ABSTRACT
Mindful sport performance enhancement (MSPE) is a mindfulness-based mental training program for athletes and coaches. The program can be tailored for use with any sport of focus or with mixed groups representing multiple sports, and is applicable for sport performers at any level, from recreational to elite. Mindfulness embraces a Buddhist approach to the arising and cessation of suffering, where reactions to experiences, rather than the experiences themselves, are seen as most responsible for distress. Successful sport performance requires a degree of coordination across multiple levels, e.g., intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal. Research on mindfulness in sport is still in its infancy, but a growing number of studies suggest MSPE’s promise as a sport-specific, mindfulness-based intervention. Early support for MSPE was obtained with adult recreational athletes in individual sports, while research has focused on collegiate athletes, either using intact teams or mixed-sport groups.
