Mindfulness or mindfulness practice has proven to be an effective tool to reduce rumination (persistent repetition of negative thoughts) and enhance adaptive coping strategies (Josefsson et al, 2017). In sports, these skills are essential to optimize performance and concentration, preventing intrusive thoughts or stress from interfering with task performance.
The Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) method (Gardner & Moore, 2004, 2007) is based on the combination of mindfulness with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), a therapeutic approach that pursues that the person accepts his thoughts and emotions, instead of fighting against them. Accordingly, the MAC method is specifically designed for athletes and high performers, teaching them to accept their thoughts and emotions without trying to suppress them, allowing them to maintain focus on the task without distractions.
The use of mindfulness in sports training has many points in common with the concept of flow proposed by Csikszentmiahalyi (1990). This term would be described as an ideal state of performance in which the athlete is completely focused on the present moment, perceiving a sense of fluidity and controlled management of his/her performance. In other words, thanks to MAC training, athletes can develop a greater capacity to achieve this state of flow, thus optimizing their performance and psychological well-being.
It seems that emotional regulation would be one of the factors that would explain the positive results observed in interventions carried out with the MAC method, compared to other strategies based on psychological skills (Josefsson et al, 2017). Other effects reported in studies that considered the MAC methodology were the decrease in substance use, aggression and emotional dysregulation (Gross et al., 2016).
On the other hand, improvements have been reported in specific groups, as was the case of young athletes who benefited in their sports training and other psychological factors (Su, 2024), or elite female athletes, where it was noted that the impact of interventions based on MAC lasted during long-term follow-ups, suggesting that this method would reinforce the cognitive and emotional learning process (Moebi et al., 2021).
Something similar has happened when taking into consideration specific disciplines such as martial arts, where improvements were observed in the psychological dimensions of awareness and acceptance (Josefsson et al, 2024), as well as in beach soccer players who saw increased cognitive flexibility and improved mental performance (Sabzevari et al., 2023).
From UMSS we remind the importance of carrying out an integral self-care, both in sport and in life itself.
Bibliographic References
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New
York: Harper & Row.
Gardner, F. L. y Moore, Z. E. (2004). A mindfulness-acceptance-commitment based approach to athletic performance enhancement: Theoretical considerations. Behavior Therapy, 35, 707-723.
Gardner, F. L. y Moore, Z. E. (2007). The psychology of enhancing human performance: The mindfulness-acceptance-commitment (MAC) approach. New
York: Springer Publishing Company.
Gross, M., Moore, Z., Gardner, F., Wolanin, A., Pess, R., & Marks, D. (2016). An empirical examination comparing the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment approach and Psychological Skills Training for the mental health and sport performance of female student athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 16, 431 – 451. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2016.1250802.
Josefsson, T., Gustafsson, H., Robinson, P., Cedenblad, M., Sievert, E., & Ivarsson, A. (2024). Examining the effects of the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) programme on sport-specific dispositional mindfulness, sport anxiety, and experiential acceptance in Martial Arts. Scandinavian Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. https://doi.org/10.7146/sjsep.v6i.140996.
Josefsson, T., Ivarsson, A., Lindwall, M., Gustafsson, H., Stenling, A., Böröy, J., Mattsson, E., Carnebratt, J., Sevholt, S., & Falkevik, E. (2017). Mindfulness Mechanisms in Sports: Mediating Effects of Rumination and Emotion Regulation on Sport-Specific Coping. Mindfulness, 8, 1354 – 1363. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0711-4.
Mohebi, M., Sadeghi-Bahmani, D., Zarei, S., Zandi, H., & Brand, S. (2021). Examining the Effects of Mindfulness–Acceptance–Commitment Training on Self-Compassion and Grit among Elite Female Athletes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010134.
Sabzevari, F., Samadi, H., Ayatizadeh, F., & Machado, S. (2023). Effectiveness of Mindfulness-acceptance-commitment based approach for Rumination, Cognitive Flexibility and Sports Performance of Elite Players of Beach Soccer: A Randomized Controlled Trial with 2-months Follow-up. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health : CP & EMH, 19. https://doi.org/10.2174/17450179-v19-e230419-2022-33.
Su, N., Si, G., Liang, W., Bu, D., & Jiang, X. (2024). Mindfulness and acceptance-based training for elite adolescent athletes: a mixed-method exploratory study. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1401763.
