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In today’s busy lifestyle, it’s all too easy to get distracted away from our primary tasks.  Therefore, being able to be present in the moment has great value, and hence, practising mindfulness has been found to be a useful tool to assist with focusing on such tasks.  It’s easy to see that in the high-pressure situation of elite sport, such a skill has great application. This brings us to today’s guest, Dr. Luke McDonald, who discusses his recent work on mindfulness and stress during wheelchair basketball competition.  Luke was a PhD scholar at the Queensland Academy of Sport and now works within the Prospecting for Gold (P4G) program.  The P4G program is incorporating a novel and fresh approach to talent ID and sports transfer for athletes at an elite level.

We hope you enjoy this interview style.  If you have any further questions for Luke, you can email him at [email protected]

 

Journal of Sports Sciences 

Volume 36, 2018 - Issue 4

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2017.1308001

  

Mindfulness training attenuates the increase in salivary cortisol concentration associated with competition in highly trained wheelchair-basketball players

Luke A. MacDonald & Clare L. Minahan

Pages 378-383 | Published online: 30 Mar 2017

 

 ABSTRACT

 

This study determined the effect of 8 wk of mindfulness training (MT) on salivary cortisol (sCort) and rate of salivary Immunoglobulin-A (sIgA) secretion in wheelchair-basketball players during a competition period.

 

The mindful group completed 8 weeks of MT in addition to training and competition. Salivary cortisol and rate of sIgA secretion were measured at baseline, at 2-week intervals, the end and 2 weeks following the intervention.

 

A significant time and group interaction was observed for sCort (F = 3.297, P = 0.040, ES = 0.191); sCort increased in the control group from MT-BL to MT-2wk (P = 0.001) and remained significantly elevated at MT-4wk (P = 0.013) and MT-6wk (P = 0.002). Salivary cortisol decreased from MT-6wk to MT-8wk (P  0.05). Mindful group sCort increased from MT-BL to MT-2wk (P = 0.042) but decreased to concentrations no different to MT-BL for the rest of the intervention period (P > 0.05). There were no group differences in rate of sIgA secretion during the intervention (P = 0.810).

 

It was concluded that 8 weeks of MT attenuated the increase in sCort associated with the competition period. 

 

KEYWORDS: Mindfulness, team-sport, competition, cortisol, immunoglobulin-A

 

Luke's LinkedIn Profile:https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-macdonald-1867a351

 

 

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