The effects of Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) training on mindfulness, and flow in national competitive swimmers
Open accessAbstract
There are limited studies examining the effects of a mindfulness intervention for a specific sport population group.The aim of this applied study was to investigate the effects of a mindful sport performance enhancement (MSPE) program on the mindfulness and flow of adolescent swimmers.Sixteen competitive adolescent swimmers were split into MSPE (n = 9) and relaxation training (RT) (n = 7) groups for eight weeks.Participants completed measures of trait and state flow mindfulness pre and post intervention.Paired t test results revealed that the MSPE group improved trait flow characteristics and global trait flow.ANCOVA analysis also revealed significantly higher effects on global trait flow and the action-awareness merging and clear goals subscales for the MSPE group compared to the RT group.These results suggested that sport orientated mindfulness interventions can psychologically benefit competitive youth swimmers.The study indicates that further research could consider applied designs to investigate in more detail the experiences this population has with specific mindfulness exercises.
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Mindfulness increases athletes' experiences of flow.
“research has shown that mindfulness increases athletes' experiences of flow (Chen and Meggs, 2021; De Oliveira et al., 2024).”
From Mindfulness and self-rated performance among novice athletes in China: a sequential mediating role of flow and cognitive anxiety (2025) · cites this paper as Chen and Meggs, 2021
The Results (Pre and post-intervention differences between groups; page unavailable) report a greater increase in global trait flow among national competitive swimmers receiving MSPE than among those receiving relaxation training. The Discussion and Conclusions (page unavailable) say mindfulness skills did not significantly improve, so the study supports an effect of the mindfulness-based programme on flow in swimmers, not the broader claim that increased mindfulness itself increases athletes’ flow. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Chen, M. A., & Meggs, J.
- Affiliations
- Teesside University (GB)
- Lancaster University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Mark A.
- Venue
- Journal of Human Sport and Exercise
- Published
- 2020
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 1988-5202 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3020115235
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 6.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Journal of Human Sport and Exercise (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Teesside University Research Portal (Teesside University) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- TeesRep (Teesside University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion)
- RUA, Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante (Universidad de Alicante) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Flow Experience in Various Fields
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Keywords
- mindfulness, flow, competitive swimmers, youth athletes, relaxation training, sport performance enhancement, clear goals
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