Yes. Many professional athletes meditate, and some teams have paid meditation teachers since the 1990s. The research on whether it improves performance is encouraging but small: most trials are short and enroll a few dozen athletes, and they measure mental skills such as attention and anxiety far more often than results on the scoreboard.
This piece covers the athletes and teams who are on record, then what the studies actually found. It ends with a short routine you can start today.
Do professional athletes meditate?
Yes, and several cases are well documented in the press. The best known case is the Chicago Bulls under Phil Jackson. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the mindfulness teacher, introduced Jackson to George Mumford, who spent five years working with the Bulls in the 1990s, often sitting behind the bench as they won three more championships. In 1999 Mumford followed Jackson to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he helped turn Kobe Bryant into an outspoken advocate of meditation. Bryant had said he struggled to sit still for it at first, and it later became part of his game preparation[1].
In 2013 ESPN The Magazine described the Seattle Seahawks' training camp, where sports psychologist Mike Gervais led group meditations. He kept them to about six minutes for newcomers, and nobody was required to attend; around 20 players came each week. Quarterback Russell Wilson booked weekly one to one sessions with Gervais, which he said included imagery work[2].
Novak Djokovic told reporters at the 2018 Australian Open that he meditates every day, a habit he leaned on during a long layoff with an elbow injury. Asked what he gains from it, he answered with what he loses: "I lose fear. I lose anxiety. I lose stress"[3]. In a 2024 interview with Sports Illustrated he said that "conscious breathing is super important to mental work, especially in the moments when you're under tension"[4].
These are individual accounts, not a survey. There is no reliable figure for what share of professional athletes meditate, so be wary of articles that quote one.
Does meditation improve athletic performance?
It may, but the evidence is thinner than most coverage suggests. A 2017 meta-analysis in Sports Medicine pooled nine controlled trials with 290 athletes in total[5]. Mindfulness training reliably raised mindfulness scores and improved psychological measures linked to performance. Actual performance was only measured in shooting and dart throwing, where the effect was large but varied a lot between studies. The authors concluded that mindfulness is a reasonable addition to mental skills training, "at least in precision sports," and asked for more high quality trials.
A 2023 systematic review found 32 randomized trials of mindfulness programs for athletes[6]. The authors judged that performance improved, though that conclusion came from a narrative summary rather than a pooled number. Pooled effects on mindfulness and on related skills such as acceptance and flow were moderate to large, while the pooled effect on mental health measures such as stress and burnout was close to zero. A 2024 meta-analysis of 11 studies with 582 athletes reported large effects on both performance and anxiety[7], and its authors also called for larger samples.
Can meditation help athletes stay focused under pressure?
Possibly, if they put the time in. The clearest test is a study of 100 University of Miami football players during preseason, a stretch of heavy training[8]. For four weeks, 56 players had mindfulness training and 44 had relaxation training. Across the whole squad, sustained attention and mood got worse over preseason, which is what the researchers expected from that kind of load.
The two programs did not differ overall. Within the mindfulness group, though, players who practiced more kept their attention steadier, and that link did not appear for relaxation. In both groups, more practice went with less anxiety by the end. The benefit tracked the amount of practice, much as fitness does, which is a useful thing to know before you judge meditation on a handful of tries.
Does meditation reduce competitive anxiety?
It seems to, though part of the effect may come from doing any structured mental routine. A 2026 meta-analysis of 18 controlled trials with 667 athletes found a moderate reduction in competitive anxiety, larger for worry than for physical symptoms such as a racing heart[9]. Against waitlist groups the effect was moderate. Against athletes doing another active program it was close to zero, although only three comparisons used an active control, so the authors call that result preliminary.
For an athlete, the practical reading is that a regular pre-competition routine is worth having, and mindfulness is one of the better studied options for building it.
Which meditation techniques do athletes use?
Most athletes mix a few short techniques rather than sitting for long periods. Imagery is not strictly meditation, but it is often paired with it and has the deepest evidence of the four.
| Technique | What it's for | How long | Strength of evidence in sport |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breath-focused mindfulness | Noticing distraction and bringing attention back | 5 to 15 minutes, most days | Moderate: several small trials in athletes[5][6] |
| Body scan | Noticing tension and fatigue, winding down after training | 10 to 20 minutes | Limited: used inside mindfulness programs, rarely tested alone[8] |
| Imagery (visualization) | Rehearsing skills and match situations | 5 to 15 minutes | Stronger: a meta-analysis found a medium overall effect[10] |
| Slow-exhale breathing | Lowering arousal before competing or sleep | About 5 minutes | Early: one trial of 108 adults, not athletes[11] |
The imagery meta-analysis found effects on motor performance as well as on motivation and mood, and imagery combined with physical practice did better than physical practice alone[10]. For slow breathing, a remote trial of 108 adults compared five minutes a day of "cyclic sighing" (a double inhale followed by a long exhale) with five minutes of mindfulness meditation for a month. Both groups felt less anxious after each exercise, and cyclic sighing improved positive mood more[11]. The participants were not athletes and there was no follow-up after four weeks.
How can an athlete start meditating?
Start small and attach it to something you already do. This routine takes about ten minutes.
- Pick a fixed slot, such as straight after training or the same time each morning, so it does not depend on remembering.
- Sit upright on a chair or bench with your feet flat, and set a timer for five minutes.
- Breathe normally and rest your attention on the air at your nostrils or your belly moving. When your mind drifts to the last game or tomorrow's training, notice it and come back. Coming back is the exercise.
- Finish with three slow breaths, making each exhale longer than the inhale.
- Spend two or three minutes on imagery: picture one specific moment in your sport, such as a free throw or the start of a race, in real time and through your own eyes, including how your body feels.
- Write one line in a notebook. Given what the Miami study found about practice time, aim for most days over four weeks before deciding whether it helps.
If you would rather be talked through it than sit with a timer, a guided recording works just as well for steps two to four. Whitespace is a self-guided meditation app that speaks: you bring the intention, and it writes and voices a meditation for exactly that, so you could ask for one about settling nerves the night before a race.
Questions people ask
Do professional athletes meditate?
Some do, and several have said so publicly. Phil Jackson's Bulls and Lakers worked with the meditation teacher George Mumford, and Novak Djokovic has said he meditates every day. There is no reliable count of how many athletes meditate overall.
How long should an athlete meditate each day?
Five to ten minutes is a reasonable place to start. Programs tested in athletes usually ran for four weeks or longer, and in a study of college football players, more practice time went with steadier attention. Doing it most days matters more than doing it for a long time.
Should athletes meditate before a game?
Many use a short routine before competing, but there is little research on the best timing. A few minutes of slow breathing with a long exhale is a low-risk way to settle nerves beforehand. Longer sitting meditation fits better on a training day, when you are not trying to raise your energy.
Is visualization the same as meditation?
No. Meditation trains where your attention goes, while visualization (imagery) mentally rehearses a skill or situation. Athletes often combine them, and imagery currently has the stronger evidence for improving sport performance.
Can meditation replace a sports psychologist?
No. It can be one part of mental training, but a 2023 review found no clear effect of mindfulness programs on athletes' mental health measures such as stress and burnout. If anxiety, low mood or burnout persists, talk to a qualified professional.