ABSTRACT
Elite sport performance environments are dominated by goal-driven language and activity that implicitly direct athletes towards the promise of future happiness and fulfilment. In the cognitive-behavioural approach, it is proposed that three types of cognitions can come to dominate an individual's cognitive processing, and that techniques to stop, restructure, and otherwise control cognitions will resolve the psychological struggle. Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) dominates psychotherapy outside of the sport and performance domains, receiving substantial empirical support. The training and competitive environments provide opportunities to regularly engage in core acceptance-based processes before, during, and after play, and caddies and coaches are well positioned to direct the players’ attention and decision making towards value-driven actions and to also detect behaviours and actions that represent the avoidance of unwanted psychological states. Instead, there is the promotion of practice within the context of known and unwanted internal environments established through the players’ unique learning history.
