Self-talk! The power of inner speech...

"Every waking moment we talk to ourselves about the things we experience. Our self-talk, the thoughts we communicate to ourselves, in turn control the way we feel and act" John Lembo

"if you say "can't" you are restricting what you can do or ever will do" Michael Phelps

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But i can't accept not trying" Michael Jordan

Self-talk, what exactly is self-talk?

Hardy, Oliver and Todd (2009), defined self-talk as "those automatic statements reflective of, and deliberate techniques athletes use to direct, sports related thinking"

Meanwhile the dictionary term for self-talk is "the act or practice of talking to oneself, either aloud or silently and mentally".

These definitions nicely explain what self-talk is, but its also important to understand that self-talk is a form of cognitive self-regulation which can be used by anyone to improve overall thinking and concentration.

We all use Self-talk without even knowing so, whether its deciding on what to eat for lunch or in the final of the world cup, self-talk is a cognitive process which basically keeps a running commentary in our minds, this dictates how we feel about certain situations.

Forms of self-talk:

There are two main forms of self-talk, positive and negative.

Positive- Positive self-talk directs attention to tasks necessary for successful performance and diminishes self-doubt and anxiety. Research in this area has also shown that athletes who use positive self-talk improve their performance in cycling time trials, compared to athletes who use negative self-talk (Hamilton, Scott and McDougall 2007).

Examples of positive self-talk statements-

'If i fail, that's ok it's not the end of the world'

'I know my opponent is better than me that just means I have got to work harder to beat him'

'I have lost before and i recovered'

'I can learn from this and improve next time'

Negative- This type of self-talk directs attention away from task specific cues and questions whether performance will be successful, also focuses on past mistakes or looks to the future rather than the present moment/ competition. Van Raalte et al. (1994) found that negative self-talk can inhibit performance in junior tennis players.

Examples of negative self-talk statements-

'If i fail, its the end of the world, i can't stand not succeeding'

'My opponent is better than me, which means i have no chance of winning'

'If i fail, i'm a loser'

What should be obvious between the two self-talk statements is just how different they are, one is quite positive, flexible and resilient and the other is almost suicidal and like failure is the end of the world. This puts these types of self-talks into perspective with regards to their impact on performance and research has proven this.

As well as forms of self-talk, there are also types of self-talks:

Motivational self-talk- This type of self-talk enhances confidences and inspires a greater expenditure of effort and self-belief.

Example of motivational self-talk... Paula Radcliffe, she counted her steps in races to help maintain her motivational levels. "When i counted 100, three times that’s a mile. It helps me focus on the moment"

Instructional self-talk- Facilitates concentration on task specific cues which develops deployment of sport skills and strategies.

Example of instructional self-talk- Michael Lynagh, he talked through his routine in kicking a penalty in the final of the rugby world cup. "Five steps back, three to the left, kick through the ball"

Taking all these into consideration, your inner speech is more powerful than you probably first imagined. But once you learn how powerful and also how much impact your self-talk has on performance, you start to take notice off your inner speech there will be certain situations coming to mind which you might not necessarily have focused on before, i know personally this is the case. Two posts ago i mentioned about how i was having a really good round and then it all capitulated while this was going on i was thinking to myself "let’s just get this round over with, I’ve failed", at the time you don’t think that this has any impact on performance but what if I’d maintained that positive, can do attitude could things have been different?

Hopefully you've enjoyed reading this, this is actually what i will be researching in my dissertation... the effect of rational and irrational self-talk on golf performance putting task?

Don’t forget to follow on twitter @sport_psyched95

Many thanks

Lyle