Psychological skills and mindfulness for distance runners: a systematic review of performance, psychological outcomes, and implications for coaching practice.

Authors

Wenhua Zhai, Qinghua Zhai, Ying Peng

Published in

Frontiers in psychology. Volume 17. Pages 1971379. Epub Sep 23, 2026.

Abstract

Contemporary athlete support increasingly recognizes that performance preparation extends beyond physical training to the regulation of attention, effort, emotions, and behavior. Psychological skills training (PST) and mindfulness-based approaches offer different strategies for developing these capacities, yet their value for distance runners and their relevance to applied coaching remain uncertain. This systematic review examined runner-specific evidence for these interventions, distinguishing direct running performance from psychological and other performance-related outcomes.
PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from database inception to 2 April 2026. Eligible studies investigated PST or mindfulness-based interventions in distance runners using randomized, non-randomized comparative, or quasi-experimental designs. Risk of bias or methodological quality was evaluated using RoB 2, ROBINS-I, or the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist, according to study design. Substantial variation in runner populations, intervention approaches, comparators, assessment contexts, and outcome measures precluded quantitative pooling; therefore, evidence was synthesized narratively, with certainty considered using a narrative framework informed by GRADE principles.
From 28,602 records, 16 reports representing 15 unique evidence units met the eligibility criteria. Eleven evidence units examined PST and four investigated mindfulness-based interventions across middle-distance, cross-country, road, marathon, and ultramarathon settings. The clearest pattern concerned selected psychological outcomes rather than direct running performance. These psychological outcomes were not assessed uniformly: some were obtained in competition or running-specific contexts, others during laboratory running tasks, and others through broader sport-specific or dispositional questionnaires. Mindfulness-based interventions showed favorable signals for selected outcomes including flow, attentional refocusing, worry, and cognitive anxiety, whereas direct race or time-trial performance evidence was sparse and inconsistent. PST produced a more heterogeneous pattern. Some small, uncontrolled, or single-case studies reported favorable psychological or performance changes, but controlled comparisons did not demonstrate a consistent advantage. Confidence in these findings remained limited because of risk-of-bias concerns, small samples, heterogeneous outcomes, and the contribution of uncontrolled or single-case designs to several favorable findings.
Psychological skills and mindfulness-based approaches may influence selected psychological processes relevant to running and competition, but current evidence does not establish that either approach reliably improves running performance. Implications for coaching remain provisional: the findings may inform cautious consideration of psychological strategies within broader athlete support, but they do not establish how coaches should integrate these interventions, whether individualized delivery is preferable, or which delivery approach is most effective.
osf.io/gcpwy.

PMID:
42845566
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Oct 2026.

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