Abstract:
Sport psychology in South Africa has for many years been characterised by the deficit
perspective on human nature focusing on “what is wrong with sports people”. Psychological
Skills Training (PST) programmes have been used to correct these deficits until optimal
performance can happen in the “absence of discomfort.” In this study, an asset perspective to
performance enhancement was employed, i.e. the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC)
approach which views optimal performance as happening “despite discomfort”. Sport
psychologists present these interventions (PST and MAC) predominantly to cricket players, often
neglecting other important role-players such as coaches. The aim of this study was to move away
from the deficit perspective and individualistic interventions to an asset perspective with an
ecological intervention. This was attained by using South African cricket coaches’ experiences of
the MAC programme in an experiential learning context. The extent to which experiential
learning occurred was established through analyzing 18 individual in-depth, semi-structured
interviews with coaches using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The major findings
were that coaches experienced the MAC programme as flexible, accessible and a developmental
psychological tool, which increased their knowledge of sport psychology. Coaches enjoyed the
MAC programme and found the experiential learning and accompanying manual valuable.
