Birrer, Daniel, Philipp Röthlin, and Gareth Morgan. “Mindfulness to Enhance Athletic Performance: Theoretical Considerations and Possible Impact Mechanisms.” Mindfulness 2012: 235-246. Web.
This article is important to the assignment at hand because it discusses not only the concept of mindfulness but also the different problems sports people face in their career across different facets of the training and performance environment.
The element of coaching and teaching of exclusive psychological techniques to the sports people is therefore essential, for them to cope with the demanding sports environment. Typically, the discipline of psychological skills training is the background in which the coaching skills emanate, for the insight to be imparted to the sports people by psychologists; and such has been the trend for the last three decades.
Moreover, the cognitive-behavioral theories have been indispensable for the psychological technical teams that train and equip sports people with the insight and benefits of mindfulness. Therefore, this article explores the intervention that mindfulness-based, and how they are applicable to the discipline of psychology. In addition, the authors address the parameters through which the respective athletes can utilize mindfulness, and how they can benefit from such techniques.
This article is important to the assignment because it explores the aspect of mindfulness in sports to the level of how attitude, attention, and intention are impactful. Therefore, it serves as an arena to expose the target audience on the reality that with the right application of psychological insight; mindfulness automatically becomes a beneficial aspect of sports. As such, this source is suitable to be used in this assignment.
Cathcart, Stuart, Matt McGregor, and Emma Groundwater. “Mindfulness and Flow in Elite Athletes.” Journal of Clinical Sports Psychology 8.2 (2014): 119-141. Web.
This source emphasizes the indispensable role of mindfulness in sports. Indeed, the authors have not only engaged theory but also practical data to create a platform of insightful arguments on the concept of mindfulness.
The theme of this article is that the flow rates of individual athletes as well as their respective prosperity and performance, have been both indirectly and directly influenced by mindfulness. Elite athletes have been a critical group of individuals among whom the relationship between flow and mindfulness has been studied in effect.
The methodology of this article engaged an empirical approach whereby 92 elite athletes were involved. Furthermore, the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire was utilized by the researchers. Accompanied by the psychometric analysis tests, the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire was congruent with the mindfulness-flow analogy.
Furthermore, the female athletes emerged as the most impacted in the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire analogy. Furthermore, athletes who embraced pacing sports and the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire facet performed better than the non-pacing and non-mindfulness ones.
Nevertheless, the facets of mindfulness correlation in the female gender differed from that correlation for the male gender. As such, mindfulness varies with not only gender but the type of sport being practiced.
This article has a few weaknesses. One is that the author does not use a simple language that can be easily understood. The second weakness is that the source is voluminous; hence the reader needs more time to go through the whole article. Nevertheless, the strengths of this article include; the source is evidence-based and hence the findings are reliable and the fact that the authors cite many peer-reviewed references making the information reliable.
Elder, J D. “Mindfulness: A Potentially Good Idea.” N.p., 2010. Web.
This source delves more not only in the subject of sports but also on the concept and analogy of mindfulness. In fact, the author discusses the theoretical meaning of the term mindfulness and further extrapolates on the empirical use of the term.
Consequently, according to this source, mindfulness is the consistency and deliberate utilization of awareness amidst moral inclination and compassion. Therefore, this article is suitable for this assignment because it gives a diverse approach to the subject of mindfulness. In fact, the moral theories of utilitarianism and Kantian virtues are hereby embraced, thus giving an all-around approach to the concept under study.
Indeed, unlike the skewed understanding of the term the author insists that mindfulness is pertinent to human behavior and culture, and has been around for centuries hence its essence not only in applied sciences but also in social disciplines and natural science.
Other than the faculty of sports, this article postulates evidence-based findings that mindfulness practices and mindfulness itself can significantly make better the quality and health of human lives. The research further gives insight on the methodological research of mindfulness, whereby proposed methods of co-effectiveness and self-care in health have been adopted. In fact, the author maintains that while mindfulness is critical in sports, it essentially serves to improve the immune functioning, attention, the health, and mood of individuals.
However, the article gives a disclaimer that mindfulness is essentially personal, and thus its cultivation or thwarting is in entirely dependent on the affected persons.
The weakness of this article is that the writer has given a voluminous work to the reader hence it needs more than a single sitting for one reading. Nevertheless, the article gives a platform for interacting with mindfulness as well as the body, the mind, and the self.
