The Kevin Love Fund announced that UCLA will be the fund’s first beneficiary through Headspace subscription donations and in-person mental training sessions for all student-athletes and coaches. In total, 850 Headspace annual subscriptions, 700 subscriptions for all student-athletes and 150 subscriptions for coaches, will be shared with Bruin teams. Each team will also receive an in-person session about Headspace and the importance of mental training with the meditation company’s Head of Sports and Fitness, Lindsay Shaffer.
“I am really excited to partner with Headspace to bring an invaluable tool to the Bruin family. It is incredibly important to the mind as well as the body to be at peak performances in all aspects of life, and Headspace makes it so easy for student-athletes to integrate mental training into their everyday regimens,” said Kevin Love, founder of the Kevin Love Fund.
With 116 NCAA Championships, UCLA is one of the nation’s most successful collegiate athletic departments. Love chose his alma mater as the first beneficiary of his new fund to set the example for the rest of the world about how schools can take simple steps to provide accessible mental training tools to help student-athletes live happier, healthier lives both on and off the field.
“Kevin Love’s commitment to integrating mental fitness into sport, together with UCLA’s storied athletic success and commitment to their student-athletes’ holistic well-being, is the perfect combination to evolve the culture of sport to be one in which training the mind is equally as important as training the body. We are incredibly excited to partner with the Kevin Love Fund to establish Headspace as the mental training tool for UCLA athletes and coaches,” said Lindsay Shaffer, Head of Sports and Fitness at Headspace.
“At UCLA, we have held a longstanding commitment to providing our student-athletes with comprehensive physical and mental health services,” said UCLA’s Director of Sports Medicine Mark Pocinich. “We’d like to thank the Kevin Love Fund and Headspace for their generosity, providing a significant boost to our efforts to support the total athlete. In Kevin, our student-athletes can see themselves, and having this come from a member of the Bruin family makes it even more impactful to them.”
Headspace’s Shaffer will educate student-athletes about the benefits of meditation and mindfulness so they understand how training the mind is equally as important to training the body for peak performance. Mental training can help give athletes a competitive edge when it comes to preparation, performance and recovery. Meditation increases grey matter in the prefrontal cortex region of the brain responsible for focus, and decreases the size of the amygdala, which is responsible for stress and fear.
For university students nationwide interested in meditation and mindfulness training, Headspace just launched a $9.99 annual student plan to help students around the country reduce stress and improve focus in an increasingly demanding campus environment.
