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Little research has integrated mindfulness and perfectionism, particularly within sports wherein athletes are judged on performance to a standard of perfection. The current study had two primary aims: (a) to explore profiles of mindfulness and perfectionism among intercollegiate gymnasts through a person-centered approach and (b) to analyze differences in objective performance across the resulting profiles. The analytic sample consisted of 244 NCAA gymnasts who completed self-report measures of mindfulness and perfectionism. Competitive performance records (i.e., national qualifying scores) were then gathered for participating gymnasts. Cluster analyses revealed a three-cluster solution; however, significant performance differences were not observed across the three profiles due to lower than desired power. Small to moderate effect size estimates provided some evidence that perfectionism may be adaptive to gymnastics performance. Elite-level athletes were represented across three distinct profiles, suggesting that more than one profile of characteristics may be adaptive for reaching high levels of performance.

Little research has explored the relationship between highly skilled athletes’ self-talk and their competitive performance over the course of a season. For the current study, positive, negative, motivational, instructional, and functional dimensions of collegiate gymnasts’ (N = 141) self-talk were assessed. The gymnasts’ competitive balance beam performances in intercollegiate meets were also recorded. Multiple regression analysis revealed that positive self-talk significantly predicted balance beam performance and performance consistency. Significant positive correlations were found among key self-talk variables, except negative self-talk. Significant negative correlations were found between negative self-talk and self-talk functions (i.e., attention, cognitive and emotional control, and confidence). The results highlight the interrelationships among various types and functions of self-talk in competitive settings, and provide evidence for the ways in which self-talk is related to the performance of highly skilled athletes. Suggestions for how these findings might be applied by athletes, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners are provided.

A series of studies was conducted by Senay et al. in 2010 to replicate and extend research indicating that self-posed questions have performance benefits. Studies 1–3 compared the effects of the self-posed interrogative question (“Will I?”) to declarative (“I will”) and control self-talk, and found no significant group differences in motivation, perceived exertion, or performance. In Studies 4–5, interrogative, declarative, and control self-talk primes were compared, and no outcome differences were found. In Study 6, the effects of self-talk on motivation, perceived exertion, and physical performance were assessed. The self-talk groups performed better and were more motivated than the control group, but declarative and interrogative groups did not differ from each other. Finally, meta-analyses of the six studies indicated no significant differences among conditions. These results highlight the value of replication and suggest that factors other than grammatical form of self-posed questions may drive the demonstrated relationships between self-talk and performance.