Sports confidence and critical incident intensity after a brief application of Emotional Freedom Techniques: A pilot study

Outcome study👥 10 participantsPreliminary✓ Source-checked📍 United States

In plain English. Ten female college athletes carrying distressing memories of past sports mistakes did a single 20-minute tapping session, and their distress ratings dropped while their confidence scores rose — and those gains were still holding two months later. Their pulse rate improvement was smaller and only bordered on statistically meaningful. With just 10 athletes and no comparison group, it's a small pilot suggesting a brief tapping session can shift how athletes carry a bad memory into competition.

What they found

people took part

In 10 female college athletes given a single 20-minute EFT session, significant post-intervention improvements were found in SUD, both emotional and physical CSIR distress, and sport confidence (p=.001), with gains maintained at 60-day follow-up; change in pulse rate was only marginally significant (p=.087).

How the study worked

Who took partfemale college athletes with traumatic sports memories (n=10)

What they didParticipants received tapping and were measured before and after, without a separate comparison group.

Measured withState Sport Confidence Inventory, Subjective Units of Distress (SUD), Critical Sport Incident Recall (CSIR), pulse rate

💡 Where this could help

If findings like these hold up in larger trials, the promise is simple: a low-cost, self-administered tool that could reach people struggling with athletic performance who can't easily access traditional care — at home, between appointments, or where there aren't enough clinicians to go around.

🔬 What to study next

The natural next step: a head-to-head trial against an established treatment like CBT, and a larger sample to confirm the effect.

The full record

Design	Outcome study
Participants	10 people
Population	female college athletes with traumatic sports memories
Outcome measures	State Sport Confidence Inventory, Subjective Units of Distress (SUD), Critical Sport Incident Recall (CSIR), pulse rate
Journal	The Sport Journal
Year	2012
Country	United States
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Church, D., & Downs, D. (2012). Sports confidence and critical incident intensity after a brief application of Emotional Freedom Techniques: A pilot study. The Sport Journal.

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on Athletic Performance · Trauma (other)