Abstract:
One of the factors influencing the athletes’performance in critical situations is their
awareness of the strategies entailingmental skills. One such skill is self-talk
that has been identified as an effectivemental training tool in controlling human
beings’ behaviors. This study aims toexamine the perceived positive and
negative effects of self-talk on the athletes’performance. Data were collected through
survey questionnaire from a group ofIranian elite football players qualified for
national football team. The players’responses were thematically analyzed for
both positive and negative effects of ST indifferent occasions around official football
competitions. The analysis indicated theperceived effects could be characterized at
two levels: mental and behavioural. Mostimportant positive effects of ST at mental
level included its cognitive benefits suchas enhancing focus and attention, promote
decision making skills and decreasingreaction time. Mental level benefits also
comprised emotional effects of ST such asmotivating players to increase efforts,
coping with difficult situations, anddecreasing anxiety and psyching up.
Emotional effects had negative aspectstoo. Weakening confidence by self-criticism, and dwelling on negativethoughts and increased stress were amongnegative effects. At behavioral level, STwas perceived to benefit execution of tasksby increased attentional focus and creating
an awareness of the negative consequencesof certain behaviors thereby benefiting the
overall performance of the individuals andthat of the team. Implications for football
players and team managers have beendiscussed.
Machine summary:
"Researcher in Sport Science Quarterly 2010, 1 (1): 29- 37 ORGINAL ARTICLE Effects of Self-Talk on Football Players Performance in Official Competitions Daftari, O;1 Sofian Omar Fauzee, M;1 Akbari, A2 1 Department of Sports Science, University Putra Malaysia 2 Department of Exercise Physiology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Abstract One of the factors influencing the athletes’ performance in critical situations is theirawareness of the strategies entailing mental skills.
Self-talk; Iran national football team; self-talk patterns; self-talk effects Key words: Introduction One of the factors influencing the athletes’ performance in critical situations is their awareness of the strategies enhancing mental skills.
This brief overview of previous research indicates that the influence of self-talk cannot be ignored in high-pressure sport competitions; however, the examination the athletes’ perceptions of positive and negative effects of self-talkon their performance has enjoyed scant attention in previous research.
With respect to the stated significance of ST awareness in athletes’ performance and regarding the fact that there is a paucity of research in this area, the present study attempts to examine football players perceptions of positive and negative effects of ST around official national level competitions, which exercises high mental pressure on the athletes thereby influencing their performance.
Rank order of players’ cited positive and negative effects of self-talk on their performance (View the image of this page)Further responses indicated that before entering the pitch thinking about incoming events and reviewing them provides them with consciousness of their behavior in the actual moments that they will encounter in the pitch."