Effectiveness of Biofeedback on Breathing Exercise as part of Mental Support for Elite Athletes

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  • トップアスリートを対象とした心理サポートにおける呼吸法習得時の即時バイオフィードバックの有効性 : メンタルトレーニングの効果を双方向から評価する試み

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Abstract

In recent years, biofeedback has become recognized as a helpful tool not only in a medical setting, but in the field of sports performance enhancement as well (Muench, 2008). The aim of this study is to explore the effectiveness of biofeedback on breathing exercise as part of mental support for elite athletes. Four Japanese national team members participated in mental training to acquire breathing techniques as one of the relaxation skills. Stress Eraser manufactured by Helicor Inc, a small real-time biofeedback device, was used to visualize the transition of parasympathetic nerve predominant points during intervention. The athletes' reflections were also recorded over the course of 10 sessions. In the analysis, the relationships between the effects of acquiring breathing techniques, performance results and how the athletes actually applied breathing techniques into their sports were also examined. The results showed that 3 out of 4 athletes, who were first-time users of breathing exercise, consistently improved their parasympathetic nerve predominant points. Most likely, the key factor in these results may be the monitoring of their progress with real-time biofeedback and making modifications to their breathing approach such as the rhythm or length of the breathing. The athletes' reflections showed that they all realized the advantage of using real-time biofeedback while acquiring a breathing skill during mental training. These results suggest that real-time biofeedback could become a very powerful tool for visualizing the effects of mental training for both athletes and consultants in mental support.

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