between stimuli or among multiple
stimuli as necessary. The disruption of attention in sport may result from
both external distractions, such as crowd noise or weather, and internal
distractions, such as fatigue and emotional arousal (Moran, 1996; Smith,
1996). At his peak, Tiger Woods was renowned for his ability to enter a
“cocoon of concentration” and maintain focus (Brooks, 2008).
Learning to direct attention consciously is a core feature of mindfulness
training (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Mindfulness practice has been shown to
improve attentional abilities (Chiesa, Calati, & Serretti, 2011) and be
associated with superior selective attention (van den Hurk et al., 2010),
sustained attention (Chambers, Lo, & Allen, 2008), situational awareness
(Moore & Malinowski, 2009), and attentional flexibility (Hodgins &
Adair, 2010) – in other words, exactly what is required of attention in
sport performance. Specific to sport, Moore (2009) has suggested that
mindfulness practice may help athletes cultivate their attentional resources.
Salmon, Hanneman, and Harwood (2010) have offered a mindfulness-
based conceptual model of attention emphasizing both awareness and
acceptance of present-moment experience, which may be able to pro-
mote a shifting of attentional strategies, depending on the demands of
the task, and enhance sport performance. Also, Klinger, Barta, and Glas
(1981) found that setbacks can lead to attentional shifts from task-relevant
cues to self-evaluative ones that may result in decreased sport perform-
ance, something mindfulness training may help guard against.
A common concern we have heard regarding becoming more mindful
while participating in sports is that certain uncomfortable sensations (e.g.,
fatigue, pain, frustration) often associated with athletics may rise in sali-
ence. Our feeling on this valid concern is that the discomfort is there
regardless, but learning to have a nonreactive attitude toward these sensa-
tions can allow for more efficient use of available attentional and physical
resources by not getting oneself trapped in distracting, task-irrelevant
worries about possible meanings of the discomfort. Mindfulness is not a
tool for distracting attention from what is present, even when what is
present is difficult to tolerate. Rather, it is a technique that athletes can use
to train their attention in a manner that is consistent with optimal sport
performance states (i.e., flow, as described previously). While the impact
of mindful awareness on perceptions of pain and exhaustion is beyond
the scope of this chapter, see Pineau and colleagues (2014) for a detailed
discussion.
Relaxation and letting go

Emotions, whether positive or negative, can have a profound impact
on athletic performance (Hanin, 2000; Lazarus, 2000). What may be
regarded as the ultimate positive emotion, the experience of intrinsic joy
(i.e., autotelic experience), is an integral element of flow (Jackson &
Csikszentmihalyi, 1999). In contrast, sport anxiety, often considered a
negative emotional experience, has been associated with muscle tension
and fatigue (Pijpers et al., 2003), concentration disruption (Hatzigeorgiadis
& Biddle, 2001), as well as burnout and loss of confidence (Hackney,
Pearman, & Nowacki, 1990).
Evidence with non-athlete populations suggests that mindfulness-based
interventions can both enhance positive affect and decrease negative affect
(see Woodruff, 2014), although Goyal et al. (2014) found insufficient
evidence of meditation programs impacting positive mood based on four
randomized controlled trials with clinical populations. Also, mindfulness
has been associated with the ability to let go of negative thoughts with
greater ease (Frewen et al., 2008). Although not an explicit goal of this
practice, increased feelings of relaxation are often reported by people after
mindfulness meditation (e.g., Jain et al., 2007). A recent study revealed
that meditators (with an average of over eighteen years of meditation
experience) indicated having “mindful” thoughts significantly more often
than did nonmeditators (Hirschhorn, Glass, & Arnkoff, 2014). Such
thoughts (e.g., “This will pass,” “It’s okay to feel this way,” “Let it go”)
could be useful for athletes during competition, potentially facilitating
relaxation, although the benefits of mindfulness for relaxation in sport
still need to be explored.
Among athletes, mindfulness has been found to have a significant
negative association with sport anxiety (Kaufman, 2008; Pineau, 2014;
Pineau et al., 2011) and a significant positive association with sport-related
optimism (Pineau, 2014). Additionally, in response to mindfulness- and
acceptance-based training programs, athletes have shown significant
reductions in aspects of sport anxiety (De Petrillo et al., 2009; Gardner
& Moore, 2004) and significant increases in sport optimism (Kaufman
et al., 2009).
While change in affect may be an important result of mindfulness
training, even greater benefits for sport performance might be produced
from enhanced emotion regulation, which may be a primary mechanism
of change in mindfulness interventions (see Gratz & Tull, 2010, for a
review). The ability of athletes to manage their reactions to the strong
emotions that are inevitably produced by competitive sports is a key aspect
of the sport psychology literature (e.g., Jones, 2003). Athletes who receive
mindfulness-based interventions may thus engage in less experiential
avoidance (avoiding thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations) and
become more accepting of their current emotional experiences (Gardner
& Moore, 2004; Schwanhausser, 2009), whatever they happen to be,
potentially freeing up precious resources like attention to devote to
performance.
Initial Applications and Current Mindfulness Approaches for Athletes

