PII: S XXXXXXXXXX
BEHAVIOR THERAPY 35, XXXXXXXXXX, 2004
A Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment-Based Approach
to Athletic Performance Enhancement:
Theoretical Considerations
F~aNI~ L. GARDNER
ZELLA E. MOORE
La Salle University
While traditional cognitive-behavioral skills-training-based approaches to athletic
performance enhancement posit that negative thoughts and emotions must be con-
trolled, eliminated, or replaced for athlete-clients to perform optimally, recent evi-
dence suggests that efforts to control, eliminate, or suppress these internal states
may actually have the opposite effect. Interventions based on mindfulness and ac-
ceptance suggest that internal cognitive and emotional states need not be eliminated,
changed, or controlled in order to facilitate positive behavioral outcomes. Rather, it
is suggested that an alternative or supplemental approach to the enhancement of ath-
letic performance may be achieved through strategies and techniques that target the
development of mindful (nonjudgmental) present-moment acceptance of internal
experiences such as thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, along with a clarifi-
cation of valued goals and enhanced attention to external cues, responses, and con-
tingencies that are required for optimal athletic performance.
Applied sport psychology, in its efforts to enhance the competitive perfor-
mance of athletes, has traditionally utilized cognitive behavioral methods and
techniques with an emphasis on developing self-control of internal states,
commonly refe
ed to as psychological skills training (Whelan, Mahoney, &
Meyers, XXXXXXXXXXIn contrast, behavioral theorists in professional psychology
have recently begun to advocate and demonstrate empirical support for inter-
ventions that emphasize acceptance, rather than direct change, suppression,
or control, of cognitive and affective experiences (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson,
1999; Roemer & Orsillo, 2002; Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002).
With modern meta-cognitive and acceptance-based theory, research, and
practice as a foundation, and theoretical aspects of self-regulatory processes in
athletic performance carefully considered, the purpose of this article is to present
a new approach to performance enhancement that, adapted and developed
Address co
espondence to Frank L. Gardner, Department of Psychology, La Salle Univer-
sity, 1900 W. Olney Avenue, Box 842, Philadelphia, PA 19141; e-maih XXXXXXXXXX.
XXXXXXXXXX/04/0707~3723 $1.00/0
Copyright 2004 by Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy
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708 GARDNER & MOORE
specifically for use with an athletic population, may elaborate on and increase
the effectiveness of traditional performance enhancement approaches. This
approach is refe
ed to as Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) based
performance enhancement, and is adapted from clinical models of Accep-
tance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes et al., 1999) and Mindfulness-Based
Cognitive Therapy (Segal et al., XXXXXXXXXXThis innovative approach to athletic
performance enhancement efforts is markedly different in both theoretical
assumptions and intervention strategies and techniques from the traditional
psychological skills training approaches that have to date dominated applied
sport psychology.
Historical Development of Psychological Skills Training
Historically, efforts to enhance athletic performance have been most clearly
elated to the development of social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1977) and
early skills training models of cognitive-behavioral interventions (Meichen-
aum, XXXXXXXXXXFrom this perspective, athletes develop and utilize psychologi-
cal (mental) skills such as goal setting, imagery/mental rehearsal, arousal
control, self-talk, and precompetitive routines as vehicles to aid in the devel-
opment of self-control of internal processes such as thoughts, emotions, and
odily sensations, in an attempt to create the ideal performance state (Hardy,
Jones, & Gould, 1996).
Within the domain of interventions for athletic performance enhancement,
a number of authors frequently describe and support the use of psychological
skills training (PST) procedures, while concu
ently commenting on the
inconsistent and inconclusive empirical support for such approaches (Burton,
Naylor, & Holliday, 2001; Gould, Damarjian, & Greenleaf, 2002; Gould &
Udry, 1994; Meyers, Whelan, & Murphy, 1996; Weinberg, 1994, 2002; Wil-
liams & Leffingwell, 2002; Zaichkowsy & B altzell, 2001).
In addition, questions may be raised regarding the theoretical assumptions
that are at the foundation of these procedures. Fundamental to PST is the long-
held assumption that reduction of negative emotions and bodily states, and
associated increases in positive cognitions and confidence levels, are directly
elated to an "ideal performance state," which in turn is directly related to
optimal athletic performance (Hardy et al., XXXXXXXXXXBased primarily on co
e-
lational studies, practitioners of sport psychology have long accepted the
notion that more successful performers are less anxious, more confident, and
experience fewer negative thoughts (Gould, Eklund, & Jackson, 1992; Gould,
Weiss, & Weinberg, 1981; Orlick & Partington, XXXXXXXXXXWhat follows from
this theoretical position is the related assumption that interventions target-
ing the enhancement of athletic performance focus on supplanting negative
thoughts with positive ones and reducing or controlling negative affective
states (Hardy et al., 1996).