Furrer, P, F Moen, and K Firing. “How Mindfulness Training May Mediate Stress, Performance and Burnout.” Sports Journal 2015: 1. Web.
This article deals with and explores the concept of mindfulness not only in sports and among athletes but also among the student fraternity in schools. Furthermore, the authors discuss the impact of the subject of mindfulness on the elements of perceived athlete performance, stress management during training, and general body wellness.
In addition, the authors gave a detailed and evidence-based argument on the effects of athlete burnout during mindfulness and without mindfulness among elite athletes who are junior.
Therefore, the article essentially seeks to establish an empirical approach to the hypothesis that; there is a robust relationship between performance enhancement, mindfulness in training, and the prevention of the occurrence of burnout in sportspersons who are junior.
The methodology of this research study entailed the assessment of 29 junior athletes, whose interviews were conducted through a mindfulness-training program.
The program was balanced between normal life and engagement in sports activities, and it lasted for a period of 12 weeks. The recruitment of participants was randomly done, and in fact 6 of the cases were not athletes; the arbitrary recruitment had room for the diverse approach to the mindfulness-training program.
After the interview, the results indicated that the mindfulness aspect had a significant impact on the performance, awareness, ability, and recovery of the individual athletes. Furthermore, there are multiple positive effects of mindfulness on the focus of athletes, in addition to their effort to deliver.
Therefore, this article is suitable for this assignment because it gives a platform on how mindfulness affects burnout, performance, and recovery among sportspersons on an evidence-based basis.
Moen, Frode, Roger A Federici, and Frank Abrahamsen. “Examining Possible Relationships between Mindfulness, Stress, School- and Sports Performances and Athlete Burnout.” International Journal of Coaching Science 9.1 (2015): 3-19. Print.
The authors of this source do not only explore the concept of mindfulness but also discuss the correlation of mindfulness to sports, stress, athlete burnout, and school as well as sports performance.
The number of participants sampled was 483 individuals. All of them came from diverse junior schools with specialities in different sports in Norway. The interview was done on an online platform. Of the 483 sampled peopled students, only 382 athletes turned up; hence giving an average of 89 percent turnout, which is substantial.
The findings in this research article are reliable and hence making this article suitable for the assignment at hand considering that the athletes interviewed were from different sports including track and field, cross country skiing, cycling, handball, Nordic combined, orienteering, ski jumping, biathlon, and ice hockey.
The elements tested by the parameters of sports and mindfulness entailed; the correlation between mindfulness and: performance in school, performance in sports, stress for the body and the mind, as well as the athlete burnout effects.
From the discussion and findings, it was realized from this article that the performance in sports and academic in schools was positively related to mindfulness in terms of burnout. On the contrary, stress was negatively related to burnout and mindfulness.
Consequently, the findings are scientific evidence to affirm that mindfulness is a vital buffer for stress, which could significantly be of importance to athletes and sportspeople to overcome burnout and achieve better performance. The weakness of this source is that it needs further research to make evidence-based findings in the future. The strength of this source is that the authors used simple language, and the explanations are with clarity and precision, hence making the material easily understandable.
Palmi, J, and S Solé. “Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Sports Psychology.” Revista de Psicologia del Deporte 25.1 (2016): 147-155. Web.
This article was researched and published by Palmi and Sole. The authors did exhaustive research on the topic of mindfulness in sports. Furthermore, the related elements on sports as far as human psychology is concerned were discussed.
The primary focus which the authors of this source focused on was to realize an evidence-based platform of the mindfulness concept on not only the research variables involved but also the discipline of sports psychology.
By utilizing both the exclusion criteria as well as the inclusion criteria, published articles between 1985 and 2014 were scrutinized using online systems like the Psychinfo, Cochrane, Medline, and the Web of Science. Typically, collecting data online is subject to multiple confounding effects, and hence the competence of the researchers is desirable for reliable findings in a study like this.
Consequently, the authors took into consideration the necessary precautions, and this source was realized through reliable data collection by using search terms as; training, mindfulness, sports psychology, and stress.
This article is highly suitable for this assignment because the researchers excluded eleven out of the 22 articles initially selected. The exclusion was based on factors like vague conclusions, clarity, methodological issues, and even indeterminate theses.
The rest of the eleven articles, therefore, gave indispensable data for the research of mindfulness in sports psychology. Indeed, because of the improved realizations in variables like flow and anxiety, mindfulness levels, as well as the degree of burnout, the research design of the findings is reliable despite the average methodology.
