Towards a contextual approach to athletic performance enhancement: Reflections, perspectives, and applications

Traditionally, mental training in sport and performance realms has mainly been based on the psychological skills training (PST) procedures which include assumptions of changing, replacing, and eliminating negative thoughts for performance enhancement (Gardner & Moore, 2004). The contextual approach of changing the relationship with self and context was not part of the theory-to-practice paradigm. With the pioneering publication of the intervention protocol of the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment approach in sport (MAC; Gardner & Moore, 2007), mindfulness, and acceptance approaches started to become adopted by researchers and practitioners in sport context, which also include the self-compassion training for athletes (e.g., Mosewich, Crocker, Kowalski, & DeLongis, 2013). Several mindfulness and acceptance based intervention programs were developed such as the Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE; Kaufman, Glass, & Pineau, 2018) and the Mindfulness Meditation Training for Sport (MMTS; Baltzell & Summers, 2018). Empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the interventions has been preliminarily established including increased mindfulness, flow, and performance, and decreased competitive anxiety (Noetel, Ciarrochi, Van Zanden, & Lonsdale, 2017). To inform future research and applied practice, it is time to take stock of what we have accomplished during the past 15 years in terms of reflections, perspectives, and applications of the contextual approach to athletic performance enhancement. The current special issue of the Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, which includes eight papers, indeed serves this purpose.

The special issue

Two contextually oriented intervention tools were introduced. Building on years of applied practice in Team Denmark, Henriksen (2019) introduced a seven-step tool, called the Values Compass, which was guided by the contextual principle that the form of behavior is less important than the context of behavior. The Values Compass tool is a functional analysis framework on athletes’ behaviors to increase athletes’ awareness of values-driven and emotion-driven behaviors, which can further lead to value-driven behaviors. Building on the acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), Schwabach, Bartley, and Polk (2018) introduced the ACT Matrix. The purpose of the matrix is to offer a framework for practitioners to ultimately help increase athletes’ mental flexibility and valued action via a four-quadrant ACT processes regarding the context (i.e., mental vs. sensory) and function (i.e., towards vs. away). Taking the self-as-context point of view into consideration, the four ACT processes are: values identification (mental experiencing/toward), fusion with thoughts (mental experiencing/away), experiential avoidance (physical experiencing/away), and committed action (physical experiencing/toward).

New understandings on stages of developing mindfulness skills and the upside of vulnerability using mindfulness lens are also offered. Kee (2019) proposed that the development of mindfulness skills in athletes can be informed by using Fitts and Posner’s (1967) three-stage motor skill learning model. The three-stage framework offers a conceptualization of the developmental stages when athletes pursue mindfulness practice. It is a very useful guide in understanding how athletes may develop their mindfulness skills, in particular self-learning. Hägglund, Kenttä, Thelwell, and Wagstaff (2019) proposed the positive value and upside of vulnerability via the mindfulness-based approach of self-reflection, self-awareness, and self-compassion. These authors suggested that a more comprehensive understanding of vulnerability (i.e., experience and be in touch with both love and pain) can benefit individuals in sport, beyond the traditional approach of viewing vulnerability solely as being associated with weakness.

Experts’ perspectives on the theoretical understanding and practical guides of applying ACT and self-compassion in improving performance and well-being of athletes were shared. Smith, Leeming, Forman, and Hayes (2019) discussed the components of the theoretical framework of psychological flexibility framework that underpins ACT and shared their insights on how to measure the ACT process behaviors. Mosewich, Ferguson, McHugh, and Kowalski (2019) discussed how self-compassion intervention and practice can be used to improve wellbeing and performance of athletes. Authors also noted some key strategies addressing the fundamental questions such as how to overcome the fear of self-compassion and considerations of offering self-compassion in representative populations like men athletes and cultural diversity issue.

The application and reflections of two mindfulness and acceptance-based intervention programs, the Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) and the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Insight-Commitment (MAIC) program, were shared. Pineau, Glass, Kaufman, and Minkler (2019) demonstrated a case study of how the authors applied the MSPE in a two-year case study of women’s lacrosse team, along with the sharing best practices of offering MSPE. A useful tool called the FAME profile (Flow, Anxiety, Mindfulness, Emotion regulation/experiential avoidance) was also introduced for assessing the performance profile of athletes. Su, Si, and Zhang (2019) offer specific contextual considerations when modifying the MAC approach in sport (Gardner & Moore, 2007) to the Chinese culture. Emphasis is placed on collectivist-based values (vs. personal values) insight, hence the word Insight added to the culturally revised approach. In addition to a theoretical consideration of the MAIC, they emphasize practical considerations including the importance of daily meditation practice and ways to further strengthen the MAIC approach, which are helpful to all practitioners when considering offering mindfulness-based interventions.

The way forward

In this special issue, authors reflected and shared what they have learned applying the contextual approach to athletic performance enhancement. Looking forward, we recognize that rigorous design is also needed to produce robust evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of mindfulness- and acceptance-based approaches. Yet, at once, we acknowledge that it is extremely difficult to conduct a randomized controlled trial in an elite sports context with sufficient power. Adolescent and student athletes might be an alternative (e.g., Röthlin, Birrer, Horvath, & Holtforth, 2016; Zhang et al., 2016) from the population perspective, or the randomized controlled cross-over design (Elbourne et al., 2002) from the design perspective. In addition, we propose sport psychology practitioners to use the N-of-1 randomized controlled trials in their interventions (Shaffer, Kronish, Falzon, Cheung, & Davidson, 2018). Nonetheless, we do hope that this special issue provides innovative ideas and offers guidance to researchers and practitioners as we continue to promote contextual behavioral science in a sports context for performance enhancement and well-being promotion.

Additional information

Funding

Chun-Qing Zhang's contribution to this editorial was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31800948).