Enhancing Psychological Skills and Well-being in Sport Through a Blended Intervention: a Controlled Study With Perform-UP Tennis

Mental preparation is a fundamental aspect of athletic performance. The investigators present here an experiment aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a blended intervention to promote mindfulness and self-confidence and a reduction of anxiety among professional athletes. Perform-UP Tennis is an application that provides a weekly mental training program to be integrated into the athlete's daily routine. The intervention included eight weekly modules with variable and progressive training and relaxation exercises. Meetings with the athletes took place every 2 weeks. The study involved 41 tennis players who were randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Psychological Well-Being
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Promotion of mental training through mobile application Perform-UP Tennis

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 41
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Italy
  • Milan, Italy
    • University of Sacred Heart

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• being tennis players with a minimum age of 14
• being fluent in Italian
• having a smartphone with an Internet connection

Exclusion Criteria:

• having hearing difficulties
• not playing tennis
• being younger than 14 years old
• not having a good knowledge of Italian

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental blended group; The experimental blended group (perform-up group) used the application Perform-UP Tennis on their own and also met up with a professional sports psychologist every 2 weeks for debriefing. Participants were asked to answer a series of questionnaires in two separate phases.	Device: Promotion of mental training through mobile application Perform-UP Tennis; Perform-UP Tennis is a sport specific mental training app that integrates breathing, relaxation and na-ture-based guided imagery exercises and aims to promote emotional well-being and the enhancement of mental skills. The app techniques are integrated into a single gradual path that involves increasingly complex breathing and relaxation exercises with increasing duration. The intervention consists of eight weekly modules over a period of 8 weeks with progressive exercises.
No Intervention: Control group; Participants were asked to answer a series of questionnaires in two separate phases, but they only carried out their classic technical training without integrating the mental training program with the app Perform-UP Tennis.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The Psychological Inventory of Sport Performance (IPPS-48) was used to assess athletes' mental abilities. The questionnaire included 48 items, divided into eight subscales each reflecting eight mental abilities.	Each scale included five items, to which the athletes responded on a 5-point Likert scale. The eight subscales reflected the following eight mental abilities: concentration, arousal control, preparation of the match, goal setting, visualization, cognitive anxiety, self-confidence and self-talk. But for this research, the investigators considered only three subscales that were consistent with the activities proposed within the application (breathing and relaxation techniques). The scales considered were: cognitive anxiety, which evaluates the athlete's level of concern during the match, fear of making mistakes, and fear of failing, self-confidence, which evaluates the confidence that the athlete has in being able to compete at his/her best, to give their best and to believe in themselves, emotional arousal control, which evaluates the athlete's ability to relax when he/she feels anxious and under tension and to activate him/herself when he/she needs to reach the right energy level.	It was assessed at baseline (T0) and after eight weeks, which is at the end of the intervention (T1)
The Mindfulness Inventory for Sport (MIS) was used to evaluate the awareness processes within the athlete's sports performance. The scale consists of 15 items reflecting three distinct components of mindfulness.	Each scale included five items, to which the athletes responded on a 5-point Likert scale. It contains both positively and negatively worded items (the non-judgmental subscale was reverse-scored). Specifically, this questionnaire assessed: (1) Awareness, being aware of stimuli and their associated internal reactions, (2) non-judgmental, adopting a non-judgmental attitude towards these stimuli and reactions, (3) refocusing, quickly refocus attention on target signals.	It was assessed at baseline (T0) and after eight weeks, which is at the end of the intervention (T1)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 30, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 30, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): April 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 23, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 17, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): January 19, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 13, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 12, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: sport; psychological well-being; mobile app; tennis players
• Other Study ID Numbers: 4221_2021

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No