Going the distance: Service delivery for the Danish National swimming team during the Olympics

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Abstract

In this presentation I will outline the service delivery for the Danish National swimming team and provide an example of my work based on mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with an individual swimmer during the Olympics. Being part of the Olympics involves a range of stressors and distractions such as a tight packed swimming schedule (up to 12 starts across seven days), a lot of media attention, social media, others and own expectations. In my service delivery during the Olympics I tried to create an awareness of these stressors and distractions. On a normal day at the Olympics I had a short talk with the swimmer in the morning. I observed the swimmer during warm-up and performed mindfulness sessions before or after warm-up and before finals. In between preliminary races and finals, I performed short mindfulness sessions and body-scans to ensure restitution and relaxation before finals. Being successful as a swimmer at the Olympics is related to the degree to which a swimmer can accept the presence of negative thoughts, physiological arousal, emotions such as anxiety or anger, and remain engaged in the task, while behaving in accordance with his or her values (Henriksen, Diment, Hansen, & Larsen, 2016). Therefore it was my task to help swimmers to three key aspects: (a) teaching swimmers to open up, to accept, and to be willing to experience the full range of thoughts and emotions during a high pressure event; (b) teaching swimmers to mindfully engage in the present moment, including task-focused attention; and (c) helping swimmers to behave in accordance to personal values that describe how they would like to be as an athlete and help them engage in actions that display these values.
Original languageEnglish
Publication date2017
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Event14th World Conference on Sport Psychology - Sevilla, Spain
Duration: 10. Jul 201715. Jul 2017
Conference number: 14
http://www.issp2017.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/FINAL-PROGRAM-ISSP-2017.pdf (Final Program )

Conference

Conference14th World Conference on Sport Psychology
Number14
Country/TerritorySpain
CitySevilla
Period10/07/201715/07/2017
Internet address

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