Jon Kabat-Zinn was a pioneer in developing a systematic treatment that
emphasizes meditation practices. His MBSR program consists of two-hour
classes that meet over the course of eight weeks and includes instruction
in various types of meditations (e.g., mindfulness of the breath, body
scan, mindful yoga) and how to incorporate mindfulness into daily life
(Kabat-Zinn, 1982, 1990, 1994, 2013). For over three decades, MBSR has
been implemented around the world, across age groups, for a wide range
of physical and mental disorders, as well as in healthy populations. Meta-
analytic reviews have shown MBSR to have significant beneficial effects
on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in adults with chronic
medical disease (Bohlmeijer et al., 2010), cancer (Ledesma & Kumano,
2009), breast cancer (Cramer et al., 2012; Zainal, Booth, & Huppert,
2012), and social anxiety disorder (Jazaieri et al., 2012), as well as on quality
of life and pain for patients with fibromyalgia (Lauche et al., 2013).
Furthermore, MBSR has led to improvement in psychological outcomes
in nonclinical settings (Eberth & Sedlmeier, 2012) and in stress reduction
for healthy adults (Chiesa & Serretti, 2009). A meta-analysis across a wide
range of clinical populations (e.g., heart disease, pain, cancer, anxiety,
depression) and stressed nonclinical samples similarly evidenced that
MBSR has a significant positive effect on both mental and physical well-
being (Grossman et al., 2004).
Shortly after introducing his MBSR approach in 1982, Kabat-Zinn
worked with Olympic and college rowing teams to conduct what appears
to be the first empirical test of a mindfulness-based intervention for athletes
(Kabat-Zinn, Beall, & Rippe, 1985). This study was never published, and
the only reference available is for a conference poster. When we contacted
Kabat-Zinn inquiring about his work with the rowers, he kindly recon-
structed his original poster for us, saying that retyping the text “brought
those wonderful days back in a big and very vivid way” (J. Kabat-Zinn,
personal communication, January 25, 2006).
This early application of meditation to rowing focused on concen-
trating, relaxing, letting go of thoughts, noting key associations to stay
centered, and experiencing flow and harmony between athletes and the
boat. Following their mindfulness training, Olympic rowers who med-
aled in various events reported that the meditation practice had helped
them to prepare for and achieve optimal performance during their races.
The college rowers performed well above the expectations of their
coach and claimed that the training had enhanced their concentration,
relaxation, and synchronicity of technique while reducing the impact of
their fatigue, pain, and negative thoughts.
Bruce Beall, who coached the college rowing teams that participated in
Kabat-Zinn’s study and was also a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic
rowing team, shed more light on the nature of this pioneering work
(B. Beall, personal communication, March 7, 2006). Beall highlighted
two aspects of how mindfulness was most helpful to him and his teams.
First, he discussed how athletes need to be able to focus when working
on changing aspects of their technique and be totally present with what
they are doing in a given moment. Second, Beall stressed how mindful-
ness can help in dealing with fatigue and pushing the limits of physical
abilities.
Athletes can learn to recognize their mind wandering toward negative
thoughts about limits during competition (e.g., “I can’t sustain this pace”),
but then mindfully label these experiences as “just thoughts,” let them go,
and bring attention back to a present-moment anchor like their breathing.
Through this process, athletes can free themselves from judgments that
might unnecessarily determine their limits. Beall paralleled mindfulness
practice to physical practice by saying it is like a “drill for your mind.”
He remarked that coaches often tell athletes that sport is 95 percent
mental, but they do not seem to know how to train the mind. The benefit
of mindfulness training is that it targets concrete skills in present-moment
awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance that athletes can practice to
benefit their performance.
After the work of Kabat-Zinn and colleagues (1985), it would be nearly
two decades before more rigorous empirical studies of mindfulness-based
interventions for athletes were conducted, and high-quality, controlled
mindfulness research within sport is still in its infancy. Although a few
outcome studies have been conducted by other researchers (Aherne et al.
2011; Baltzell & Akhtar, 2014; Baltzell et al., 2014; Bernier et al., 2009;
John, Verma, & Khanna, 2011), two mindfulness approaches created
specifically for athletes have received the most empirical support: Gardner
and Moore’s Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment approach (2004, 2006,
2007; see Chapter 6 in this volume) and our own MSPE intervention
(Kaufman et al., 2009; Kaufman et al., in press).
Overview and Empirical Support of MSPE

Based on a mutual interest in mindfulness and a curiosity about the
potential applications of mindfulness in sport, Kaufman and Glass
developed the initial manual for MSPE in 2006, building upon the
innovative work of Kabat-Zinn and colleagues (1985). MSPE was
designed to be adaptable to any sport of focus and was originally
structured as a four-session program, meeting once weekly for two hours.
Although the program was intended for a group format, elements of
MSPE can easily be used in work with individual athletes. The updated
version of the MSPE manual (Kaufman et al., in press), reflecting
an expanded six-session program with meetings occurring once weekly
for ninety minutes, will be detailed in this chapter. Having more but
shorter sessions was thought to facilitate the development of an ongoing
mindfulness routine by providing additional weeks of access to MSPE
instructors and fellow participants while also better accommodating the
often busy schedules of athletes.
Description of MSPE
The expanded version of MSPE includes original scripts for all mindful-
ness exercises. Audio recordings of these exercises, as well as line drawings
of the yoga poses, are provided to guide the assigned home practice. The
goal of MSPE is to teach a variety of mindfulness skills and, through
systematic practice, help athletes learn to apply those skills both to their
sport performances and their everyday lives. Time is spent at the outset of
the training on delineating the rationale behind MSPE. This explanation is
adaptable to any sport of focus and should be tailored to include relevant
quotations about mindfulness or similar mental states from authors,
coaches, and athletes in that sport. Core MSPE exercises are taught in
a sequence that progressively moves athletes from sedentary mindfulness
practice to mindfulness while in motion (e.g., during yoga poses, when
walking), culminating in an applied sport-specific meditation that builds
the necessary bridge between cultivating mindfulness skills and applying
them during performances.
Empirical Support for MSPE

