Case study 1

MINDFULNESS: A NEW CONCEPT IN THE SPORTS INJURIES’ PREVENTION? Solé, S., Palmi,J. (PhD) INEFC, Lleida University, Lleida, Spain Introduction

Methods

Mindfulness is defined as the nonjudgmental focus of one’s attention on the experience that occurs in the present moment (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). There are many mindfulness-based therapies such as Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction or MBSR ( Kabat-Zinn, Op. Cit) and Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy or MBCT (Segal, Williams, Teasdale, 2002) and they are being used for different health problems such as chronic pain, anxiety and depression, stress, psoriasis or cancer. The aim of this study is to identify the actual use of mindfulness therapies in sports psychology and to investigate the possible aplications of this concept in the prevention and treatment of sports’ injuries.

A literature research was undertaken using Medline, Psychinfo, Web of Science, Cochrane, Ebscohost, Isi Web of Knowledge databases and references of retrieved articles. The search included original articles, books and dissertations published up to 2012. For the final selection the books and dissertations were excluded. The main search terms were mindfulness, sports, stress, sport injury, and risk factor, in different combinations as needed. All articles were coded for their design, type of control, study population, and outcome measures. Seven studies were considered eligible for the present review and are presented in the next table.

STUDY

MINDFULNESS-BASED INTERVENTION

NUMBER/CHARACTERISTICS OF SUBJECTS

STUDY DESIGN

CONTROL GROUP

EVALUATION SCALES

MAIN FINDINGS

Gardner and Moore, 2004 MAC Case study 1: 22 year-old intercollegiate swimmer. The A Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commit ment- 12 sessions. 1 session per week. protocol was extended by 4 weeks during the competitive Based approach to athletic performance 1 hour per session sesssion enhancement: theoretical considerations. 5 phases: Psychoeducation, Mindfulness, Value identification and commitment, Case study 2: 37-year-old master's-level female powerAcceptance, Integration and practice lifter

N=1

PSWQ, SAS, AAQ-16Case study 1: Performance: best competitive season, winning two meets and achieving two personal-best times Psychological skills: 39% less in anxiety (PSWQ, SAS) and a 38,2% less in experiencial avoidance (AAQ) Case study 2: Performance: best performance and lifted 15% beyond her best master’s level competitive performance Psychological skills: a reduction of 55,5% in anxiety (SAS) and 44,1% in experiencial avoidance ( AAQ)

Lutkenhouse, 2007 MAC The case of Jenny: a freshman collegiate 8 sessions. Exercises to do between athlete experiencing performance sessions dysfunction Some contacts by e-mail after protocol.

N=1

SPQ, YSQ-SF, Performance: reduction of 25 seconds in her best mile run time. A 61,5% increase in scores performance PSWQ, SAS, AAQ-R (SPQ). She no longer met criteria for Performance Dysfunction. Self –evaluation: personal and sportive growth and development, improvement of performance and her capacity to handle frustration.

Case study 1: qualitative interviews

19 year-old female lacrosse player classified as experiencing performance dysfunction by the Multilevel Classification System for Sport Psychology (MCS-SP)

Case study 1: 10 elite swimmers. 40% women.

Case 1: Bernier et al, 2009 Qualitative Mindfulness and Acceptance approaches Case study 2: MAC Case study 2: interviews in sport performance 4 introductory sessions. 1 session every 7 elite young golfers (experimental group). 28,5% women Case 2: month. 6 elite young golfers (control group). 16,6% women Quasi Exp Applied exercise was implemented during the competition period Kauffman et al, 2009 MSPE Evaluation of Mindful Sport Perfor mance4 sessions. 1 session per week. (MSPE): a new approach to promote flow2,5-3 hours per session in athletes

N= 32/29 . 28,1% women. Amateur athletes from Washington 21 golfers/2 dropouts 11 archers/1 dropouts Only 11 athletes completed the 4 sessions

Quasi Experime.

Schwanhausser, 2009 MAC adapted (7 phases) Application of the Mindfulness9 sessions. 1 session per week Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) protocol 45 minuts per session with an adolescent springboard diver

12 year-old male, high level springboard and platform diver

N=1

13 high level university athletes, average experience of 8,69 years. Participants of different sports. Experimental group: 6 (33,3% women) Control group: 7 (28,5% mujeres)

Experimen. RCT

From the original 52 athletes 25: 4 archers, 8 golfers and 13 long-distance runners participated in the one-year follow-up of this study.

Quasi Experim.

Aherne, Moran, Lonsdale, 2011 The effect of mindfulness training on athletes’ flow: an initial investigation

Mindfulness training inspired in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) 6 sessions. 1 session per week Daily work with CD

Thompson et al, 2011 MSPE One year follow-up of Mindful Sport 4 sessions. 1 session per week. Performance Enhancement (MSPE) with 2,5-3 hours per session archers, golfers and runners * See De Petrillo et al, 2009 and Kaufman et al, 2009

Traditional psychological skills training: goal setting, imagery, …

OMSAT-3

Case study 1: improvement in the nine flow dimensions (Jackson and Csikszentmihalyi, 1999) and the finding of a new characteristic: the awareness and acceptance of their bodily sensations during the preperformance moments. Case study 2: The coaches emphasized that the 57,1% of golfers in experimental group became more aware and lucid in their approach to golf and said the intervention was usedful and relevant. Performance: the 66% of golfers in experimental group improved their national rankings Psychological skills evaluated with the OMSAT-3 improved significantly in experimental group (p