Developing self-talk routines
Last week the topic of our online mental sessions with our full-time players was self-talk. Below we share with you a general summary on the importance of this mental skill prepared by our sports psychologist Oriol Mercade. Our team of psychologists looked into the patterns of our players’ self-talk and for every player individual self-talk plans were prepared to help them overcome negative habits and enhance the positive ones.
Self-Talk
Self-talk is another important tool in sports psychology. According to a recent study, how athletes talk to themselves on and off the field can have a dramatic effect on their performance and attitude.
Here are key findings on how self talk can influence athletes in different ways:
Instructional self-talk: Instructional self-talk can be effective when working on fine skills or improved technique. For example, when serving, it would be better for the tennis player to say for himself “bend your knees” or “throw high”…
Positive self-talk: Speak powerful and positive to yourself at the beginning of the match or between points can definitely have an effect.
We can refer to Motivation; “Let’s go!”, Self-control: “Relax” or Confidence: “You can!” or Concentration: “focus”.
Negative self-talk: Tennis can be frustrating and tiring, so if we don’t have a self-talk routine, it is normal that our free negative thoughts come to us on the court to destroy our technique, confidence tactics and everything…and suddenly we forget to play tennis:
Worries “I’m going to lose”, Disengagement: “I want to stop”; Fatigue: I'm not in good shape and Irrelevant Thoughts: “What will I do tonight” .
Pros like Andy Murray or Rafa Nadal use self-talk technique
Andy Murray's secret motivational tips: A fan at the Rotterdam Open has exposed a sheet of motivating phrases and slogans used by the British No1. Most of the phrases are stock sports psychology tropes, but some provide tactical approach in important games.
Rafael Nadal, before his match at Indian Wells 2008 against Tsonga, wrote in Catalán the following words: “Posició (position) , valent (brave), concentració (focus) y bolla alta (high ball)”