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This article provides a review of literature on the psychology of rest in athletes with the aim of advancing research and practice in this area. While the concept of rest represents an important component of several key topics in sport psychology, researchers and practitioners have paid relatively little attention to this concept and to psychological aspects of rest in particular. We review literature in three sport psychology topic areas within which the concept of rest in athletes has received theoretical or empirical attention, which are recovery, skill learning, and expertise development. For each area, we describe how rest has received little direct research attention within this literature, identify how this shortcoming limits current theory, research, and practice, and propose directions for future research and practice. We then describe a recent study that has attempted to address the paucity of research on this topic by prioritizing an understanding of the psychology of rest in athletes. We also explore reasons why rest has received little attention in sport psychology with the rationale that an increased awareness of these reasons will help advance research and practice in our field. We conclude by considering implications of our review for best practice. Lay summary: Rest is critical to athlete performance and well-being, yet researchers and practitioners have paid little attention to psychological aspects of rest. We review the sport psychology literature to identify directions for research aimed at advancing our understanding of rest and practical guidelines to help athletes obtain the rest they require. Implications for Practice Practitioners should consider that recovery following training and competitions does not just involve recovering physically; it involves recovering psychologically Recovering psychologically depends in part on engagement in high-quality sleep and wakeful resting High-quality wakeful resting involves obtaining specific resting experiences such as not thinking about or “psychologically detaching from” one’s sport.

Mental detachment, which includes both cognitive and emotional detachment, refers to an athlete’s sense of being away from the cognitive and emotional demands of sport and is considered an important recovery experience for athletes. However, mental detachment appears to be impaired by high levels of physical fatigue following training or competition, suggesting that self-regulating post-performance cognitions and emotions may depend on available energetic resources. The purpose of this daily diary study was therefore to investigate whether daily sport-related rumination and worry can explain the relation between daily post-training physical fatigue and vigor on the one hand, and subsequent cognitive and emotional detachment on the other hand. Thirty-nine Dutch elite athletes completed a daily survey after training (T1) and at bedtime (T2) across 3–9 days. Multilevel structural equation modeling showed that daily physical fatigue was positively associated with sport-related rumination and worry during recovery, whereas daily vigor was negatively associated with sport-related worry during recovery. In turn, worry, but not rumination, was negatively associated with both cognitive detachment and emotional detachment. Results also revealed a significant indirect effect of worry between physical fatigue and cognitive detachment. These findings are in line with the view that recovery is a self-regulation process that may be dependent on available energetic resources. Moreover, this study underscores the practical importance of regulating postperformance physical fatigue, vigor, and sport-related worry to optimize the recovery process.

Mental rest appears critical to sustained high performance in sports and other human performance contexts. We draw on the developing science of mental rest to provide a useful guide for practitioners about how athletes and other performers can obtain the mental rest they need. We describe why mental rest is important for recovery and skill learning in athletes and how athletes obtain mental rest by engaging in sleep and resting while awake, known as wakeful resting. We also provide strategies that enable athletes to obtain more sleep and wakeful resting, and present tools for monitoring athletes’ mental rest.

International audience; This article reports on a highly elite orienteer’s cognitive activity over the course of two international competitions. We characterise the orienteer’s concerns in relation to the problems raised during the competitions. The participant wore a head-mounted video camera throughout performance to enable the capture of an events record from the participant’s perspective. During a post-performance self-confrontation interview, the participant was played the video and asked to describe his activity in relation to the events observed. The interview data were then used to identify the orienteer’s concerns at each point in time during the races. These “local” concerns were then compared and subsequently classified to characterise the typical concerns of the participant. Results showed three typical concerns: (a) find the controls faster than the opponents; (b) optimise running pace throughout the race; and (c) reflect on actions undertaken during performance. Results suggest the performer used a range of knowledge-driven strategies that enhanced the efficiency of task performance, and flexibly switched between strategies and decision-options in the face of presented changes in the task status. He also engaged in various reflective processes concurrent with performance that augmented the use of these strategies. In conclusion, this study provides insight into the cognitive processes underlying expert performance in sports characterised by decision-making under complexity, uncertainty, and time pressure.