The Athletes Who Bounce Back Fastest Have Something in Common
A look at the link between mindfulness and resilience in athletes across individual, combat, and team sports.
Ask GRM
Two athletes. Same talent. Same coach. Same bad bounce in the same big moment.
One shakes it off before the next whistle. The other carries it for the rest of the game.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about that gap. A new study out of Bulgaria gave me a piece of the answer. Not the whole answer. I’ll tell you where it falls short, too.
One note before we start. This research is directional. It is an early, preliminary study, so think of it as a compass, not a map. It points us somewhere worth looking. It does not prove anything yet.
What the researchers did
They surveyed 177 athletes, average age 21. Professionals and amateurs. Individual sports, combat sports, team sports. Each athlete filled out two short questionnaires. One measured mindfulness, which is how well you stay in the present moment. The other measured resilience, which is how quickly you recover from stress.
What they found
Athletes who scored higher on mindfulness tended to score higher on resilience. The link was modest. But it showed up across the whole group, and it was clearest for the professionals.
Three other details stayed with me:
Combat athletes scored highest on resilience. Boxers, judoka, karate athletes. Sports where you cannot hide.
Individual-sport athletes scored lowest. Their mindfulness also tended to slip the longer they had been in their sport. That one stopped me. Swimmers and runners spend hours alone with their heads.
In team sports, resilience grew with years of experience. So did it for amateurs. The authors point to social support. Teammates catch you when you fall.
What I would hold loosely
My first instinct was to say mindfulness builds resilience. The study cannot say that. It took a snapshot. Nobody was trained and then tested again. The athletes also rated themselves, and athletes are good at telling us what a tough athlete is supposed to say. Some groups were tiny. Only 13 soccer players. I played college soccer, so I wanted that number to mean more than it does.
So the findings are directional. A signal, not a proof. I am fine with that. Good coaching has always started with a good hunch and a willingness to test it.
What I would do with it
Treat attention like a skill. Two minutes of slow breathing before practice. One word to bring focus back after a mistake. Small. Repeatable.
Do not leave your solo athletes alone. If the sport is individual, build the team around them on purpose. A training partner. A check-in.
Build teammate support into the culture. It looks like the resilience engine in team sports.
Practice recovery, not just performance. Ask one question after every mistake: what is my next play?
The mental side is not a bonus you add once the fitness work is done. It is part of the work. And the good news, from this study and many others, is that it can be trained.
What do you do in the ten seconds after a mistake?
Source: Stoyanova, S., Ivantchev, N., Gergov, T., & Yordanova, B. (2025). Mental Resilience and Mindfulness in Athletes: A Preliminary Study Across Sports and Experience Levels. Sports, 13(10), 334. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports13100334
About the author
Scott K. Wilder is the founder of Game Ready Mindset™, a program and platform for teams and athletic programs, working with players, position groups, and teams in baseball, soccer, softball, and volleyball. He holds a Master’s from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sofia University), a Master’s in Business Administration from New York University, and a Master’s in International Studies and Conflict Resolution from The Johns Hopkins University, with coaching credentials from Georgetown University, Brian Cain’s MPM Program, the National Federation of High Schools and FC Barcelona Football Club. He is the author of Millennial Leaders and the forthcoming book Compete in Any Weather.
About the author
Scott K. Wilder is the founder of Game Ready Mindset™, a program and platform for teams and athletic programs, working with players, position groups, and teams in baseball, soccer, softball, and volleyball. He holds a Master’s from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sofia University), an MBA from New York University, and a Master’s in International Studies and Conflict Resolution from The Johns Hopkins University, with coaching credentials from Georgetown University, Brian Cain’s MPM Program, the National Federation of High Schools, and FC Barcelona Football Club. He is the author of Millennial Leaders, Find What Energizes You (just published), and Compete in Any Weather.