Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement

All athletes and coaches know that peak performance requires more than just physical exertion. There is a psychological component as well, which can be expressed in attributes such as awareness, focus, emotion regulation, and motivation. For many years, systematic mental training was ignored in athletics. Thankfully, today this is starting to change. This book serves as a comprehensive resource on the history, theory, and practice of mindfulness in sport, and offers an exciting approach to performance enhancement for athletes and coaches at all levels, from amateur to professional. Rooted in the traditions of mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, Kaufman, Glass, and Pineau present mindful sport performance enhancement (MSPE), an empirically supported, six-session program that can be adapted for athletes in any sport or even performers in other high-pressure domains. Each MSPE session includes educational, experiential, and discussion components, as well as recommendations for home practice. Special emphasis is placed on incorporating mindfulness into workouts, practices, and competitions, as well as everyday life. The book includes handy scripts for mindfulness teachers, sport and performance psychologists, athletes, and coaches, and handouts summarizing each session are also available for download on the APA website.