Effects of Biofeedback and Mindfulness on the Psychological Skills and Forehand Flick Accuracy in Adolescent Table Tennis Players

The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a course of biofeedback, mindfulness, and combination interventions on table tennis performance and psychological skills of adolescent table tennis players. Forty male semi-professional table tennis athletes, ranging in age from 14 to 18 years, were selected by availability and randomly divided into four groups of 10: mindfulness, biofeedback, combination, and control. Practices in experimental groups lasted two sessions per week for 6 weeks (20-minute sessions in the first week, 30-minute sessions in the second week, and 45-minute sessions in the third to sixth weeks), while the control group continued with their daily activities. Before and after six weeks, movement performance and psychological skills (concentration, recovery, and reaction after stress) were evaluated using the forehand flick task and the OMSAT-3 questionnaire. Results showed that the experimental groups had significantly higher performance on the forehand flick and also on measured psychological skills compared to the control group. Also, the combination group had higher performance and concentration than the other two experimental groups. In general, findings reveal the effectiveness of mindfulness practices and biofeedback and the combination of these two methods seems to have more benefits than each one separately in terms of performance and psychological skills underlying performance.