The weakness of this article is that the author used a more complex language which needs careful reading to avoid confounding meanings. Nevertheless, the strength of this article and hence the reason why it is suitable for this assignment is that it offers wide knowledge about mindfulness in sports psychology.
Ponizovskiy, P. Clinical Sports Psychiatry. N.p., 2013. Web.
This article offers a more detailed yet diverse explanation on the subject of mindfulness in sports.
In fact, the author embraces a clinical approach to demystify what can make better the psychology and mental stability of sportsmen and sportswoman to create a reliable platform for them to posture better results. This article, therefore, seeks to address the challenges of flow, attention, and mindfulness in athletes by introducing the aspect of clinical attention to affective disorders through mindfulness.
Conditions like depression and anxiety that affect athletes and other sportspeople have therefore been brought in focus, through the critical analysis of not only the mindfulness-based stress reduction mechanisms but also the Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy analogy. Therefore, if the treatment is tested and confirmed as effective, the analogy could be efficiently applied among athletes, and be further extrapolated to cover their respective sports.
Indeed, mindfulness, meditation, and attention are the core components of this research article. Furthermore, the study makes it possible for athletes or sports people struggling with psychiatric problems to embrace a mindfulness program and hence become effective in their sports.
Eventually, such practices could become a sports culture that can make better the mood state and hence the performance of athletes; thus the suitability of this source for this assignment.
Scott-Hamilton, John, Nicola S. Schutte, and Rhonda F. Brown. “Effects of a Mindfulness Intervention on Sports-Anxiety, Pessimism, and Flow in Competitive Cyclists.” Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being 8.1 (2016): 85-103. Web.
Unlike the preceding sources, this article has been dedicated by the authors to the cause-effect framework, such that the results are reflective of the hypotheses that have been tested and found to hold based on reason.
In essence, this source investigated and hence researched the correlation between mindfulness in athletes, and its consequences on the performance and anxiety of athletes. Therefore, the sport-specific anxiety and whether pessimism related to sports could be positively or negatively affected by mindfulness has been covered.
The methodology of this article involved a study whereby cyclists were given a spin-bike of mindfulness and also given a waist-control unit as a training component to examine their mindfulness intervention. The individual candidates finished their posttest measures and baseline mindfulness as was examined against the sport-related pessimistic, flow, anxiety related to sports, and pertinent attributions.
The results showed a significant difference between the control individuals; 20 in number, and their cyclist counterparts; 27 in number. It was such that the positive effect of mindfulness on the pessimism of sports and the flow, as well as levels of anxiety, was positive.
Therefore, it has been evidenced through this study that sports activities directly related to mindfulness have positive outcomes on the athletic pursuits of specific sports. This article is relevant and hence important to this assignment because it gives a broad scientific understanding of the subject under discussion.
Furthermore, the authors engaged many peer-reviewed articles in their research to give reliable findings.
References
Birrer, Daniel, Philipp Röthlin, and Gareth Morgan. “Mindfulness to Enhance Athletic Performance: Theoretical Considerations and Possible Impact Mechanisms.” Mindfulness
2012: 235–246. Web.
Cathcart, Stuart, Matt McGregor, and Emma Groundwater. “Mindfulness and Flow in Elite Athletes.” Journal of Clinical Sports Psychology 8.2 (2014): 119–141. Web.
Elder, J D. “Mindfulness: A Potentially Good Idea.” N.p., 2010. Web.
Furrer, P, F Moen, and K Firing. “How Mindfulness Training May Mediate Stress, Performance and Burnout.” Sports Journal 2015: 1. Web.
Moen, Frode, Roger A Federici, and Frank Abrahamsen. “Examining Possible Relationships between Mindfulness, Stress, School- and Sports Performances and Athlete Burnout.” International Journal of Coaching Science 9.1 (2015): 3–19. Print.
Palmi, J, and S Solé. “Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Sports Psychology.” Revista de Psicologia del Deporte 25.1 (2016): 147–155. Web.
Ponizovskiy, P. Clinical Sports Psychiatry. N.p., 2013. Web.
Scott-Hamilton, John, Nicola S. Schutte, and Rhonda F. Brown. “Effects of a Mindfulness Intervention on Sports-Anxiety, Pessimism, and Flow in Competitive Cyclists.” Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being 8.1 (2016): 85–103. Web.