Three published studies from our sport psychology lab have demon-
strated the initial effectiveness of the MSPE program. Using a sample of
thirty-two archers and golfers, Kaufman and colleagues (2009) found
significant increases in overall trait mindfulness and in optimism (an
aspect of sport confidence) for archers, aspects of state and trait mindful-
ness for golfers, and in state flow for the whole sample of athletes.
Additionally, post-workshop feedback suggested that the athletes felt
the MSPE workshop had positively impacted their sport performance,
especially by improving focus on the task at hand, and that they expected
additional benefit in the future. De Petrillo and colleagues (2009)
administered MSPE to a community sample of twenty-five long-distance
runners and found a significant increase in acting with awareness
(a dimension of trait mindfulness) and in state mindfulness, as well as
significant decreases in aspects of perfectionism and sport-related anxiety.
Moreover, it appears that athletes who participated in an MSPE
intervention continue to experience benefits over time. Specifically, in a
one-year follow-up of participants from both studies, the athletes showed
significant decreases in task-irrelevant thoughts and task-related worries
from pre-test to follow-up, as well as a significant increase in the ability to
act with awareness (an aspect of trait mindfulness) and overall trait
mindfulness (Thompson et al., 2011). Additionally, both the golfers and
runners reported sport performance in the year following the workshop
that had significantly improved compared to their best performance in the
year prior to the workshop and indicated at least moderate confidence that
the MSPE workshop had impacted their sport performance (mean ratings
of 5.48 on a scale from 1 [not at all confident] to 10 [very confident]). The
runners’ performance improvement was associated with increases in mind-
fulness. Finally, participants reported an increase in general life satisfaction,
with several of them indicating enhanced enjoyment of their sport.
Responses to open-ended questions further elucidated how MSPE
had influenced these athletes after one year. For example, a number of
archers, golfers, and runners described feeling more confident and/or
relaxed, greater enthusiasm and enjoyment of their sport, and/or improved
ability to focus attention and ignore distractions. They most commonly
attributed these changes to the body scan, yoga, and breathing meditation
exercises they had learned in MSPE, which helped them better let events
go, acknowledge and accept feelings, pay more attention to what was
“going on” with their body, and appreciate the process (not just the
outcome) of competition.
At follow-up, the majority of athletes (84 percent) reported at least
occasional mindfulness practice in the year following the workshop, aver-
aging once or twice a week. Mindful breathing/sitting meditation was the
most frequently practiced exercise, but a few also did mindful yoga, the
body scan, and the sport-specific meditation. Interestingly, a near-
significant trend was found for the correlation between duration of weekly
mindfulness practice and improvement in runners’ mile times (r = 0.60).
Lack of available time and difficulty establishing a practice routine were
identified as the biggest obstacles to continued systematic practice of
mindfulness skills.
These results suggest that MSPE has promise as an intervention that
may contribute to both athlete well-being and sport performance. By
sustaining a regular practice of mindfulness skills, athletes are likely to
find benefits in and beyond their sport. It should be noted, however, that
all of our published studies on MSPE to date have been open trials
conducted with participants in the community who were specifically
recruited for a research workshop. A trial of MSPE involving two NCAA
Division I cross country teams (one served as a control) was recently
completed, but as we will discuss later in this chapter, this study unfortu-
nately encountered a variety of unanticipated methodological issues that
impacted the validity of the results (see Pineau, 2014 for a complete
discussion of these issues). Having learned some valuable lessons, which
we will mention later in this chapter when we offer recommendations for
using MSPE, we are currently launching an MSPE study that is a true
randomized controlled trial with student-athletes on our campus who
individually volunteered to participate. This study, conducted in collabor-
ation with the athletic department, adds another dimension to the program.
Whereas our previous MSPE research included homogeneous groups
of athletes in a specific sport (e.g., archery, running), we are now adapting
MSPE for use with groups comprised of athletes from multiple sports
(e.g., field hockey, lacrosse, baseball, swimming, tennis, track).
MSPE Protocol
Session 1
In the first session of MSPE, athletes are oriented to understanding
mindfulness. They are given a rationale for why awareness and acceptance
are important to sport performance and the development of mindfulness
skills. At first glance, common features of athletic culture, such as striving,
competition, and self-improvement, may seem incompatible with a pro-
gram that is based on principles of nonstriving and self-acceptance. It is
thus important to present an accessible rationale to athlete-participants
early on in MSPE, which can help promote openness to a training style
that may be entirely novel. In describing the potential clinical benefits of
mindfulness, Siegel (2007) spoke to a core component of this rationale:
acceptance of one’s situation can lessen the internal conflict that may
emerge when expectations of how life should be fail to match how life
actually is. In sport, athletes are constantly ensnared in this tension
between expectations and reality, as they are in a perpetual state of
competition, either with opponents or with themselves, in an attempt to
improve.
While many athletes believe that this tension drives them to improve,
some evidence suggests that the negative self-evaluative thoughts that
can be generated from this process actually impede sport performance
(e.g., Klinger et al., 1981). Given this potential, MSPE begins presenting
mindfulness by introducing the concept of nonjudgment. A sport-specific
example of how judgmental, self-evaluative thoughts can interfere with
focusing on the task at hand is offered to illustrate the importance of
this concept. Depending on the sport(s) of focus, the example chosen may
highlight different obstacles to performance (e.g., fatigue, boredom, ten-
sion, self-criticism) and the related mindfulness skills that address these
obstacles (e.g., interoceptive awareness, focus, relaxation, letting go).
A crucial point made here is that getting hung up on a past mistake or
worrying about a potential future outcome takes athletes out of their
present-moment experience. This is important because it is only in the
present that athletes have the opportunity to impact performance.
In addition to enabling athletes to explore the power of nonjudgment,
MSPE helps explain the connection between mindfulness and flow.
Most athletes have experienced or at least heard of being in flow or the
zone, so the possibility that mindfulness training can help facilitate this
optimal performance state further supports the rationale for MSPE.
Each MSPE session includes both didactic and experiential compon-
ents. In this first session, once the rationale for the program has been
covered, the athletes are introduced to two basic mindfulness exercises:
a mindful eating exercise and a breathing meditation. Similar to MBSR,
mindful eating is used at the beginning of MSPE to contrast mindful
and nonmindful actions (since eating is often done mindlessly), as well as
to provide a metaphor for how mindfulness can be incorporated into daily
life (e.g., athletics). A breathing meditation is the next exercise because,
as Kabat-Zinn (1990) explained, it is the heart of mindfulness practice.
This meditation appears throughout MSPE and is expanded in later
sessions. Home practice is also assigned for the days between sessions.
Participants receive audio recordings of the exercise scripts to guide their
home practice, along with a Daily Mindfulness Log in which to document
relevant home practice experiences (adapted from that used in MBCT;
Segal et al., 2002). The athletes are asked to do between ten and forty
minutes of formal mindfulness practice each day over the course of MSPE,
and the amount of home practice starts small and increases as the sessions
progress.
Session 1 concludes with a discussion about being on “automatic pilot.”
This concept of mindlessness implies automatically responding to a situ-
ation without awareness of one’s behavior. Exploration of this topic
reemphasizes the notion that present-moment awareness gives athletes
the freedom to choose how they respond to the various stimuli, both
internal and external, that can impact their sport performance.
Session 2
Every MSPE session, subsequent to the first, begins with a discussion of
the home practice from the previous week. Each of these discussions has a
particular focus aimed at addressing typical reactions to beginning mind-
fulness work. In the second session, the focus is on common obstacles to
building a mindfulness practice, including finding available time, experi-
encing feelings of boredom, having self-critical thoughts about practicing
“correctly,” and misperceiving what it means to calm the mind. Athletes
talk about their own unique reactions to the first week of meditation
practice. Regardless of the content of this discussion, or of any other
discussion in the program, it is crucial for leaders to model in their
responses the mindful qualities of compassion, nonjudgment, nonreactiv-
ity, and acceptance.
After processing the athletes’ experiences with their home practice,
the session transitions to a didactic activity in which applications of MSPE
to the sport(s) of focus are more deeply explored, with a focus on how
mindfulness can help improve sport performance. Sport-specific examples
are used to demonstrate how the skills of concentrating, relaxing, letting go
of thoughts, forming key associations (i.e., choosing environmental cues
to serve as reminders to stay present focused), and finding harmony and
flow (i.e., performing in rhythm with a quiet but focused mind) can
facilitate enhanced sport performance.
The first experiential exercise of the second session is the body scan.
Given the importance of interoceptive awareness in sports, this meditation
is seen as a logical next step in the training. Body scan practice helps
athletes become more attuned to the sensations in their bodies while also
strengthening attentional flexibility, as they sequentially shift their atten-
tional focus to various regions of the body. This exercise is typically
performed while lying down in a quiet setting. Practicing this skill in a
stationary position establishes the foundation for more dynamic practice
(i.e., during sport participation) later in MSPE. Following the body
scan, participants repeat the breathing meditation from the first session.
Repeating this exercise throughout the MSPE program creates a relatable
analogy for the athletes of mindfulness as a type of “mental workout”
requiring reps to attain optimal results.
The second session concludes with the assignment of new home prac-
tice, and a discussion delving further into the “mental workout” analogy.
After a week of MSPE, athletes are likely familiar with how difficult
it can be to maintain mindful attention, even for short periods of time,
