Usage of Self Talk in Competition by Athletes

Abstract

Self-talk has frequently been studied in sport psychology to improve performance, increase mood, or improve confidence. Coaches and athletes focus on self-talk to perform better in competition. While a majority of the literature conducted were experimental studies on function of self-talk, only limited studies investigate self-talk dialogue in competition. This review will analyze the current literature on self-talk in competition to determine the important factors in future research. EBSCO Host database, including CINAHL Complete, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, MEDLINE Complete, and SPORT Discus, were used to search for articles specific to self-talk in competition. The search was limited to articles published within 10 years and written in English. A total of seven articles focused on self-talk in competition: Four articles studied self-talk in competition with the effect on performance, and three articles studied elite athlete’s self-talk dialogue in competition. The review is limited due to lack of articles available on self-talk in competition. To unfold how athletes utilize self-talk, this review will introduce a sport-specific model of self-talk by Van Raalte, Vincent, and Brewer (2016). Additionally, it will compare the model with elite self-talk dialogue to explore the usage of self-talk in competition. Furthermore, future research to be conducted on self-talk dialogue of elite athletes will be recommended.