Active relaxation counteracts the effects of ego depletion on performance under evaluative pressure in a state of ego depletion

Does a brief mindfulness intervention counteract the detrimental effects of ego depletion in basketball free throw under pressure?

“…In support of our results, Friese et al (2012) showed that a brief mindfulness induction was more effective than an active control group in mitigating the depleting effects of an emotion suppression task on a subsequent psychological attention task. In addition, a brief 3-min active relaxation exercise helped participants to recover from a depleted self-control strength condition, leading to prevention of impaired sport performance (Englert & Bertrams, 2016; Tyler & Burns, 2008). However, contrary to the findings of Stocker et al (2019) and Yusainy and Lawrence (2015), we found an effect of mindfulness on shooting performance that can be partly attributed to the mitigation effects of ego-depletion on basketball free throw.…”

“…To create high pressure, we exposed participants to distracting audio messages and informed them that individual and team performances would be ranked and made public among participants. Although these procedures have been used in previous studies (Englert & Bertrams, 2016; Englert et al, 2015), it is unknown whether this manipulation successfully changed perceived pressure. Hence, in addition to the incorporation of a manipulation check, future studies should actively manipulate pressure to ascertain whether the effects of brief mindfulness interventions on ego depletion in basketball free throw differ as a function of varying degrees of pressure (Tenenbaum et al, 2009).…”

“…The audio messages were delivered via stereo headphones in two different monotonous digital voices (a female and a male voice) during the entire shooting task (longest time needed to complete the task was 5.22 min). The audio messages were typical worrisome thoughts athletes tend to experience in high-pressure situations (e.g., “I was worrying about my performance”) and were adapted from Oudejans et al (2011) and applied in previous studies (Englert & Bertrams, 2016; Englert et al, 2015). Participants were requested to focus just on the free throws and ignore the audio stream.…”

“…Secondly, although the mindfulness intervention improved state mindfulness, we did not 528 investigate whether mindfulness or ego-depletion also affected athletes' relaxation state. This issue seems 529 important, because it has been shown that active relaxation can counteract negative effects of ego 530 depletion on free throw shooting scores (Englert & Bertrams, 2016). Given the evidence that mindfulness 531 leads to relaxation (Baer, 2003), higher levels of relaxation may explain potential group differences in 532 free throw shooting scores.…”

Exertion of self-control increases fatigue, reduces task self-efficacy, and impairs performance of resistance exercise.

“…Therefore, if coaches, trainers, athletes, or exercisers are concerned with sport and exercise task performance they should be considerate of prior self-control exertion regardless of whether it is cognitive, behavioral, or emotional. As such, it may be worthwhile for coaches and trainers to have their athletes or exercisers rate their fatigue prior to performance to give the coaches an indication of their athletes’ state self-control capacity and whether they need to motivate them through other means (i.e., autonomy support, Englert & Bertrams, 2015a; Graham, Bray, & Martin Ginis, 2014) or give them rest (Englert & Bertrams, 2015b; Tyler & Burns, 2008) as well as try to determine the nature of what made them “lose” self-control.…”