and may be feeling some related frustrations. This discussion reframes the
experience of a wandering mind as not a failure, but an opportunity. Every
time the mind wanders and attention is returned to the anchor of that
meditation (e.g., the breath), it is the equivalent of doing one more
mindfulness rep in a mental workout. Over time, these reps help build a
stronger “mindfulness muscle.”
Session 3
Session 3 opens with a discussion focused on “I can’t” reactions (e.g.,
“I can’t stay focused,” “I can’t relax”) that frequently emerge during
the early stages of mindfulness practice. This discussion highlights the
presence and potential impact of expectations. Sport tends to be an
outcome-oriented domain where internal and external expectations of
success are high. While athletes are generally aware of such expectations
regarding their sports, group leaders can point out how similar reactions
may be playing out in the MSPE training (e.g., identifying how the
mindfulness practice itself and/or performance during mindfulness exer-
cises is not meeting some expectation). This exchange can help athletes
recognize such omnipresent and potentially interfering expectations.
Making this connection also serves as an opportunity to revisit the
apparent conflict mentioned in Session 1 between the competitive nature
of sport and the nonstriving nature of mindfulness, providing another
example of the potential benefits of accepting one’s present experience,
not by stopping or avoiding certain expectations or self-critical thoughts,
but by learning to let them go without overidentifying with or reacting
to them.
The first experiential exercise in the third session of MSPE is mindful
yoga, which begins the transition from sedentary to motive mindfulness
practice. Mindful yoga gives athletes the chance to execute the mindfulness
skills they have been developing through the body scan and the breathing
meditation (e.g., interoceptive awareness, focused attention) while in
motion. Participants are encouraged to be fully aware and present in their
bodies during a series of nineteen beginner-level poses while accepting
the limitations they may encounter in any given moment. Session 3 also
includes a longer breathing meditation, “adding weight to the bar,” so to
speak, and enhancing sustained attention as the reps are continued.
When the home practice for Session 3 is assigned, the group leader
acknowledges that participants are being asked to invest more of their time
each week on MSPE exercises outside of sessions. Again, the parallel to
physical training is made where the volume and intensity of the workload
increases as the program progresses.
Session 3 wraps up with a discussion of how participants can begin
to incorporate informal mindfulness practice into their daily lives. By this
point in the training, the athletes are familiar with how to use physical
sensations as an avenue toward mindful awareness. They are therefore
encouraged to expand upon this knowledge by, for example, eating meals
or brushing their teeth mindfully. An intention of emphasizing informal
practice is to further the process of mindfulness skills becoming more easily
accessible during sport performances.
Session 4
The home practice discussion in Session 4 of MSPE is focused on the
concept of attachment. After now practicing mindfulness for a handful
of weeks, the athletes may have begun to notice some pleasurable benefits
of the exercises (e.g., mental calmness, physical relaxation). They may
also have started thinking of particular meditation experiences as either
“good” or “bad.” This discussion can help athletes to see how they can
become attached to certain expected outcomes. Whether participants are
disappointed if they are not more relaxed following meditation or they
continue to have difficulties finding time to practice, there is an attach-
ment to a version of reality that they have created (e.g., that meditation
“should” result in relaxation, or that a schedule is entirely inflexible).
When people are unaware of their attachments, they often react habitually
to experiences, likely robbing them of the opportunity to respond in
different, possibly more adaptive ways. Direct parallels are made to sport
performance, as automatic, habitual reactions in a given sport scenario can
limit athletes’ abilities to respond in an optimal way while competing.
Mindful yoga is again practiced in Session 4, giving participants another
opportunity to practice the postures with the guidance of MSPE leaders.
For this iteration, emphasis is placed on the skill of acceptance. Specific-
ally, athletes are invited to explore their limits of flexibility without
judgment. They are also encouraged to think about the “limits” they have
previously reached in their sport (e.g., personal bests) and how, over time,
these “limits” have changed. In other words, a “limit,” much like a thought
or a feeling, does not represent an absolute reality, but is only a condition
of a given moment. Following the mindful yoga, the walking meditation is
introduced. This exercise continues the progression of mindfulness in
motion and introduces participants to new present-moment attentional
anchors that may more closely resemble the actions involved in their sport.
The final experiential piece of this session is a brief breathing meditation,
again returning to the core of mindfulness training, this time as a “cool-
down” exercise.
Session 4 concludes with the assignment of home practice and a more
in-depth discussion of acceptance, which is explained as a mindful reaction
to attachments. People who are highly achievement-oriented can some-
times misinterpret acceptance as resignation and fear that accepting the
conditions of a present moment will translate into loss of motivation
to improve. Thus, time is spent reviewing the differences between these
concepts. It is explained that acceptance of certain conditions happens in
a particular moment and does not necessarily mean that one is resigned
to the continuation of those conditions in future moments. On the
contrary, present-moment acceptance allows people to let go of the judg-
ments, expectations, and attachments that often inhibit change, opening
them up to the possibility of choosing to act differently.
Session 5
Session 5 begins with a home practice discussion that is again focused on
acceptance. In particular, this discussion emphasizes the acceptance-based
principle of nonstriving. Athletes are encouraged to notice the distinction
between accomplishing true acceptance and attempting to use mindfulness
techniques to achieve a desired outcome (e.g., “I notice I am stressed
and I can tolerate this experience,” versus, “I notice I am stressed so
I will meditate to relax”). This discussion directly addresses the paradox
inherent in applying mindfulness within a competitive environment and
clarifies with sport-specific examples how it is possible to both be mindful
and have goals. Specifically, one can be aware of a goal (e.g., setting a
personal-best time in a race) without trying to alter circumstances from
what they are (e.g., accepting that the course terrain is poor). Fighting
“what is” by attempting to wish or force it to be something different can
end up pushing one further from a goal being pursued (e.g., worrying
excessively about the potential impact of terrain conditions can derail an
athlete from achieving a personal-best time).
The experiential portion of Session 5 starts with a breathing meditation
that is further expanded from previous practice. Whereas earlier breathing
meditations were entirely guided, this version introduces the wrinkle of an
extended period of silence. This new element adds yet more load to the
core “mental muscles” being built throughout MSPE and the ability to
observe and accept thoughts and experiences. Following this extended sit,
the athletes get moving with a review of the walking meditation and
then an introduction to the most applied meditation in MSPE, the
sport-specific meditation. The sport-specific meditation gives participants
the opportunity to utilize fundamental movements in their sport as a
meditative experience. It is the culmination of practice in motion to this
point, an opportunity to develop sport-specific anchors for their attention,
and the bridge to full integration of mindfulness into their sport perform-
ances. For example, runners perform a “running meditation” involving
mindfully attending to various aspects of the running process like
breathing and what is occurring with their gaze, shoulders, arms, hands,
legs, and feet while jogging and gradually picking up speed. The exercises
for this session again conclude with a brief breathing meditation that serves
as a cool-down.
Session 5 wraps up with the assignment of home practice and a discus-
sion of mindful awareness as a route to choice, specifically with regard
to self-care. Awareness of what triggers stress and promotes relaxation
can allow people to make mindful activity choices that are more likely to
increase well-being. Parallels are again made to sport performance in that
reduced overall life stress may protect athletes from detrimental states such
as burnout.
Session 6
In the home practice discussion of the final session of MSPE, the athletes
are asked to reflect on not only their recent practice, but also their overall
experience throughout the training. They are invited to observe any
changes that have occurred in their mindfulness skills, their thoughts about
mindfulness practice, as well as differences in their sport performance and
their lives beyond sport (e.g., academics, work, and social relationships).
Building a sustained mindfulness practice routine beyond the MSPE
program is also addressed, and how, much like athletes may select a sport
or a physical training regimen that feels right to them, mindfulness practice
can be tailored to each individual’s preferences.
No new exercises are introduced in Session 6. Rather, the sport-specific
meditation and the body scan are repeated. Returning to these experiential
exercises gives the athletes an opportunity to observe changes in their
practice and reactions over the past week (the sport-specific meditation)
and since early in the training (the body scan). Other major mindfulness
programs such as MBSR and MBCT also bookend training with the body
scan. Segal and colleagues (2002) noted that it is not uncommon for
people to have a different experience of this exercise at the end of MBCT
than they did at the start, so reintroducing the body scan in the final
session is a valuable chance to highlight the evolution that has occurred
over the course of the training. As in the past few sessions, the experiential
portion of the session concludes with a brief breathing meditation.
MSPE ends with an invitation to reflect on the mindfulness training
that participants have just completed. This processing allows for a final
reminder of how important nonjudgmental acceptance of an experience
can be and how fighting certain unpleasant events (such as saying good-
bye) can ironically serve to exacerbate these experiences. Finally, tips for
continuing a systematic mindfulness practice beyond MSPE are offered.
MSPE sessions are framed as just a starting point for athletes to continue to
reap benefits both within and beyond sport. Among the tips provided are
designating a specific time and place for daily meditation practice, making
even small commitments to practice (e.g., daily for two weeks, or even for
just five minutes a day), and personalizing a practice routine. The athletes
are also asked to consider how they can continue incorporating mindful-
ness into their sport performances and other aspects of their daily lives.
Getting the Most out of MSPE

