Coaching Character Strengths and Mindfulness for Achieving Flow in Tennis Performance

1. Coaching Character Strengths and Mindfulness for Achieving Flow in Tennis Performance Urszula Wolski

2. Coaching Character Strengths & Mindfulness for Achieving Flow in Tennis Performance • Aim: to explore the relationship between character strengths and mindfulness during tennis coaching sessions to improve tennis performance and to achieve ‘flow’ • ‘Flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) can be seen to occur when we are totally immersed in what we are doing. • Tennis can be seen as a game of two parts: • A physical game • A mental game • ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ (Gallwey, 2015) • Gallwey identifies two ‘selves’: • Self 1 – critical and judgmental • Self 2 - automatic • To deal with the mental game of tennis, a player needs to develop a certain ‘mind-set’ and adopt a range of techniques (Reardon & Dekkers, 2016). HOW? • Character Strengths • Mindfulness

3. Character Strengths Character Strengths • Do we know our character strengths? • Most people don’t • These are different to our ‘talents’ or ‘skills’ • “a strength is pre-existing capacity for a particular way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is authentic and energising to the user, and enables optimal functioning, development and performance. Using your strengths allows you to be at your best, to feel more engaged, more alive, more vigorous and more in flow.” • Linley (2008, p9,12): • First developments of character strengths developed by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman (2004) • Based on research including literature searches on strengths and virtues across different cultures and historical periods • Known as the VIA classification of character strengths, each 24 character strengths are clustered under six broad headings or ‘virtues’.

4. Mindfulness • Origins: Eastern and Buddhist traditions • Popularised in the West by Jon Kabat-Zinn late 1970s with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programme • Deliberate focus is on what is occurring in the present moment, to be non-critical and non-judgmental (Niemiec, 2013) • Number of mindfulness programs include: • Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) • Focuses on anxiety, stress & addiction • Mindfulness Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) (Baltzell, 2016) • Mindfulness-Based Tennis Psychology (MBTP ) (Endicott, 2010) However, none focus on both character strengths & mindfulness

5. Character Strengths + Mindfulness • Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice (MBSP) (Niemiec, 2013) • “the practice of mindfulness is strengths and the practice of strengths is mindfulness.” (Niemiec, 2013, p104). • MBSP focuses on what is best in people • Their character strengths • Integration of both negative and positive thoughts and feelings

6. Design: MBSP Programme for Tennis Each session comprised of two 45 minute sections which included various meditations & mindfulness exercises that focused on strengths. The tennis coaching elements were devised by the researcher (who is a qualified coach). • Using the MBSP programme a sample of 5 amateur tennis players took part in a series of four 90 minute coaching sessions over 8 weeks. At the start of the programme, each participant completed the VIA Strengths Assessment in order to identify their top strengths. Between sessions participants carried out a series of ‘homework’ exercises (MBSP). Participants recorded their experiences in a paper/electronic journal. • Exercises included (from MBSP): • Body mindfulness meditation • Character Strengths Breathing Space • Raisin exercise • Walking meditation • Loving-kindness meditation • How did this translate to the tennis court?

7. Main Findings After the 8 weeks, semi-structured interviews were carried out with each participant and the data analysed using thematic analysis. Four main themes identified:

8. Conclusions • The course was beneficial to all tennis players who participated • Awareness and mindfulness of character strengths & how to use them • Impact not only on the court, but off the court as well • “I’m going to try and use this more to help me stop smoking” (P1) • However: • For one participant: • “I find it hard to be alone with my thoughts, so I tend to avoid that. There was probably some part of me that was kind of avoiding it as well.” (P4) • Mindfulness meditation is not for everybody and in some circumstances may lead to negative self-talk and troubling, even morbid thoughts (Niemiec, 2013). • Whilst a more formal mindfulness meditation may not have been suitable for this participant, he was able to practice mindfulness informally in daily activities.

9. References Baltzell, A.L. (2016). Mindfulness and performance. In: Ivtzan, I. & T. Lomas (Eds). Mindfulness in positive psychology: The science of meditation and wellbeing (pp 1-12). London: Routledge. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal performance. NY: Cambridge University Press. Endicott, N. (2010). Mindfulness-Based Tennis Psychology. Available at: https://www.tennismentalskills.com/ Gallwey, T. (2015). The Inner Game of Tennis: The Ultimate Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance. London: Pan Books. Linley, A. (2008). Average to A+: Realising strengths in yourself and others. Coventry: CAPP Press. Niemiec, R.M. (2013). Mindfulness and Character Strengths: A Practical Guide to Flourishing. Hogrefe Publishing. Peterson, C. & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford University Press. Reardon, J. & Dekkers, H. (2016). Mindset Awareness in Sport. 3rd Ed. Amsterdam: Mindset Publishers. Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14.

10. Any Questions? Contact details: urszula.wolski@northampton.ac.uk https://northampton.academia.edu/UrszulaWolski