By Greg Lott
(August 22, 2022)

In the 2022 NBA Western Conference Semi-finals, the Dallas Mavericks entered game three of the series down two games to zero. Early in the 3^rd quarter, the Mavericks held a five-point lead before making a three-pointer and extending the lead to eight. In the next possession, Mavericks’ Center, Dwight Powell, knocked the ball out of the offense’s hand and out of bounds. The official potentially made an incorrect call, awarding the ball to the Mavericks. The Suns’ players were visibly upset and turned their attention to the officials to argue. Even the players that did not engage the officials stood around with a look of disgust on their faces, communicating “it should be our ball.” A quick inbounds pass ensued to the Mavericks’ Dorian Finey-Smith, who scored an unguarded bucket. A three-point swing. The Suns, frustrated, rushed a quick shot on the next possession; the Mavericks rebounded and then scored. The lead now stood at thirteen. In less than two minutes of game time, the lead grew from five to eighteen. Basketball is a game of momentum and swings. But this one was avoidable if only the Suns’ players were able to be mindful…

When athletes think of mindfulness, many picture people sitting around with their eyes closed, focusing on their breath. At least this has been my experience in working with student-athletes at the collegiate level. They typically describe mindful practice as a combination of relaxation, stress reduction, and mental health promotion. People that conceptualize mindful practice in this manner are not entirely wrong. There is a substantial body of literature that demonstrates such effects after consistent mindfulness practice (Khoury et al., 2015). Yet this view of mindfulness is quite limited. Breath focus meditation is a common way to introduce individuals to mindfulness and is a worthy practice. But it is simply one technique to build a transferable competency – the capacity to be attuned to your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and the environment – which in addition to promoting positive mental health, is also directly related to performance in athletics. Mindfulness does not have to be, and should not be, just a sedentary internal practice. Mindfulness is quite impactful in dynamic performance situations with empirical evidence demonstrating enhanced athletic performance across a variety of sports including basketball, track and field, canoeing, and golf (Perry et al., 2017). When athletes describe “being in the zone” or a state of “flow”, they are most certainly playing mindfully.           

My favorite way to define mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, to the present moment, non-judgmentally. Stimuli are constantly grabbing at our attention – whether it is the official that made a poor call, the screaming fans, or the wind blowing against our cheek. With mindfulness, there is intentionality to where one’s attention is directed. The attention needs to be focused on the present moment (for the athlete, think performance-relevant cues). This most assuredly includes one’s thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, and might include specific environmental components as well. It does not include something that happened previously (e.g., a bad play) or something that might or might not happen in the future (e.g., the potential of one’s opponent going on a scoring run). The non-judgmental aspect of mindfulness is often the most difficult aspect for athletes to understand, or at least implement. To do this effectively, athletes must learn how to notice and recognize without assigning value (especially negative value). They must become curious observers of their contest. When an athlete brings judgment to their present moment, additional emotional responses ensue, hijacking precious mental resources, and clouding their ability to focus on the task at hand. All of these attentional and self-regulatory skills are however trainable.

In as little as eight weeks of consistent practice, mindfulness training has been shown to do some interesting things to the brain, both functionally and structurally. Regardless of the technique that one uses, a core aspect of mindfulness training is directing attention on something specific and then redirecting or refocusing attention after mental drifting, with openness and acceptance. Such training has been shown to 1) enhance one’s ability to focus on performance-related cues; 2) promote cognitive flexibility (bringing one’s typical reactions to events back under mental control); 3) increase awareness of bodily sensations; and 4) improve capacity for attentional switching (the ability to rapidly direct and redirect attention to the cues that matter). As one becomes more practiced, mindfulness training can even impact how one experiences events, decreasing the magnitude of negativity or stress that arises from situations. While it is not quite as simple as aligning specific mental functions to singular brain structures, it is widely accepted that certain brain regions contribute to specific human capabilities.

Research utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has demonstrated that certain regions of the brain are activated differently in experienced mindfulness practitioners when they meditate compared with other individuals. The prefrontal cortex (the dorsal medial part), which is associated with executive functions (i.e., decision-making), the insula, which is involved in regulating how one experiences emotions, the anterior cingulate cortex, which is activated during emotional overload and is involved in the interaction of attention, motivation, and motor control, and the amygdala, which plays a key role in assessing and responding to threats (including physical, mental, and emotional ones) are all uniquely activated in mindful meditative practices. It is not just that these brain areas are activated differently in those who practice mindfulness regularly, there is also now a substantial body of evidence that shows that mindfulness practice actually alters the physical brain. Areas of the brain associated with attention, learning, and the regulation of emotions have been found to have increased cortical thickness (the density of grey matter) in individuals that consistently practice mindfulness (Grecucci et al., 2015; Moore & Malinokski, 2009).