Having described the foundations, empirical support, and session-by-
session protocol for MSPE, the final segment of this chapter offers specific
suggestions for how both MSPE group leaders and athlete-participants can
maximize their experiences of the program. These recommendations are
based on what we have learned through training various groups of athletes
in MSPE and by utilizing elements of the protocol with individual clients.
For MSPE leaders, we suggest (1) investing ample time for rapport build-
ing and education with participants before beginning the training, (2)
developing a personal mindfulness practice that combines both formal
and informal elements of mindfulness, and (3) obtaining competence both
in delivering interventions to groups and in working with athlete popula-
tions. For MSPE participants, we suggest (1) considering how mindfulness
practice can find a place in existing training routines, (2) examining daily
schedules to see where there is room to pause from the constant stream of
activity, and (3) finding patience for the process of learning a new skill set
that may be wholly unlike anything else practiced to date. What follows is
a detailed exploration of each of these recommendations, along with some
examples to illustrate their importance.
Recommendations for MSPE Leaders

Presence and rapport
Our initial studies of MSPE included participants from the community
who shared a common sport, but more recent work has sought to extend
the program to intact sports teams and athletic programs. In the latter
cases, MSPE leaders should first endeavor to establish a presence with
the athlete-participants by attending team meetings, practices, or competi-
tions. The reduction in resistance that accompanies athletes being familiar
with a sport psychologist prior to engaging in a treatment or consultation
relationship has been well documented (e.g., Andersen, Van Raalte, &
Brewer, 2001; Stapleton et al., 2010). In fact, Stapleton and colleagues
(2010) identified “hanging out” and “face time” as critical skills to effective
applied sport psychology. Psychologists working in domains other than
athletics might understandably flinch at such skills being labeled as key
aspects of a job description. However, the reality is that sports environ-
ments tend to be closed-off systems until one earns status as an insider, and
referrals to sport psychologists for even traditional psychological skills
training like goal setting, self-talk, and visualization still commonly carry
a stigma. It is reasonable to expect that this stigma could be magnified with
a newer intervention such as MSPE, as athletes may have less familiarity
with the concept of mindfulness and may not have previously considered
how meditation practice could benefit their sport experiences.
A salient example of how a lack of pre-program rapport building can
undermine MSPE occurred when we trained an NCAA Division I cross
country team in our area (as part of the study mentioned earlier in this
chapter that faced this and other methodological issues). Unlike previous
iterations of MSPE, we offered our program to coaches for their teams rather
than contacting athletes directly. Although we did meet at length with the
coaching staff, we assumed that providing an introduction of ourselves
and mindfulness during a preseason camp meeting was sufficient for the
athletes. The next time the runners saw us was at Session 1 of the training,
and we proceeded to meet with them once a week for ninety minutes until
the six sessions were complete. We had no interactions with the runners
either between sessions or after a planned follow-up assessment.
While this schedule was efficient for us (traveling from another part of
the city) and the coaches (wanting to preserve their team’s practice routine),
many runners never really warmed to us or the demands we were placing on
them through the training. They were reluctant to participate in discussions
or to complete the home practice, and, toward the end of the program,
there were a few instances of athletes flatly refusing to perform certain
meditations. On several assessment measures taken before and after the
intervention, there were no changes, and a post-training feedback question-
naire yielded informative explanations. Many of the runners spoke to the time
imposition they felt coming from us as outsiders, and there were suggestions
that “being more involved with the athletes” or “overseeing more [team]
practices” would have been beneficial. In fact, members of the team invited
the MSPE group leaders to watch a home race on one occasion, but schedul-
ing conflicts prevented attendance. Maybe this was just a particularly resistant
team, but it seems reasonable to suspect that putting in more “face time”
before and during the MSPE training could have made a significant difference
in the program’s effectiveness. This was a valuable learning experience for
us and emphasized the importance of rapport building with athletes prior
to beginning an MSPE program, perhaps especially in situations where
athletes do not clearly self-select for the training.
It is also worthy of mention that cultivating a presence within a team
can allow leaders to observe specific performance-related behaviors that
could then be addressed during MSPE discussions. Being able to infuse
such personalized material can further facilitate athlete engagement with
the training and the connectivity that is so crucial to both sport psychology
(Andersen et al., 2001) and mindfulness-based interventions (Bowen &
Kurz, 2012).
Establishing a personal mindfulness practice

