Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement: Mental Training for Athletes and Coaches

321 Pages·2017·2.113 MB·English

by  Keith A. Kaufman (author)|Carol R. Glass (author)|Timothy R. Pineau (author)

Mindful
Sport Performance
Enhancement
MENTAL TRAINING for
ATHLETES and COACHES
KEITH A. KAUFMAN
CAROL R. GLASS
TIMOTHY R. PINEAU
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON, DC
Mindful
Sport Performance
Enhancement

Mindful
Sport Performance
Enhancement
MENTAL TRAINING for
ATHLETES and COACHES
KEITH A. KAUFMAN
CAROL R. GLASS
TIMOTHY R. PINEAU
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON, DC
Copyright © 2018 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved. Except as per-
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kaufman, Keith A., author. | Glass, Carol R., author. | Pineau,
Timothy R., author.
Title: Mindful sport performance enhancement : mental training for athletes
and coaches / Keith A. Kaufman, Carol R. Glass, and Timothy R. Pineau.
Description: Washington, DC : American Psychological Association, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017012289| ISBN 9781433827877 | ISBN 1433827875
Subjects: LCSH: Sports—Psychological aspects. | Athletes—Psychology.
Classification: LCC GV706.4 .K377 2018 | DDC 796.01/9—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012289
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record is available from the British Library.
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0000048-000
To Emily, Josh, and Kala, my incredible family.
—Keith A. Kaufman
To Bill, Jess, and Greg Begenyi—my “home team.”
—Carol R. Glass
To my partner, Nithya, and to my parents, Bev and Fred—thank you for everything.
—Timothy R. Pineau

Contents
foreword ix
Jon Kabat-Zinn
preface xiii
introduction 3
I
Being a Mindful Performer 9
1. Overcoming the Mental Training Paradox 11
2. The Long Past but Short History of Mindfulness
in Sport 27
3. Going With the Flow: Mindfulness and Peak
Performance 47
II
Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement 61
4. MSPE Session 1: Building Mindfulness
Fundamentals 63
5. MSPE Session 2: Strengthening the Muscle
of Attention 81
6. MSPE Session 3: Stretching the Body’s Limits
Mindfully 93
7. MSPE Session 4: Embracing “What Is” in Stride 111
8. MSPE Session 5: Embodying the Mindful Performer 121
9. MSPE Session 6: Ending the Beginning 135
vii
viii CONTENTS
III
Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement: Theory, Research,
Practice, and Beyond 143
10. Pathways From MSPE to Peak Performance 145
11. Empirical Support for MSPE 163
12. Tips for Participants: Getting the Most Out of MSPE 179
13. Tips for Leaders: Enhancing the Effectiveness of MSPE 193
14. Performance Applications Beyond Sport 205
IV
Case Studies 221
15. Case Study 1: John the Outfielder 223
16. Case Study 2: Angie the Basketball Coach 239
references 255
index 293
about the authors 303
Foreword
One never knows who, or even if anyone, will pick up the torch of earlier
work or whether some kind of invisible transmission might be taking
place that touches something within the hearts and minds of others
and inspires a line of inquiry that builds on one’s own first steps. In
inviting me to write the foreword to this book, the authors shared with me
that the direction of their work had been inspired across a gap of decades by
early work that I did, in collaboration with Bruce Beall,1 in training collegiate
and Olympic rowers (at Harvard University and at the 1984 Los Angeles
Olympics at Lake Casitas and later at the University of California, Berkeley)
in mindfulness meditation and its applications to sports performance both on
and off the water (see Kabat-Zinn, Beall, & Rippe, 1985; Rippe & Southmayd,
1986). As described in the preface, mindful sport performance enhancement
(MSPE) was in part birthed out of that inspiration and out of the authors’
enthusiasm for the potential of a truly transformational mind–body-oriented
athletic training based on the systematic cultivation of mindfulness. Their
integration of mindfulness practices into sports performance in very practi-
cal and systematic ways and the study of performance outcomes using rig-
orous scientific methodologies are major contributions to the field of sports
performance.
In ancient Greece and then Rome, where Western sport has its origins,
the principle of a sound mind in a sound body was paramount and related to
the Greek ideal of beauty so prevalent in classical Hellenic sculpture and in the
exquisite languaging within the Homeric oral tradition.2 The same recognition
of the power of the mind to influence the body ran through ancient Greek
medicine in the intersecting lineages of Hippocrates and Asclepius (see, e.g.,
Santorelli, 1999).
1 At that time, Bruce Beall was coach of the Harvard lightweight rowing team and a mem-
ber of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team.
2 This view has been recently subject to scholarly refutation, however; see Young (2005).
ix