Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) Program and Copping with Performance Anxiety: A case study

The purpose of this study was to research the subjective experiences of an athlete during practice match competitions and to examine the potential usefulness of an adapted MAC intervention in addressing the emotional difficulties of the athlete. We investigated the usefulness of a 12-session MAC program altered for educational purposes and presented data as a case study. The case study suggested that the athlete experienced a multitude of anxiety while practicing match competitions; the athlete typically avoided these emotional difficulties and engaged in avoidant behaviors; an adapted MAC approach for educational purposes could be helpful to help the athletes accept private events, commit to performance-related behaviors, and engage more frequently to performance under pressure. More could be done to address the needs of athletes experiencing performance anxiety beyond the structure of our 12-session educational intervention. We concluded that the MAC-based intervention, to a certain extent, educated the athlete about how to meet the challenges of performance difficulties, commit to values-driven behavior, and exhibit behaviors that would potentially permit optimal performance.