Mindfulness Strategies: Consulting with Coaches and Athletes: Background and Presentation of the 2013 AASP Annual Convention Workshop

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a summary and discussion of the main workshop ideas presented at the national 2013 AASP Conference, entitled Mindfulness Strategies: Consulting with Coaches and Athletes. In this article a brief overview of the meaning of mindfulness and potential benefits of mindfulness-based strategies are offered. Specific mindfulness-based strategies for sport psychology consultants working with athletes and coaches are presented. The mindfulness-oriented strategies offered, integrated with traditional mental skills training, include normalizing the experience of negative emotions, accepting aversive emotions, clarifying and committing to task-focused efforts in performance, visualizing success and noticing the good.