The impact of confidence verse calligraphy practice on self-efficacy in skill-accurate athletes

The unique physical and psychological benefits of Chinese calligraphy practice (i.e., relaxing the body, soothing anxiety, facilitating mind flow, and enhancing self-control) are well-suited to athletes and sports contexts, but calligraphy interventions in sports are few. Our researchers used a mixed research approach to investigate the effects of confidence verse calligraphy practice on self-efficacy (general self-efficacy, sport state confidence, and specialized self-efficacy) in skill-accurate athletes. In a 2 × 3 mixed experimental design, we found that both confidence verse calligraphy practice and neutral character calligraphy practice increased athletes’ general self-efficacy and sport state confidence, and qualitative analyses revealed that this enhancement effect was characterized by a reduction in negative thoughts and emotions when experiencing frustration, but that there were no differences between the two types of writing content. This research is the first attempt to apply calligraphy practice to improve self-efficacy and extends the mental training methods for Chinese national level athletes (i.e., national first-class and above).