In those few studies that have carefully studied the mechanisms of change
mediating traditional PST procedures and competitive performance, results
MAC P E R F O R M A N C E E N H A N C E M E N T 709
have generally not been supportive of the assumptions made in the use of tra-
ditional psychological skills training procedures. These studies, utilizing a
variety of different sports, suggest that reduction in "negative" affective states
such as anxiety, and/or increases in self-confidence, do not consistently result
in significant increases in athletic performance (Burton, 1989; Daw & Burton,
1994; Holm, Beckwith, Ehde, & Tinius, 1996; Maynard, Smith, & Warwick-
Evans, 1995; Murphy & Woolfolk, 1987; Weinberg, Seabourne, & Jackson,
1981). This conclusion receives additional support from a recent study by Cohen
and colleagues (Cohen, Pargman, & Tannenbaum, 2003) in which physiolog-
ical arousal was experimentally manipulated during a dart-throwing competi-
tion. The results of this study found no relationship between arousal levels
and actual performance. In addition, a recent meta-analysis examined the
effects of competitive anxiety and self-confidence on athletic performance
(Craft, Magyar, Becker, & Feltz, XXXXXXXXXXIn this review, using multivariate
meta-analytic techniques, characteristics such as design features, subjects,
and type of sport were separately coded. From this analysis, the authors con-
cluded that a weak relationship appears to exist between competitive anxiety,
self-confidence, and athletic performance.
It should be noted that these studies are limited by their assumption that all
athletes are at nonclinical levels of anxiety or other affective states and thus
would all benefit from a single intervention protocol based upon a common
goal of enhancing athletic performance. It may very well be that those ath-
letes for whom anxiety (or other affective states) is at subsyndromal or actual
clinical levels might benefit from different interventions than those whose
anxiety/affective levels are at nonclinical levels. That being said, these studies
do suggest that for a number of athletes, reduction of anxiety (with co
e-
sponding reduction of "negative" thinking and increases in self-confidence)
may have little significant impact on actual competitive performance enhance-
ment. This in turn suggests the possibility that for many competitive performers,
particularly for those not experiencing unusually high levels of pre-competitive
anxiety, an alternative to traditional interventions targeting reduction of anxiety,
increased confidence, and reduced "negative" thinking, may be appropriately
considered for use in athletic performance-enhancement efforts.
An Alternative Approach to Athletic Performance Enhancement
In recent years, there has been an increasing body of literature that calls
into question the position that "negative" internal experiences invariably lead
to negative behavioral outcomes (Hayes et al., XXXXXXXXXXIn essence, this literature
suggests that attempting to suppress unwanted thoughts and emotions can
actually have a paradoxical effect, triggering a meta-cognitive scanning pro-
cess that actively searches for signs of "negative" or unwanted cognitive
activity and
ings it to awareness when detected (Purdon, 1999; Wegner,
1994). As such, excessive cognitive activity and task-i
elevant focus replaces
meta-cognitive task-relevant attention and functional goal-directed behavior.
Sarah Gairdne
710 GARDNER & MOORE
The literature further suggests that efforts at thought suppression or control
might actually result in an increase in frequency of unwanted thoughts and
emotions (Clark, Ball, & Pape, XXXXXXXXXXFurther, the reactivation of previously
suppressed thoughts has been found to result in co
esponding increases in
affective states and increased autonomic activity (Wegner, Shortt, Blake, &
Page, 1990), which is most often contrary to the desired outcome when work-
ing with competitive athletes. These processes and consequences of thought
suppression have often been refe
ed to as "ironic process of mental control"
(Wegner, 1994).
Recent empirical data describing self-regulatory processes across a wide
ange of human performance domains (Barlow, 2002; Rapee & Lim, 1992;
S
occo & Barlow, 1996; Stopa & Clark, 1993) and athletic performance in
particular (Moore & Gardner, 2001) suggest that consistent functional human
performance involves meta-cognitive attention to external cues, options, and
contingencies involved in both immediate performance tasks and valued
distal goals. At the same time, optimal self-regulation requires minimal
self-judgment, minimal vigilance to external or internal threat, and mini-
mal wo
y (i.e., scanning for threat) about possible performance conse-
quences and ramifications.
Conversely, Crocker and colleagues (Crocker, Alderman, & Smith, 1988)
utilized a stress-management intervention including meditation and in-practice
integration of coping skills to develop the capacity to focus on performance,
attend in the moment, and cope with experienced emotion for elite volleyball
players. In this study, while no reductions in competitive anxiety and minimal
changes in actual negative cognitions were noted, there were significant com-
petitive performance improvements, and these improvements were main-
tained at 6-month follow-up. In a more recent study utilizing qualitative ana-
lytic methods, D'Urso and colleagues (D'Urso, Petrosso, & Robazza, 2002)
found that when assessing the contribution of psychological skill utilization
and physical skill utilization differences between best and worst athletic perfor-
mances, only the physical skill-based constructs were reliably related to per-
formance differentiation. Consistent with contemporary contextual-acceptance
theory, the authors also noted that "both positive and negative emotions may
exert beneficial or detrimental effects depending on their idiosyncratic mean-
ing and intensity" (D'Urso et al., 2002, p. 172).
The empirical evidence appears to