Mindfulness, meditation and the Complete Athlete
A study on the application of mindfulness in sport
In March 2017 Shaun Martyn and Greg Wythes were invited to introduce mindfulness training to a group of emerging young players from Cricket NSW, and to assess its influence on their performance.
THE PROGRAM
The program we outlined to Cricket NSW was an 8-week program focusing on Communication, Mindfulness and Movement, with a 2-hour session each week.
Communication: The DISC program helps to identify communication styles. It allows the individual to identify the communication styles of others, and adapt one’s own style to the circumstances.
Mindfulness: The mindfulness techniques we chose were based in yogic and Buddhist meditation practices, but condensed, without most of their cultural or religious features.
Movement: Because we were working with athletes we wanted to introduce the concept of Mindfulness in Action.
Cricket NSW had chosen 8 players from their Elite Pathway program: 4 men and 4 women.
THE APPLICATION
Early in March we met the players for the first time and spent the first 15 minutes outlining the program.
Shaun took them through the DISC approach and their level of engagement lifted the players recognised themselves in the profile it returned. This made it more personal and the ensuing discussion was open and lively. They were interested.
Later we introduced them to a body scan and a method of using the breath with the aim of becoming more attuned to natural sensations of the body generally outside of awareness.
What we soon began to recognize as each session progressed, was that these players were busy, — studying or working, with lots of training and practice sessions built around their outside commitments. When the players came to us at 6pm we were the last item on their schedule for the day.
So we cut each session back to around 60 to 90 minutes, dropped the Movement component and reduced DISC. Each session had a similar structure. A discussion of what they had practised since the previous session. A video, an episode from the ABC’s Catalyst or a TED lectures where an athlete or coach outlined how mindfulness had transformed performance. Then further discussion of each of these videos and lots of questions.
One question that came up early was about thinking. We explained that there is a common misconception that the purpose of Mindfulness is to stop thinking, but that’s not what it’s really about. You can’t prevent thoughts but you can let them go. As well you can change your inner attention from thought to sensory experience — to the breath and the subtle sensations within the body — and feel them without thinking about them. This reduces the impact of thought and creates a quieter internal world. Once the players had some experience of applying this technique and more importantly, could feel it in themselves, we began to introduce some of the theory, the research and the background to its practice. We explained the neurological changes that came about through the practice; how mindfulness reduced the influence of the limbic system, — the older, more primitive part of the brain that initiated effects based on the activation of the Sympathetic Nervous System; a system that prioritized survival and activated the fight/flight reaction in situations of threat; and how Mindfulness builds the capacity of the Pre-Frontal Cortex — the part of the brain that controls impulse and emotional reaction — to respond in a more measured way to external stimuli.
After each session we emailed them links to Apps, or articles, or YouTube videos, either revising or preparing for the next session, and the players were pragmatic in approaching this material. They watched the videos and read the handouts. They asked questions that grew in sensitivity week to week. Maybe it just crept up on them. I know it crept up on me. But by week 4 they were all practising and they were feeling it. The guided practices in each session had given them a taste of what they were looking for, a clearer mental space, and had fostered enough confidence to practise alone.
Most players felt positive about the trial in their evaluations. But some saw specific benefits emerging. Mikayla Hinkley is a member of the Australian Under 21 team and was selected for the tour to Sri Lanka. Early in April she sent us an email: “I found being mindful over there quite difficult due to the continuous excitement of being overseas and also the heavy playing schedule. All up we played 6 games in which the first 4 I highly under-performed.
On the day of the 5th game my mind was completely unfocused and thoughts were rushing through at a million miles per hour, I decided to meditate on the bus on the way to the ground, it was a 30 minute commute in which I found myself meditating for at least 20 of those minutes. That day I opened the batting in the t20 (keeping in mind this was the first time I had meditated before a game) things were amazingly different! Out in the middle it was a difficult day to bat as the wicket was sticky and our run rate was extremely low which was causing a lot of scoreboard pressure, however I felt so calm and collected. The pace of everything just seemed to slow down and I really felt as though I was in total control of my mind and focus.
The 6th and final game was very much the same as I went through the same routine of meditation on the way to the ground. Both days I opened and both days I was not out (I haven’t been not out for a very long time!!) and I top scored in both games. I wished I had done it from game one!’
Mikayla now practises daily. She says that her life is better, not just her cricket. She feels she has more time and space around her, even in daily life, and that things come at her at a slower pace and she is ready for anything. ‘Mindfulness was hard at the beginning,’ she says. ‘But you begin to see there’s no right or wrong. If there’s thought, you just accept it and then go back to the next breath.’
Jason Sangha is a member of the Under 19 Australian team. In the recent international series against Sri Lanka he was captain for one of the games. Early in this game Sri Lanka were well on top, scoring quickly and hitting to all parts of the ground. Jason’s thoughts were swirling as he looked for a solution. ‘I walked slowly to my slips position in the break between overs,’ he said. ‘I felt my contact with the ground through my feet and took my attention to my breath. I let thought drop away and felt this calm me and clear my mind. I didn’t think about the problem at hand and then the idea formed in this clearer mental space.’
Jason told the wicketkeeper he was bringing Param, a spin bowler, into the attack. The keeper complained that it was only the 7th over. It was too early. Jason remained composed, even in the face of a strong, negative reaction from the fast bowler he replaced. Param took the wicket. The partnership and Sri Lanka’s ascendency was broken and this was the key moment that turned the game. Australia went on to win.
‘In those moments when everything is rushing and random thought are coming from all directions, I find I can now identify this much earlier and clear my mind,’ Jason says. ‘As captain I felt that decision making from this space was easier. I can certainly see a place for mindfulness in cricket.’
Geoff Lawson is a former Test fast bowling great and currently coach, commentator and writer on cricket. For some time he’s been been following the development of these players and, as well, has a keen interest in the impact of new training strategies on performance. ‘A lot of stuff gets put in front of these players in terms of performance improvement,’ says Geoff. ‘And they’re smart, young and ambitious. They’ll try things out, but it has to work or they’ll let it go. In this mindfulness trial they found a practical application of something that had been considered abstract and unusable. But the big surprise was the immediate results. We thought we might see results slowly trickling in, but the impact in the under 19 International, when they had only just finished the trial, was entirely unexpected.’
We feel there is much more to be achieved in working with this group of players as they mature. Both in their game and their practice. It also defines goals that could be replicated with other groups of elite athletes. But, for Shaun and myself, what they were able to gain from the practice and achieve in their game so quickly, has become a clear starting point and a solid foundation for the future.
Greg Wythes has been teaching yoga in the northern suburbs of Wollongong for the last 20 years. Shaun Martyn has spent much of the same period working in corporate training.”
For a link to the full article: shaunmartynassociates.com/?page_id=33