Another recommendation for MSPE leaders is to establish their own
routine of mindfulness practice. Segal and colleagues (2002) explained that
the necessity for such a routine is due to the inevitability that participants
in mindfulness training will experience difficulties that cannot be
addressed with intellectual knowledge alone. Leaders must be able to
embody the skills that they are inviting the participants to cultivate. For
instance, an MSPE leader needs to be capable of responding mindfully in a
group discussion if an athlete shares a judgmental reaction to a particular
exercise or meditation performance. It is likely that one needs to have an
actual experience of mindfulness practice to achieve the deep level of
understanding that can come from a felt sense (Gendlin, 1978) of it, based
on bodily awareness beyond verbal expression. MSPE includes training in
formal meditation exercises (e.g., body scan, sport meditation) as well as in
how to apply the mindfulness skills learned in an informal way during
sport performances and everyday life. It is essential that leaders be adept at
both formal and informal mindfulness practice, so that they can most
effectively serve as guides for the development of skills in awareness and
acceptance throughout the training process.
We will use the path traveled by one of this chapter’s coauthors to
illustrate how this type of mindfulness practice routine can be built. Keith
Kaufman began his own practice in graduate school after attending a
mindfulness workshop led by Jon Kabat-Zinn. His experimentations over
the years have taught him that the best time for his formal practice is
at night, in the hour before bedtime that tends to be most quiet and least
likely to have interruptions. To keep the routine fresh, Keith uses a
mixture of guided and silent meditations. For the guided meditations, he
has assembled a catalogue of recordings that contain different exercises as
well as voice styles in terms of tone, accent, and gender.
For informal mindfulness practice, Keith has developed certain “key
moments” within the flow of his daily life in which he consciously tunes in
to his present-moment experiences, such as while brushing his teeth,
between client sessions, and after his commute through rush-hour traffic.
Keith also practices exercising mindfully. His primary mode of exercise is
distance running, and he has found both great joy and benefit to using
his “observing mind” to be present with his body while engaged in this
activity. A number of fellow runners have wondered how he can run
without headphones or conversing, but he finds that such distractions take
away from his fulfillment on the trail and limit his control over perform-
ance. Keith has entered flow states numerous times when running with
mindful awareness.
Having lived many years as a Type-A personality, one of Keith’s
main challenges in his mindfulness practice has been letting go of any
self-criticisms that emerge when deviations from his routine occur. For
instance, he has learned to be compassionate toward himself if he misses a
formal practice session or fails to check in after a client appointment.
Instead, he tries to observe the circumstances as they are and to find
gratitude in the renewed opportunity to be mindful in his current
moment of life. Keith’s path is just one example. It is important for
MSPE leaders to consider their own unique schedules and challenges to
find a personalized practice routine that works for them.
Competence with groups and athletes

