Emozioni positive e savoring nello sport

Positive emotions are fundamental psychological resources in the context of sport. Beyond their immediate affective benefits, they contribute to athletes’ psychological resilience, broaden their attentional scope, enhance cognitive flexibility, and facilitate adaptive coping mechanisms. According to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions not only help individuals recover from stress more effectively but also promote the development of enduring personal and interpersonal resources over time. Among these, self-transcendent emotions—such as awe, elevation, gratitude, and hope—stand out for their capacity to redirect individuals' focus away from the self and toward others or higher purposes. These emotions foster a sense of connection, purpose, and shared humanity, making them particularly valuable in team-based and high-pressure athletic environments. By promoting prosocial behavior, social bonding, and long-term motivation, self-transcendent emotions support athletes not only in overcoming challenges but also in cultivating meaning and sustained engagement in sport. In this framework, savoring—the ability to attend to, amplify, and prolong positive emotional experiences—emerges as a promising tool for enhancing well-being and optimizing athletic performance. Although still relatively underexplored in sport psychology, recent evidence indicates that savoring can buffer against the effects of burnout, increase self-efficacy and resilience, and improve emotional regulation. This chapter reviews recent empirical contributions on savoring in sport settings, including two notable interventions: one with Canadian competitive tennis players and another digital self-help program for Italian volleyball athletes. Both showed increased levels of positive emotions and engagement, along with reductions in negative affect and stress. Savoring is thus a valuable skill not only for athletes but also for coaches and teams, offering practical strategies to reinforce motivation, strengthen team cohesion, and build psychological resources that can be drawn upon during adversity. Its integration into training and coaching practices may represent a significant step toward a more holistic and sustainable model of athletic development.