The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Attentional Control During Off-Season Among Football Players. (June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baltar, Yago Carioca; Filgueiras, Alberto
• Is Part Of: SAGE Open. Volume 8:Number 2(2018:Apr./Jun.)
• Publication Date: 2018-06
• Subjects: mindfulness -- attention -- athletes -- football -- performance; Social sciences -- Periodicals; 300.5
• DOI: 10.1177/2158244018781896
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2158-2440

Abstract

Mindfulness can be defined as the process of maintaining attention in the present, without judgment or expectations. Recent advances in sports sciences suggest that mindfulness meditation may have a positive effect on performance. The present article hypothesized that those improvements are associated with increasing levels of attentional control. Altogether, participants of the study are 40 elite football players who were followed longitudinally for 4 months during off-season control, and experimental groups were paired based on field position. Mindfulness skills and attentional control were measured. Results showed that participants from the experimental group kept the same levels of mindfulness skills and attentional control throughout the whole period of intervention, whereas the control group presented decrease after the third month in both psychological variables. The results lead to the conclusion that mindfulness meditation does not improve attentional control or mindfulness skills; however, it prevents those variables to show decrease among elite football players.