A final recommendation for MSPE leaders is to have competence in
administering group interventions and in working specifically with ath-
letes, so that they have an appropriate knowledge base before attempting
to run an MSPE program. Segal and colleagues (2002) provide a parallel
cautionary statement in their MBCT manual that leaders should have
previous training in counseling or psychotherapy, with some proficiency in
delivering cognitive and group interventions. Also, Hack (2005) suggests
that mental health professionals wishing to do sport psychology work
should obtain specialized education and training to properly understand
the science and culture of sport, as well as how to apply that knowledge
to athletes, coaches, and others in the athletics domain.
Aspiring leaders can develop these underlying competencies through
a combination of course work, continuing education, supervision, and
consultation. In their article addressing the ethical issues affecting sport
psychology practice, Stapleton and colleagues (2010) advise that pursuing
each of these learning avenues, not just one, is key to building true
competence.
Recommendations for MSPE Participants

Emphasizing mental training
Turning attention to program participants, one very important consider-
ation for athletes involved in MSPE is how to make room for mental
practice within their existing sport training routine. It has been our experi-
ence that asking a room full of athletes whether mental factors are
significant to sport performance brings near-universal agreement. How-
ever, then inquiring about what the athletes do on a regular basis to train
their minds for sport performance is met largely with silence and blank
stares. As Weinberg and Gould (2011) note, athletes and coaches generally
know that physical skills need to be practiced and refined through
thousands of repetitions, but there seems to be less awareness that psycho-
logical skills also need to be practiced systematically. They comment that
mental skills, rather than physical skills, are primarily responsible for
the day-to-day performance fluctuations that all athletes face, yet many
serious athletes devote at least twenty hours weekly to physical practice and
little or no time to exclusive mental practice.
As mentioned previously, when we were developing MSPE we con-
sulted with Bruce Beall, the rowing coach and Olympian involved with
Kabat-Zinn and colleagues’ (1985) early investigation of mindfulness
training in sport. Coach Beall (personal communication, March 7, 2006)
conceptualized the process of mindfulness training as “mental weightlift-
ing,” an analogy we love because it uses language that athletes can easily
relate to and captures the sense of dedication that is required for building
mindfulness skills. To extend this analogy further, the mind is like any
muscle in the human body in that it needs systematic training to increase
in strength and coordination. MSPE offers more than many traditional sport
psychology interventions because it can essentially function as a step-by-step
guide to building mental fitness. A key to its successful use, however,
is athletes’ willingness to invest in a form of training (i.e., meditation)
that likely is wholly different from what they have done for their sport
in the past.
To illustrate the effects of “mental weightlifting” within MSPE, we
will describe the case of Craig (a pseudonym), a competitive bowler who
participated in private sport psychology services. Craig reported feeling
that there was a “hole” in his game that he had been unable to plug by
engaging in additional physical practice. He was experiencing distraction
and bodily tension during his performances, and no amount of technique
refinement was making a difference. Craig did not receive the full
MSPE protocol as prescribed in the manual, since it is typically delivered
in a group format, but certain exercises lent themselves quite well to this
individual work.
After building foundational mindfulness skills such as nonjudgmental
awareness of breathing and sensations (e.g., sounds, smells, physical sensa-
tions), Craig was introduced to the MSPE sport-specific meditation.
He identified particular anchors for his attention during his bowling
motion, such as the feeling of the ball in his hand during his approach,
and then began to systematically practice this meditation, whether he was
at training, a recreational league, or a tournament. Craig kept a log of his
mental practice and shared his experiences of the meditation in his sport
psychology sessions. While he found himself more fatigued initially, trying
to maintain that level of concentration during his performances, he slowly
noticed his limits changing and observed improvements in his focus,
scores, and enjoyment of bowling. Craig had come to treatment recogniz-
ing that physical practice alone was insufficient and looking to try some-
thing totally new. His openness ultimately allowed him to change his
relationship to his sport and to revitalize his performance.
Find time to be mindful

