Abstract
This study examined the effect of neurolinguistic programming (NLP) on sports performance, self-efficacy, and mental toughness of student-athletes during the academic year 2025–2026. Specifically, it aimed to determine the levels of these variables in the pretest and posttest of control and experimental groups, identify differences between groups, and propose a training plan based on the findings. The study involved 60 gymnastics student-athletes from one academic institution who were purposively assigned to four groups using the Solomon Four-Group Experimental Design: experimental with pretest and posttest, control with pretest and posttest, experimental posttest-only, and control posttest-only. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used to describe the data, while t-tests for dependent and independent samples were employed to determine significant differences at the 0.05 level of significance. Results revealed that the control and experimental groups had comparable baseline levels of sports performance, self-efficacy, and mental toughness prior to the intervention. After the intervention, both groups demonstrated improvements across all variables; however, the experimental group exposed to neurolinguistic programming showed slightly higher gains in performance, confidence, and psychological resilience. Findings from the posttest-only groups also indicated similar trends, with NLP producing greater improvement in self-efficacy compared with mindfulness-based stress reduction.
