Effectiveness of Mindfulness and Acceptance Training on Reducing Sport Injury Anxiety and Improving Performance of Soccer Players
Background and Aim: Mindfulness has been defined as the non judgemental and awareness at the moment of present experience. Mindfulness meditation is one of the main athletic performance enhancement strategies that affects through improvement of concentration. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of a mindfulness and acceptance training program on reducing sport injury anxiety and improving performance of soccer players. Materials and Methods: The research followed a semi experimental design with pre test and post test and control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of 26 soccer teams in the second group of Tehran League 2. The statistical sample included two teams with an age range of 24.5 years, who were randomly selected. To measure the data, Demographic questionnaire, Mindfulness Inventory for Sport (MIS) Sport Injury Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and Assessment questionnaire of Sport Performance were used. The Mindfulness intervention was implemented in seven sessions with one week intervals. Results: The mean scores of anxiety in the experimental group in the pre test stage was 2.97 and 2.49 in the post test phase. The pre test score of soccer players was 4.62 and the post test score was 5.6. According to the data obtained, the pre test scores had a significant effect on the score of anxiety in sport injuries and sport performance; by controlling the effect of pre test scores, the two groups for sport injury anxiety and sport performance were significantly different (P <0.05) So, the anxiety of sport injury in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group and the sport performance was higher in the experimental group than in the control group. Conclusion: Findings of the present study showed significant implications regarding the effect of a mindfulness and acceptance training program on reducing sport injury anxiety and improving performance of soccur Players. As a result, the sport coaches and sport psychologist can use mindfulness as a simple and inexpensive method to decrease sport injury anxiety and improve sport performance in athletes.