ABSTRACT
Methodologically sound empirical data on mindfulness- and acceptance-based interventions consistently demonstrate positive outcomes that were once believed too good to be true. Within sport-performance psychology, the mindfulness-acceptance- commitment (MAC) approach, which Gardner and Moore initially developed in 2001, was the first mindfulness- and acceptance-based intervention aimed at optimizing high-level competitive performance and overall psychological well-being and has since been the most studied. This chapter discusses the mindfulness- and acceptance-based movement in general and its relevance to the sport-performance context, and highlights where this shift has taken the reader. As the mindfulness- and acceptance-based movement gained traction in clinical psychology, it generated revolutionary changes in the way researchers and clinicians conceptualized and treated psychopathological concerns. Evidence in basic science has supported the underlying processes of MAC and associated mindfulness- and acceptance-based approaches, and now that a series of sound RCTs have supported the efficacy of MAC as an evidence-based intervention, MAC is now an empirically supported intervention.
