By EJ Leitzinger and Eric Martin
(March 24, 2025)
In the world of wellness and performance, “mindfulness” is one of the most popular buzzwords that has emerged in recent years. Perhaps you, as a coach, have seen it used in your professional communities or heard your athletes use it. The word may bring to mind an image of someone meditating, and you might notice that the person meditating appears more ready to fall asleep than to leap into competition. Maybe you are skeptical of mindfulness, unsure of what it means, or altogether disinterested in the subject.
If this describes you, you are in the right place. This article offers a practical explanation of mindfulness and makes the argument that mindfulness-based interventions will make your athletes better performers, a claim already supported by research on the subject (Wang et al. 2023). An introductory mindfulness exercise is also suggested.
Let’s first settle on a shared understanding of what mindfulness means. It is one of those terms that will elicit ten different definitions if you ask ten different people. A group of researchers (Coffey et al., 2010) felt the same frustration and their work offered a helpful conclusion. They determined that mindfulness consists of 1) present-centered attention, and 2) acceptance of experience. You may be thinking that you’d like your athletes to have more present-centered attention but you’re not sure you want them “accepting” poor performance. We’ll touch on this later in the article.
Let’s outline one athlete who may gain the most from a more mindful approach to sport. Select the drop-down arrow and decide for yourself if this scenario with Steve sounds familiar.
Steve is a gifted athlete. He has physical tools that suggest he will be a top performer for your team and is well-liked by teammates, has a positive attitude, and gives great effort. However, Steve’s performances are wildly inconsistent. He often excels in practice and training but falls apart in competition. He has difficulty making adjustments, especially when challenges arise. When you talk to him, you can tell that his uneven performances are bothering him, but he struggles to articulate exactly what is going on in these moments. A normally engaging and thoughtful person, Steve seems confused and frustrated after a poor performance. At one point in your conversation, he acknowledges feeling “sped up” during competition, and he is “sometimes nervous” but is not able to offer much else about what he is experiencing.
It may not seem obvious, but Steve has a problem with his attentional focus. It’s not that he is distracted in the way we usually think of distraction. That is a person who is often drawn away from their current task to watch a squirrel dart by and climb a tree. Instead, Steve’s issue is that his present awareness is lacking. Mindfulness can help him (and others in a similar situation).
You might be asking how Steve might become more mindful during his performances. Unfortunately, he won’t become more mindful by listening to someone tell him to become more mindful. Instead, he will need to develop mindfulness the same way he strengthens his body: through disciplined training and consistent practice. The most basic mindfulness training involves bringing his attention to something singular, like his breath, and simply noticing what is going on in his body. If he is like most athletes, it won’t take long before his mind drifts elsewhere. When his mind starts going elsewhere, Steve has two tasks to complete. First, he needs to simply notice the drift in his attention. Second, and only after noticing the drift, he will need to guide his attention back to his breathing, gently and with patience for himself. That’s it. This expanding and contracting of his attention is like the eccentric and concentric movements Steve is familiar with in the weight room. I would suggest he start by trying this task for five to seven breaths for roughly one minute, then work his way up to five minutes per day as he gets more practice.
You may be thinking that this sounds absurdly simple. You are right! But simple does not mean easy. To prove that point, I want you to try the exercise yourself right now and see what you notice. Set a timer for one minute and try to focus only on your breathing for five to seven breaths. What is it that you notice during this time? There is no right or wrong way to experience mindful practice as long as you bring curiosity to the exercise. You may notice the exercise has a calming effect. If so, great! You confirmed that you can regulate your central nervous system. You may notice very little. Great! A neutral or empty mindset can be a great place from which to perform. You may notice discomfort or a sense that your mind would not slow down. Great! Much like a strenuous workout in the weight room, you will know that you strengthened your “mindfulness muscle” just by engaging in this short practice.
Now, I want you to ask yourself, when was the last time I was intentional about bringing mindful attention to something singular, like my breath? Many people in Western cultures hardly ever take time to do this sort of thing. These mindful, or contemplative, practices are not natural, just like delaying gratification and doing back squats in the weight room are not natural. Many athletes get discouraged about mindfulness work because they expect a blissful, enjoyable experience immediately. Framing mindfulness practice like physical exercise sets athletes up for success.
Of course, the introductory exercise detailed above is only a foundation to your (and your athletes) mindfulness work. All kinds of layers can be added to your practice. For example, once you have a good grasp on your breathing, you can expand your experience by adding imagery, self-talk, a focus on all five senses, and much more, all of which can be built on top of present-centered attention. One possibility for an athlete who has an established mindfulness practice is to identify an image from a positive memory and pair it with a positive self-belief the memory elicits. The athlete would bring their attentional focus to the combination of the image and the self-belief, then notice what is going on in their body once again. In this particular example, the athlete can add elements to their mindfulness practice that are specific to their confidence and self-belief.
Click on the drop-down arrow to check in on Steve.
Through daily mindfulness practice (for just 5 minutes a day), Steve begins to develop a more present-centered attention. As his coach, you notice a difference in Steve because his performance becomes less volatile and more consistent. Previously, one mistake tended to snowball into multiple mistakes and worse and worse performances. Now, you notice Steve making the adjustments during the competition. In individual meetings, he can recall moments of adversity and put words to the way he responded (both good and bad). He says he feels sharper and that competition has begun to slow down for him. Overall, Steve is seeing fewer obstacles between him and the excellent performances he is capable of.
Until now, we’ve kept our focus on the first element of mindfulness: present-centered attention. Let’s close by addressing the second element: “acceptance of experience.” What is it that mindfulness will encourage athletes to accept, exactly?
Mindful athletes are NOT complacent, satisfied, or limited by an aversion to change. Acceptance of experience does not demand that we simply allow our present reality to carry on as we sit in passive observation. Instead, leaders in the mindfulness and acceptance space teach us that we cannot change our reality until we first accept it. We cannot make progress towards goals if we are stuck fighting against a truth we cannot accept. An easy example of this concept is an athlete who struggles to retain information in team meetings because their mind cannot stop ruminating about a teammate who is higher on the depth chart. If they bring a mindful acceptance to the fact that the current depth chart cannot be changed, they are free to direct their attention to efforts that may result in improved performance and, ultimately, changes to the depth chart down the road.
The mindful athlete accepts what cannot be controlled. They perform better in poor weather conditions. They respond well to a poor call by an official. They tend to perform consistently, even with physical pain. Their ability to accept their situation clears the path for them to freely pursue individual and team goals. Developing mindfulness is a journey of exploration and trial and error. I hope this piece has provided a starting point for those curious about starting a mindfulness practice. Where you and your athletes take this work from here will only be limited by your imagination and willingness to embrace (temporary) discomfort.
References
Birrer, D., Röthlin, P., & Morgan, G. (2012). Mindfulness to enhance athletic performance: Theoretical considerations and possible impact mechanisms. Mindfulness, 3(3), 235–246.
Coffey, K. A., Hartman, M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2010). Deconstructing
mindfulness and constructing mental health: understanding mindfulness and its mechanisms of action. Mindfulness, 1, 235–253.
Linehan, M. M. (1993). Skills training manual for treating borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford.
Wang, Y., Lei, S. M., & Fan, J. (2023). Effects of Mindfulness-Based Interventions on Promoting Athletic Performance and Related Factors among Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trial. International journal of environmental research and public health, 20(3), 2038.
