Buddhism way of thought stopping to enhance performance in elite golfers

Advisor: Dr. Naruepon Vongjaturapat Co-Advisor: Dr. Suebsai Boonveerabut

Tanaporn Panich Sport Psychology, Burapha University

Introduction:
Psychological factors are important for the outcome
of golf competition. There are 2 factors required:
Fitness, skills and strategies PST (Psychological skills training) such as pre-shot routine, self-talk, imagery

Anxiety is another aspect that influences on performance and continues to be one of the main research interests for sport psychologists (Hanin, 2000).

 In Buddhism, breath control and meditation has been practiced over 2,000 yeas but very few mentioned about thought stopping of how and what can be applied in sport. In this research, the thought stopping will be employed as an intervention for participants.

Literature review:
The review is about 2 important topics:
Thoughts and emotions from Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
Buddhism way of thought stopping from Visuddhimagga - Anapanasati

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

CBT is based on the concept that emotions and behaviors result from cognitive processes. Human beings may modify such processes to achieve different ways of feeling and behaving.

There are several key points of CBT that are relevant to this research such as; Seven inferential distortions
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Black and white thinking Filtering Over-generalization Mind-reading Fortune-telling Emotional reasoning Personalizing

Buddhism way of thought stopping: Visuddhimagga - Anapanasati In Buddhism, the primary goal is the pursuit of the deepest possible knowledge of the human capacity for growth, self-knowledge, and the transformation of human behavior and functioning.

 Five techniques for relaxing disruptive thoughts;

1. Replacement 2. Reflection 3. Redirecting 4. Reconstructing 5. Resistance

Methodology:
Participants are 16 elite golfers, both men and women, who still play competitively. They will be divided into 2 groups.
Experimental group, 8 golfers Control group, 8 golfers

Purposive sampling

Procedures:
Phase Length of training 1 hour Description Drills and measurement

1 2

Training course regarding the thoughts and emotions

Training The next day, at practice course, participants are to rate 3 most difficult holes in their perception. After finish practice, they will be interviewed by the researcher .

30 mins: How to breathe 1 day/week

3 days break

30 mins: How to detect the thoughts 1 day /week while breathing

3 days break

The same measurement as phase 2..

Phase 4

Length of training

Description

Drills and measurement The same measurement as phase 2..

30 min: Detect the different of each 1 day/week thought. To stop the unwanted ones then replace with positive. 3 days break 30 mins: Detect how the thoughts 1 day/week start and emphasis on the speed of replacing the positive thoughts 3 days break

The same measurement as phase 2..

30 mins: Repeat phase 5 in order to 1 day /week reconfirm if the intervention remains.

The same measurement as phase 2..

All process will take 24 consecutive days.

Statistical Analysis:
Qualitative data are collected and analyzed from:
Semi-structured interview of 8 participants (each participant will be interviewed a total of 5 times) The data triangulation is based on:
The speed of detecting the thoughts The replacement of unwanted thoughts Performance

Statistical Analysis (Contd):

The consequences of negative and positive thoughts towards performance
The effectiveness of thought stopping which depends on speed and replacement.

Sample of questions:
Explain those 3 holes, what shot do you think is difficult? When you play that particular shot, whats on your mind? How soon do you detect the unwanted thought and the speed of replacement? Are you able to focus on the replacement until you finish that shot?

Thank you for attention

Tanaporn Panich