Mindfulness Training with a Fencing Athlete Who Was Troubled by an Uncharacteristic Inability to Perform Well Competitively: A Case Report

Positive thinking is one of the psychological skills that mental training programs aim to help athletes cultivate in order to enhance performance. It has been noted, however, that some athletes do not find positive thinking effective for that purpose. This case report describes a fencing athlete who used positive thinking to cope with negative ruminations prior to a competition and then stopped using positive thinking and engaged in mindfulness. As a result of applying mindfulness, the patient developed the ability to take part in competitions without obsessing and without negative ruminations. These findings show the importance of assessing, in detail, how the psychological skills training used with athletes is affecting their cognition, behavior, and performance and of implementing appropriate interventions based on these assessments.