A second recommendation for MSPE participants is to assess their daily
schedule to determine when there is space to pause from the constant
stream of activity. One of the key points made in the TIME Magazine
cover story on the “Mindful Revolution” mentioned earlier (Pickert, 2014)
is that we live in an era of hyperconnectivity, where it can feel impossible
to take breaks or fully inhabit the task at hand, so that there is a perpetual
sense of not having enough time. Pickert suggested that mindfulness can
provide an antidote, precisely because the practice challenges us to slow
down, unplug, and devote time to the kind of focused attention required
for optimal experience. Of course, convincing athletes, who often have
tightly packed schedules, of the value of “less is more” or investing precious
minutes in nonphysical training can be difficult. Weinberg and Gould
(2011) listed perceived lack of time as a top reason why athletes neglect
mental training, and the post-MSPE feedback we have received from
participants consistently pinpoints time restrictions as the major impedi-
ment to ongoing mindfulness practice.
Although there is little doubt that many MSPE participants will enter
the training already feeling pinched for time, as when learning any new
skill, investing time for deliberate practice is necessary to build proficiency
and benefit most from the program. K. Anders Ericsson, whose work has
famously become associated with the “10,000 hours” or “10 year” rule to
the achievement of expertise, wrote that commitment to deliberate practice
distinguishes elite performers from the masses of others who struggle to
meet their performance demands (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer,
1993). The good news is that, in our experience, careful examination
of a schedule often reveals more time available for formal and informal
mindfulness practice than is initially thought, even if only for a few
minutes at each opportunity. Also encouraging is the common observa-
tion regarding time management that people find the time for activities
that are important to them, so a belief in the value of mental skills training
can lead athletes to make time for this form of practice (Weinberg &
Gould, 2011).
Many competitive athletes face time-management challenges, but we
have found that these challenges can be particularly daunting in certain
sports. For instance, Keith has worked with a number of swimmers whose
schedules might look like this: awake at 5 am for practice before school,
then a full day of classes, followed by a second practice in the afternoon,
then home in the evening for dinner and school work, and finally to bed
for a few hours before starting the cycle all over again. Such athletes might
want to participate in a program such as MSPE but feel stumped about
how to find any time for mindfulness practice. It is beneficial to identify even
a few moments these athletes have to stop and connect with the present,
such as in the locker room before swim practice, at study hall, or in the
minutes before bed. Once athletes realize that room for mindfulness exists,
they can begin to build a more regular practice routine into their schedules.
Prioritization exercises – for example, using Blonna’s (2007) model of time
management – have also been helpful. This technique involves assigning
each daily activity a priority status. If athletes label MSPE skills practice
as an activity that “must get done,” it significantly raises the odds that
mindfulness practice will be incorporated into their day.
Be patient
A final recommendation for athletes is to have patience with the process of
learning and implementing MSPE skills. We live in an increasingly
outcome-focused world, where there can be tremendous pressure to
achieve and to do so immediately. Perhaps nowhere is this trend more
salient than in the world of sports, where winning or losing can totally
overshadow the richer journey of playing. For example, in the wake of the
2014 NCAA men’s basketball national championship game, University of
Kentucky star Aaron Harrison was asked about his buzzer-beating heroics
in three successive games that had propelled his team to the brink of a title.
His response was that, with Kentucky’s loss in the championship, his
clutch shots “don’t mean anything now” (Prisbell, 2014). Granted, this
quote came in the emotional moments after the game, but they capture the
overwhelming value placed on outcome at the expense of a much larger
process that could otherwise be incredibly satisfying.
The odds are good that many MSPE participants will not have practiced
anything like mindfulness before, and certainly not in the context of
training in their sport. It takes time to understand the nature of MSPE
skills, how they can aid performance, and ways to include them within
an existing sport routine. We have observed how crucial it can be for
participants to remain open-minded and willing to tolerate the inevitable
struggles that will occur. Mindfulness is ultimately a nonstriving endeavor,
which is really outside the box within the realm of sports. Examples of
well-documented concerns among new mindfulness participants, not just
athletes, include wondering whether a skill is being executed perfectly and
what, in the end, will be gained through the practice. Ironically, it is
exactly that kind of unexamined striving toward outcome that can detract
from the experience of MSPE.
We will illustrate this irony using one of the core MSPE skills, mindful-
ness of breathing. An important element of this meditation is breathing
diaphragmatically, meaning from the abdomen. Striving to perform this
skill “correctly” can lead participants to tense up, triggering the body’s stress
response, which inhibits the ability to breathe in this fashion. We have
actually observed participants get so concerned about their inability to breathe
diaphragmatically right away that they began to experience intense physical
symptoms of anxiety. It can take time to discover the rhythm of abdominal
breathing, and those participants who are patient with that process, recogniz-
ing and accepting their desire to “do it right,” may be the ones who more
easily let go of their striving and end up finding success the soonest.
Conclusion
Mindfulness is soaring in popularity, both within psychology and society
at large. The word has gotten out in sport as well, and interest in how this
paradigm-shifting training approach could benefit athlete performance and
wellness is growing. MSPE is among the small group of sport-specific,
mindfulness-based interventions that have emerged, and the empirical
support thus far for MSPE has been promising. Adapted from and
expanding on the traditions of MBSR and MBCT, the MSPE program
uses a unique progression of training to help athletes cultivate the “mental
muscle” to be able to participate and compete in their sport mindfully and
thus maximize performance, flow, and enjoyment. By following the MSPE
protocol and recommendations for how to approach this training, partici-
pants may access an entirely new level of their potential and rediscover
what they love about being an athlete.
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What are some of the benefits of mindfulness that have been evidenced by research?

What is Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) and how was it developed?

chapter 8

Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE)

Mindfulness and Sport

Beneﬁts of Mindfulness for Athletes

Flow and the zone

Relaxation and letting go

Initial Applications and Current Mindfulness Approaches for Athletes

Overview and Empirical Support of MSPE

Empirical Support for MSPE

Getting the Most out of MSPE

Recommendations for MSPE Leaders

Establishing a personal mindfulness practice

Competence with groups and athletes

Recommendations for MSPE Participants

Find time to be mindful

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