So, let’s get back to the Phoenix Suns. When I mentioned that what happened to them was avoidable, what I’m talking about is that had they been trained in mindfulness and had they been playing mindfully, their behavior would have been different. If they were very well practiced, they might not have interpreted the experience with the same magnitude of stress, simply being aware of what happened without all the negative thoughts. We all know that when the stakes are particularly high in athletic competition, this is quite difficult to do. Yet, research has demonstrated that it is quite possible. The Suns’ players could also have exerted more conscious control, being in tune with their developing emotional state, and quickly deciding to alter their automatic interpretation of their current situation. In other words, they could have been aware that their emotions were ignited and that their attention had shifted. They could have actively brought their focus back to performance-relevant cues and locked in. Every player on the floor in the moment after the “bad call” knew that the most effective behavior would be to direct their attention to what the Mavericks were trying to do offensively and position themselves to execute their defensive strategy. Instead, they reacted mindlessly, allowed their attention to be hijacked, dwelled on a past event, generated subsequent negative emotion, and were not able to execute.

Most high-level coaches discuss moments like these with their athletes and are acutely aware of the necessity to play mindfully (even if that is not the term they would use). I have heard many coaches implore their teams to disregard mistakes and poor plays. A team with whom I work uses the phrase “flush it” to encourage players to forget about what transpired and focus on the next play. Another team talks about being goldfish – having a short memory and not getting stuck on what previously happened. In short, all coaches want their athletes to keep their emotions “in check” and simply pay attention to what’s happening. But how many of us actually train our athletes to do so through mindfulness?

Mindfulness training takes a substantial investment. Like any kind of physical or technique training, your athletes need lots of “reps” with mindfulness. Research has demonstrated that individuals need to practice daily to realize the positive functional and structural brain adaptations that lead to optimal sport performance. Even though many coaches realize how beneficial mindfulness training can be, many do not implement it because of a perceived lack of time and lack of knowledge where to get started. If you do have interest in realizing the multitude of benefits mindfulness training can bring, the following can serve as a starting point.

1. Athletes need to understand what mindfulness is and how it can help them. Mindfulness can be framed as a way to train attentional skills and improve emotional regulation for optimal sport performance and positive mental health. Articles and resources such as this one can be used to generate awareness.
2. Athletes need to learn and practice the fundamentals of mindfulness. If you have the financial recourses to bring in a mindfulness practitioner to work with your team a few times, that can be a great start. There are many apps that your athletes can use such as Headspace or Brightmind that can serve as a guided daily practice. It is however important to realize that depending primarily on these apps focuses the practice of your athletes on their internal experiences. For optimal sport performance, athletes need to train both their internal and external focus capacities. But these apps can teach the basics and be used to help develop habits of mindful practice.
3. Coaches must actively work to generate “buy-in”, embed the concept into their program, and look for ways to integrate mindfulness practice within existing routines and moments. A team with whom I worked already took a “mental minute” before each practice or competition. That became a space to have a brief daily mindfulness practice. There are other moments (e.g., in-between points, before a serve or pitch, running back on defense) where coaches can help athletes learn to practice and habituate being mindful. I encourage some type of a “check-in” or accountability system to incentivize regular mindfulness practice. However, you want to put it together, figure out a way to ensure that athletes under your direction know you are thinking about mindfulness regularly and checking in on them in some way to ensure they are getting their “reps”. Further, you as their coach will be more effective in these regards if you also develop your own mindfulness practice.
4. There are so many ways to practice mindfulness. I attempt to expose athletes to many different techniques and then encourage them to pick something that works and practice regularly. There is also a benefit to training with a variety of techniques once an athlete becomes comfortable with the fundamentals. This includes mindful walking, eating, yoga and sport-specific movement patterns, tactile meditation (using natural equipment of their sport), sound-focused meditation, and other mindful exercises that include adding stimuli (e.g., loud music) and engaging in something active such as throwing tennis balls back and forth. Integrating these types of techniques will be the most challenging. It will be most effective if a certified mindfulness practitioner is able to work with your athletes in this way. However, I believe that if an athlete has a strong awareness of mindfulness, continuous practice with mindfulness fundamentals, and has actively worked with you to integrate mindful practice into their sport, they can explore other online resources and attempt to practice mindfulness in other ways.

The 2021-22 Phoenix Suns had the best record in the NBA’s regular season, winning 78% of their games. But Game 3 of their playoff series with the Dallas Mavericks proved to be pivotal with the Mavericks going on to win the series. It could be argued that the Phoenix Suns were the superior team and had greater overall basketball talent. But it is oftentimes what happens between athletes’ left and right ear lobes in key moments of athletic competition that makes the most difference in the outcome. Make sure that the next time an official makes a poor call against your team, or some kind of external event stands to threaten your athlete’s execution, they are mindfully equipped to navigate the situation and perform to their capabilities.

References

Grecucci, A., Pappaianni, E., Siugzdaite, R., Theuninck, A., & Job, R. (2015). Mindful emotion regulation: Exploring the neurocognitive mechanisms behind mindfulness. BioMed     Research International, 2015.

Khoury, B., Sharma, M., Rush, S. E., & Fournier, C. (2015). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for healthy individuals: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 78(6), 519-        528.

Moore, A., & Malinowski, P. (2009). Meditation, mindfulness, and cognitive flexibility. Consciousness and Cognition, 18(1), 176-186.

Perry, J. E., Ross, M., Weinstock, J., & Weaver, T. (2017). Efficacy of a brief mindfulness intervention to prevent athletic task performance deterioration: A randomized controlled trial. The Sport Psychologist, 31(4), 410-421.