Mindfulness has been found to be related to improved athletic performance and propensity to achieve flow states. The relationship between mindfulness and flow has only recently been examined in elite athletes. To build on this literature, we administered the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Dispositional Flow Scale to 92 elite athletes. Psychometric analyses supported the validity of the FFMQ. Males scored higher than females on the FFMQ facet of Nonjudging of Inner Experience. Athletes from individual and pacing sports scored higher on the FFMQ facet of Observing than athletes from team-based and nonpacing sports. Correlations between mindfulness and flow were stronger in athletes from individual and pacing sports compared with team-based and nonpacing sports. Mindfulness correlated with different facets of flow in males compared with females. The results support the use of the five-facet mindfulness construct in elite athletes and suggest the relationship between mindfulness and flow possibly may vary by gender and sport type in this population.
Search Results
Mindfulness and Flow in Elite Athletes
Stuart Cathcart, Matt McGregor, and Emma Groundwater
Association Between Sexual Violence Experiences and Well-Being and Risk for Depression in Elite Athletes Depends on the Context of the Incidents
Jeannine Ohlert, Thea Rau, and Marc Allroggen
international athletes from a population representative sample in the Netherlands and Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) reported to have experienced sexual violence of any kind in sport. Prevalence rates in German elite athletes, that is competitive athletes who represent their region or country
Elite Athletes Coping With Depression: A Qualitative Study
Florence Lebrun, Áine MacNamara, Dave Collins, and Sheelagh Rodgers
Significant sport literature has focused on the psychological factors required by elite athletes to convert their potential into world-class performance ( Collins, MacNamara, & McCarthy, 2016 ; MacNamara, Button, & Collins, 2010 ; MacNamara & Collins, 2015 ; Orlick & Partington, 1988 ) as well
How Much Sleep Does an Elite Athlete Need?
Charli Sargent, Michele Lastella, Shona L. Halson, and Gregory D. Roach
The true function of sleep is not yet fully understood, but it plays an important role in energy conservation, 1 nervous system recuperation, 2 host-defense mechanisms, 3 and restoration of optimal performance 4 —all of which are critical for elite athletes. The amount of sleep required to
Can Genetic Testing Predict Talent? A Case Study of 5 Elite Athletes
Craig Pickering and John Kiely
Over the last 30 years, our appreciation of how genetics influences elite sport performance has grown exponentially, with previous estimates of the heritability of elite athlete status within a population reported to be approximately 66%. 1 Similarly, our understanding of how specific genetic
Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations Between Athlete Burnout, Insomnia, and Polysomnographic Indices in Young Elite Athletes
Markus Gerber, Simon Best, Fabienne Meerstetter, Sandrine Isoard-Gautheur, Henrik Gustafsson, Renzo Bianchi, Daniel J. Madigan, Flora Colledge, Sebastian Ludyga, Edith Holsboer-Trachsler, and Serge Brand
, & Fletcher, 2009 ). This also applies to junior elite sport, as young elite athletes may encounter issues related to being an adolescent (e.g., increasing responsibility and social pressures), being a student (e.g., increasing school demands), and being an athlete (e.g., increasing training loads
Exploring Elite Athlete Experiences of Growth: Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Well-Being
Erin Howard-Cook and Karen Howells
identified the pandemic as an adversity ( Gupta & McCarthy, 2021 ). Adversity, defined as “negative life circumstances that are known to be statistically associated with adjustment difficulties” ( Luthar & Cicchetti, 2000 , p. 858), in this instance, involved elite athletes experiencing significant changes
Does an Accelerated Program Give Equivalent Results in Both Elite Athletes and Nonathletes?
Özlem Feyzioğlu, Özgul Öztürk, Bilsen Sirmen, and Selim Muğrabi
of such an accelerated program on nonathletes and compared its clinical results with elite athletes. From this point of view, our study aim was to compare the same accelerated rehabilitation program’s functional outcomes between elite athletes and nonathletes. We hypothesized that an accelerated
Sport Psychology Consultants’ Views on Working With Perfectionistic Elite Athletes
Ellinor Klockare, Luke F. Olsson, Henrik Gustafsson, Carolina Lundqvist, and Andrew P. Hill
working with perfectionistic elite athletes, particularly as it pertains to using a CBT approach. To this end, qualitative methods were used to gain detailed information on (a) how they considered perfectionism to manifest in athletes they worked with and (b) how they used CBT techniques in their work
Telomere Length in Elite Athletes
Carlos A. Muniesa, Zoraida Verde, Germán Diaz-Ureña, Catalina Santiago, Fernando Gutiérrez, Enrique Díaz, Félix Gómez-Gallego, Helios Pareja-Galeano, Luisa Soares-Miranda, and Alejandro Lucia
Growing evidence suggests that regular moderate-intensity physical activity is associated with an attenuation of leukocyte telomere length (LTL) shortening. However, more controversy exists regarding higher exercise loads such as those imposed by elite-sport participation.
Methods:
The authors investigated LTL differences between young elite athletes (n = 61, 54% men, age [mean ± SD] 27.2 ± 4.9 y) and healthy nonsmoker, physically inactive controls (n = 64, 52% men, 28.9 ± 6.3 y) using analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results:
Elite athletes had, on average, higher LTL than control subjects, 0.89 ± 0.26 vs 0.78 ± 0.31, P = .013 for the group effect, with no significant sex (P = .995) or age effect (P = .114).
Conclusions:
The results suggest that young elite athletes have longer telomeres than their inactive peers. Further research might assess the LTL of elite athletes of varying ages compared with both age-matched active and inactive individuals.
