Research has shown that a brief mindfulness intervention may counteract the depleting effects of an emotion suppression task upon a subsequent psychological task that requires self-control. However, the effects of a brief mindfulness intervention on perceptual-motor tasks particularly in stressful situations have not yet been examined. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a brief mindfulness intervention can counteract the detrimental effects of ego depletion in basketball free throw performance under pressure. Seventy-two basketball players (Mage = 28.6 ± 4.0 years) were randomly assigned to one of the following 4 groups: depletion/mindfulness, no depletion/mindfulness, depletion/no mindfulness, and control (no depletion/no mindfulness). The subjects in the mindfulness intervention participated in a 15-min breath and body mindfulness audio exercise, and those in the control condition (no mindfulness) listened to an audio book. A modified Stroop color-word task was used to manipulate self-control and induce ego depletion. Participants performed 30 free throws before and after the experimental manipulations. Results showed that basketball players` free throw performance decreased after ego depletion, but when ego depletion was followed by the mindfulness intervention, free throw performance was maintained at a level similar to the control group. Our results indicate that a brief mindfulness intervention mitigates the effects of ego depletion in a basketball free-throw task.
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