Asheville Middle School (AMS) strives to excel in academics, athletics, and involvement in the community, and recently the school has started to incorporate mindfulness into students’ everyday activities. The objective of this public service project was to extend this practice into athletics and shift mindfulness from a required activity to something the students could enjoy and benefit from in an extra-curricular context. The methods undertaken as part of the project included weekly visits to AMS to lead mindfulness practices with the girls’ soccer team. Prior to the beginning of each practice, a new mindfulness technique circling the idea of visualization and breathing was explained. Following the completion of the technique, an explanation was given on how the athletes could individually implement the practices into their athletic performance. Based on this work, we are developing a manual for coaches. The manual includes a list of mindfulness activities, directions on how to implement each activity, a page of extended resources, and guidance for coaches to move forward with their players. The manual will also emphasize athletics as a whole in hopes to extend this positive movement throughout all athletics and reduce any further negative connotations around mindfulness. Following the completion of the gathered feedback and results on certain exercises and research, all AMS coaches will have the ability to access the created manual to use with their teams so they can cultivate a more stable mind in their athletes and better cooperation overall.
