Effects of a mindfulness intervention on volleyball-specific performance: a randomized trial

Abstract

Mindfulness-based interventions have gained increasing attention in sport psychology as approaches to enhance attentional control, emotion regulation, and performance consistency under competitive pressure. This study examined the effects of an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention on volleyball-specific technical performance in elite female athletes. Twenty-eight volleyball players aged 17 to 19 years were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=14), which completed 12 mindfulness sessions over 6 weeks (two 60-min sessions/wk) before regular volleyball training, or a control group (n=14), which continued standard volleyball training only. Training load was standardized across groups and monitored to ensure consistency. Volleyball performance was assessed before and after the intervention using a standardized skill test battery, including forearm pass, overhead pass, serve, spike, and block accuracy measures. The experimental group demonstrated significantly greater improvements than the control group across all five performance measures (group×time interactions, all p<0.05, anf η² range=0.074–0.174), with the largest effects observed for spike accuracy (F(1.26)=34.2, p<0.001, and η²=0.174) and serve accuracy (F(1.26)=13.2, p<0.001, and η²=0.121). These findings indicate that mindfulness-based training may serve as an effective complementary approach to technical and physical preparation in volleyball, supporting skill execution and performance consistency in competitive contexts.