Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based skill training program on elite archers’ mental skills and mindfulness levels. This study comprised 11 elite archers from the Rio Preparation Camp 2016, ranging in age from 16 to 25 years. Five of the participants were female and six were male. The design of this study was one-group pretest-posttest design and Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for analyzing the data. Mental ability of participants was measured using The Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool-3 and the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire measured the mindfulness levels of the elite archers. The program upon which the study was conducted was an 8-week mindfulness-based skill training program, presented in 90 minute sessions. This study found that, in terms of mental skills, elite archers’ scores in refocusing, competition planning, activation, and relaxation significantly increased on completion of the program. According to the findings that there was also a significant increase in archers’ scores in four subscales of mindfulness: observe, acting with awareness, describe, and nonreactivity to inner experience. These results indicate that an 8-week mindfulness-based skill training program contribute to improvements in elite athletes’ mental skills and mindfulness. On completion of the program, participants experienced increased energy levels, were more focused on competition planning and found it easier to refocus.
Highlights
In recent years, mindfulness has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers in psychology, education and sports
Results of the study suggested that the training program contributed to the enhancement in relaxation, activation, competition planning, and refocusing skills of elite archers
These results contributed to existing literature regarding the effect of mindfulnessbased training programs in the sports field and the findings of this study are consistent with previous findings
Summary
Mindfulness has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers in psychology, education and sports. Mindfulness has various definitions, KabatZinn’s (1994) definition stands the most commonly used in mindfulness literature According to this definition, ‘mindfulness’ refers to “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p.4). In their earlier paper, Kabat-Zinn et al (1992) note that mindfulness is considered an attentional skill and has special relevance to athletic performance. Gardner and Moore (2004) argue that mindfulness practice is founded on the basis of a nonjudging awareness and acceptance of affective, sensory and cognitive experiences which take place in the moment According to this view, internal experiences are considered naturally occurring events, coming and going regularly, as normal and expected features of human existence. Previous studies have suggested that mindfulness-based interventions may alleviate different mental health problems, and improve positive psychological functioning (Baer, 2003)
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