NCAA Mindfulness Program — USC Sport Psychology
Mindfulness Training Program Article, Dylan Firsick, PhD and Robin Scholefield, PhD
In February, the USC Sport Psychology team was awarded a $25,000 grant to study mindfulness among college student-athletes. The grant was funded through the Innovations in Research and Practice program as part of the NCAA’s commitment to supporting “pilot projects designed to enhance student-athlete psychosocial well-being and mental health.” Dr. Robin Scholefield and Dr. Dylan Firsick authored the grant and USC was one of five schools chosen to be recipients. A total of $100,000 in grant funding was provided to the five schools. Over the next year several USC men’s and women’s athletics teams will be completing the program with outcomes to be presented at the NCAA convention in January, 2018.
The program is based on a 5-session model, developed to incorporate an introduction to mindfulness principles through acknowledging emotional and cognitive experiences combined with the practice of meditation and relaxation exercises to promote healthy coping. Each session includes a learning component and experiential activity designed to help student-athletes both recognize the existence of stress in their lives and provide tools to manage it. Primary goals of the program are to reduce anxiety, improve overall wellbeing, and increase student-athlete mindfulness skills and abilities.
The program also serves as an embodiment of the overall approach to mental health, wellbeing, and performance taken by the Sport Psychology team at USC. We very much view the student-athlete from a holistic perspective, recognizing and valuing the student-athlete as a whole person, who has the optimal opportunity to be their best, consistent peak performer when physically and mentally healthy. While our mindfulness training program offers perspectives and techniques to improve overall emotional and mental wellbeing, these techniques may also be used to improve performance. Thus, these techniques become more appealing to student-athletes to practice and use in a wide variety of circumstances and settings. Additionally, the mindfulness techniques offered may be used both individually and as a team, which offers flexibility in its use. Student-athletes often feel overloaded, thus adding even something helpful can feel like too much. The opportunity to integrate mindfulness exercises into the team routine may be viewed as much less onerous and can become part of a familiar team routine without feeling it is adding to the overall individual burden.
If you would like more information on this program, feel free to contact Dr. Robin Scholefield, Dr. Dylan Firsick, or Dr. Lani Lawrence from the USC Sport Psychology team.
