Introduction: Overcoming competition anxiety is one of the major issues athletes face in championship sports. The present study examines the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on impulsivity and mental toughness of athletes with high competitive anxiety.

Methods: This semi-experimental study used a pre-test, post-test design with a control group. The participants included competitive athletes over 16 years old in martial arts disciplines like Taekwondo, Karate, and Wrestling, who experienced the highest competitive anxiety. Among these athletes, 40 individuals who scored the highest in Smith et al.'s (1990) competitive anxiety measure were randomly assigned to experimental (mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) and control groups. Both groups completed self-report scales of mental toughness (Sheard et al., 2009) and impulsivity (Barratt et al., 1995) in the pre-test. The experimental group then received mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. In the end, both the control and experimental groups took a post-test, and the results were analyzed using covariance analysis after examining the homogeneity of variances.

Findings: The results indicated that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was effective in reducing impulsivity and improving mental toughness in martial arts athletes (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can be used to help with impulsivity and mental toughness in athletes.