Self-Talk
One psychological technique used
to increase performance
"Based on the premise that what people think influences their actions, self-talk strategies have been developed to direct and facilitate human performance"(Hatzigeorgiadis)
Sports Psychologists first meet with their athlete and assess what strategies work for them. Some people respond to auditory therapy, others people need a boost of confidence and reassurance. After they decide the method best suited for each individual they advise different methods and strategies to increase performance. One method they may prescribe is positive self-talk or positive reassurance. (source 5)
Self-talk is the conversations that go on inside our own minds. The internal dialog in your head can influence beliefs, emotions, and behavior. On a subconscious level, repeated self-talk can become facts and mess with confidence levels and lead to stress and self-doubt. Positive self-talk can help with motivation and performance. (source 2)
The first studies testing the effectiveness of self-talk strategies in relation to sports performance can be traced back to the late 1980s. In this study, they used self-talk cues such as ‘‘ball,’’ ‘‘hit,’’ or ‘‘ready’’ timed according to the corresponding task to direct tennis players' attention to what was about to happen. Players first said the talking cues out loud, then in a second trial, they repeated these words only in their head. The accuracy of the tennis players had increased in both trials, proving that mental preparation has a direct correlation with physical performance.
Self-talk is an effective strategy for facilitating learning and enhancing performance, but there are some factors that could possibly affect the overall effectiveness. These factors can be classified into four broad categories.
(a) the tasks that are used
(b) the participants’ characteristics
(c) the specifics of self-talk
(d) the characteristics of the intervention
One of the articles I read was "Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis" (source 2) this journal looked into all these factors. The studies used in this analysis were "obtained through manual and electronic journal searches, review articles, as well as personal correspondence." This article concluded that self-talk has a consistently positive effect however the percent of improvement varyed "depending on the appropriate matching of task and type of self-talk, on task novelty, and on the implementation of training in self-talk interventions."
It is for those reasons that sports psychology is an important feild. With the education and knowledge that a sports psychologist has, they are able to maximize performance by removing some of the unknown factors. Personalizing treatments like self-talk raises the effectiveness greatly. A sports psychologist knows the tasks need to be performed, the participants' characteristics, and the type of motivation that will work best for them.