It's Good But it's Not Right: Instructional Self-Talk and Skilled Performance

Abstract

This research examined the relative effectiveness of instructional versus motivational self-talk for skilled athletes. Forty Gaelic footballers completed a shooting accuracy task with their dominant and non-dominant feet. Results indicated significantly more accurate performance when executing the task using the dominant foot and motivational as compared to instructional self-talk. No difference emerged between the two types of self-talk within the non-dominant foot condition. Results challenge the widely held view that instructional self-talk is most effective for accuracy based tasks and should prompt practitioners to consider the skill level of their clients when constructing self-talk interventions.Keywords: performance, self-focus, verbal cues, dominant / non-dominant limbs It's good but it's not right: Instructional self-talk and skilled performance Self-talk refers to statements that athletes say to themselves automatically or deliberately and as such can be said silently or out loud so that some one close by could here what is said; nevertheless the intended target of the phrase is the athlete themselves not the observer (cf. Hardy, Oliver, & Tod, 2009). While a number of different types of self-talk have been identified in the self-talk literature (see Hardy, 2006 for a review), the present study examines skilled athletes' use of instructional and motivational self-talk. Instructional self-talk (e.g., "firm wrist") is typically technique or tactics oriented aiding concentration whereas motivational self-talk (e.g., "I can do this") is related to enhanced confidence, increased effort, and positive affective states. Research indicates that instructional self-talk can enhance the performance of motor skills.In fact, two relatively recent systematic reviews support the consistency of these performance benefits of instructional self-talk (Tod, Hardy, & Oliver, 2011) and indicate a moderately strong positive effect on motor skill execution (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Galanis, & Theordorakis, 2011). In order to provide practitioners with direction and guidance, Theodorakis, Weinberg, Natsis, Douma, and Kazakas (2000) put forward a matching hypothesis. Within this hypothesis instructional self-talk is proposed to be more effective than motivational self-talk for precision and outcome-based motor skills whereas the opposite is true for motor skills requiring strength and endurance. Instructional self-talk is proposed to be more helpful than motivational self-talk for accuracy oriented motor skills because instructional self-talk can facilitate performers' understanding of task requirements helping them to attend to task relevant cues aiding their concentration during task execution. While there is little direct empirical support for this attention related mechanism within the self-talk literature, examination of the attentional focus literature suggests that attending to one's actions is not necessarily beneficial for performance (e.g., Wulf, 2007). This is particularly true for skilled performers (e.g....

From the Lab to the Field: Effects of Self-Talk on Task Performance Under Distracting Conditions

“…In the self-talk literature, the use of manipulation checks has been considered crucial to protect the integrity of the experimental conditions From the lab to field: Effects of self-talk on task performance under distracting conditions by Galanis, E., Hatzigeorgiadis, A., Comoutos, N., Charachousi, F., & Sanchez, X. The Sport Psychologist © 2017 Human Kinetics, Inc. (Hardy, Hall, Gibbs, & Greenslade, 2005). In studies where detailed manipulation checks have been used, participants have been excluded for either reporting the use of strategic self-talk while in a control condition (Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2008), reporting not using self-talk while in an experimental condition (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Mpoumpaki, & Theodorakis, 2009), or reporting some other type of strategic self-talk, rather than the one instructed (Hardy, Begley, & Blanchfield, 2015). In accordance to this practice, control participants using self-talk systematically were excluded to prevent the integrity of the experimental manipulation; yet results including all participants were also presented to provide a full description of the data.…”

Associations Between Self-Determined Motivation, Team Potency, and Self-Talk in Team Sports

“…Self-talk, defined as "the cognitions shown as an internal dialogue in which individuals interpret their feelings and perceptions, regulate and change evaluations and give themselves advice and support to their conduct and cognitive structure" (Latinjak et al, 2011), is one of the most important variables in an individual's behavior and emotions (Van Raalte et al, 2016). In the context of sport psychology, this variable is crucial in sport performance, because this knowledge will allow the athlete to identify and modify the maladaptive internal dialogue promoted by competition-generated anxiety (Blanchfield et al, 2014;Hardy et al, 2015;Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2014).…”

Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning

“…Some of the more notable ones include implicit learning (Masters & Poolton, 2012), the quiet eye (Vickers, 1996), mindfulness training (Kee, Chatzisarantis, Kong, Chow, & Chen, 2012), and self-talk Hardy, Begley, & Blanchfield, 2015). We outline some commonalities and differences between the assumptions underlying those approaches and the ones we have put forward in this theory.…”

“…Self-efficacy was enhanced in parallel with performance results. Self-talk research has often incorporated self-efficacy theory but generally not benefited by integration with the work on attentional focus described previously (although Hardy et al, 2015 is an exception). Efforts to consider how to facilitate goal-action coupling from positive motivational and external attentional approaches might optimize performers' results.…”

“…Content of such self-talk regimen are often categorized as motivational versus instructional or informational in nature, although there are wide variations in the specific focus and wording of self-talk statements. Hardy and colleagues found that skilled Gaelic football players attempting free kicks with their dominant and nondominant feet performed with greater kicking accuracy with a motivational self-talk statement (dominant limb) and equally well with motivational or instructional self-talk using their nondominant foot (Hardy et al, 2015). Chang and colleagues examined novice high school students performing a softball throw for accuracy and distance, and motivational, instructional, and unrelated (weather, pet's and parents' names, etc.)…”