��������

Student-athletes balance a demanding mix of pressures. Practices and games fill their schedules. Coursework competes for time. Social media puts their performances and their mistakes on display.

Now, researchers at �������� are studying whether a smartphone app, called , can help student-athletes manage that stress and perform better because of it.

The project, based in the university's in the Department of Psychological Sciences, is a pilot study testing whether a technique long used by Olympic athletes, NASA and the U.S. military can be delivered effectively through an app. The research is being conducted in partnership with �������� Athletics, the Cleveland Clinic and Wisconsin-based tech startup Joystik Life, whose app is at the center of the study.

"I think there are several reasons why this program is particularly beneficial," John Gunstad, Ph.D., professor of psychological sciences at �������� and director of the SHIPP Lab, said. "It has the real possibility of improving health in student-athletes and improving athletic performance at the same time."

Real-World Research, Right on Campus
Two clinical psychology doctoral students in the SHIPP Lab, Alli Grady and Eleanor Siegle, are driving much of the day-to-day work on the project — and describe it as unlike anything they expected from graduate research.

Their involvement spans every stage of the study. They shepherded the project through ��������'s Institutional Review Board approval process, developed participant surveys, piloted the app and provided early feedback to its developers, created a step-by-step guide to help athletes download and use it, built recruitment materials, tracked participant progress through each phase of the study and handled ongoing communication with participants.

"This project is a great example of how academia and industry can work together to create meaningful change," Grady said. "An external company is seeking our feedback on their application. As researchers, we have the opportunity to create change at the corporate level — and our student-athlete participants are the heart and soul of that change."

Siegle described the collaboration as a chance to serve as a bridge between two worlds.

"We have a unique role in that we can disseminate a service for athletes while also providing feedback about their use of it and their experiences to the developers," Siegle said. "In this way, we bridge a gap between the developers and the clients — the student-athletes."For both students, the project connects directly to their long-term goals.

Grady's research centers on risk and protective factors for mental health conditions in competitive athletes, and on building interventions that increase resilience and wellbeing. She said one of the draws of ��������'s clinical psychology program was Gunstad's track record of collaboration with the athletic department.

"Throughout my graduate training, I'm excited to continue working under Dr. Gunstad's mentorship, and in collaboration with �������� Athletics, with the goal of making real positive change in the lives of student-athletes," Grady said.

Siegle, whose interests include rehabilitation psychology, said working directly with athletes deepens her understanding of what effective mental health intervention actually requires.

"Different interventions work differently depending on the population, the treatment, and people's individual circumstances," Siegle said. "Working with athletes provides insight into the factors that are most important for helping individuals recover from injury and improve quality of life in the face of unique physical challenges."

A Technique With Decades of Evidence -- Now in Your Pocket
The idea for Joystik Life grew out of CEO and co-founder Christian Stoll's own experience as a student-athlete. Unequipped to handle the pressures of competitive sports, his stress escalated into anxiety, burnout and eventually addiction.

"I started experiencing daily chronic stress without a tool to manage it," Stoll said.

He later built a career in behavioral health innovation and launched Joystik Life to give athletes what he never had.

“Gen Z right now is the most stressed generation,” Stoll said. “Athletes specifically are actually higher by about 20%. They're around 90% daily chronic stress, which is leading to anxiety, depression and burnout.”

The app is built around autogenic training, a mind-body method developed in Europe that teaches users to recognize and deliberately control their body's stress response. Unlike meditation or breathing exercises, autogenic training focuses specifically on regulating the autonomic nervous system — the system responsible for the body's fight-or-flight reaction.

"Autonomic regulation has long been understood in high-performance settings, but it has rarely been accessible at scale,” said Brian Hainline, M.D., chief innovation and strategy officer at Joystik Life and former chief medical officer of the NCAA. "The question this study addresses is whether that capability – the ability to anticipate and modulate physiological response – can be learned and applied in everyday competitive environments.  If so, it has implications not just for mental health, but for how athletes perform under pressure. “

The technique has a long track record, but has historically required a trained provider to teach it. The pilot study is designed to test whether an app can deliver the same results.

The app adapts that method into short, guided exercises and tools designed for frequent use. Users can access brief audio prompts and conditioning techniques that help trigger relaxation responses during stressful moments.

Stoll said that the company’s strategy is to secure partnerships at an elite level.

“�������� is a leader in this research space with innovation and wanting to actually make a difference,” Stoll said. “So, we're looking forward to some explosive growth in the next year or two and we're thrilled to have these kinds of foundational relationships with �������� and Cleveland Clinic."

Athletics as a Research Partner
The involvement of KSU Athletics is central to the study's design. Trent Stratton, senior associate athletics director at ��������, said the collaboration reflects a growing emphasis on mental performance within collegiate athletics.

"We are constantly looking at ways to improve performance, and focusing on the mental aspect has become incredibly important," Stratton said. "If an app can be used to improve mental performance, then it may be easier to encourage our student-athletes to use it."

The Cleveland Clinic Connection
, the official medical provider for �������� Athletics, rounds out the research partnership. Sami Rifat, M.D., director of sport and exercise medicine at Cleveland Clinic, said the collaboration connects academic researchers with clinicians who see athlete health challenges every day.

"Depression and anxiety are the big two that many college students experience," Rifat said. "NCAA athletes are dealing with the same thing as the general population, but they do it while traveling, with stress from school, athletic performance and personal stressors. Anything we can do to help that population seems like a good idea, especially if it's accessible, inexpensive and easy to do."

What Comes Next
The current study is a pilot, focused first on whether athletes find the app useful and whether it produces measurable benefits. Those early results will guide the direction of future, larger research projects.

Gunstad is also exploring whether the approach could eventually expand to the broader �������� student population, not just varsity athletes.

Grady sees the project as a launching point.

"The possibility that a smartphone application could help improve athletic performance and reduce perceived physiological stress is exciting," she said. "I'm grateful that this project will provide us with a preliminary understanding of student-athlete lived experiences, so we can continue to help student-athletes break records and reach their goals — both in athletic competition and in their lives beyond."

# # #