Sport Psychology

Academic Year 2021-2022

Jochen Delrue
Lesson 7: Self-talk and Imagery
Jochen Delrue
Contents

1. Self-talk
2. Imagery
1. Self-talk
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Self-talk

Who recognizes this scenario?

When you talk to yourself, what are you saying?

• Positive? Negative?
• Does it help you or not?

Why are you doing it?

• Deliberately?
• Spontaneously?

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Self-talk

Self-Talk refers to all self-addressed speech

(also: inner dialogue, inner speech, self-statements, self-communication, verbal
thinking…)
~Implicates that the sender of the message is also the intended receiver.

• Endorsed by coaches and athletes as one of the most widely used and effective
performance enhancing strategies.

• Extensive research shows consistent effects on performance.

Self-talk

Categories of self-talk

Valence:
• P-Positive ST: encouraging and positive in tone
• Negative ST: discouraging and negative in tone

Overtness:
• Overt: talking out loud
• Covert: inner speech

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Self-talk

Function
• Spontaneous ST: it comes naturally, without consideration or intention

• Strategic ST: Deliberate self-statements with specific purpose

• Instructional ST (e.g., Play the baseline; Get more variation in shots, Stay calm…)
 Affects focus, confidence, cognitive and emotional control and automatic execution.

• Motivational ST (e.g., Common you can do this; Hang on!; Almost there!)
 Affects effort regulation, is encouraging an motivates performers.

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Self-talk

Research:

Instructional and motivational ST  better performance, les cognitive and somatic

anxiety.

Specifically in endurance sport:

Motivational ST  more effort and persistent, but less perceived exhaustion!
(as if motivational ST creates more energy)

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Self-talk

Why do we talk to ourselves?

Kahneman (2003): two discrete but interacting systems transform information from the
outside world into (internal) cognitive content:

• System 1: fast, effortless and emotionally charged. Content is often described as

intuition, comes to mind spontaneously as gut feelings or impressions.

• System 2: Slower, effortful, and consciously monitored. Content includes explicit and
intentional ideas, logic, conscious calculations, attributions and interpretations.

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Self-talk

Applied to Self-talk

• System 1 Self-talk brings current experiences into awareness in a way that

represents the immediate, emotionally charged reaction to a situation.
(e.g., “you play like sh*t”)

• System 2 self-talk results from consideration and planning, and may lead to logical,
instructional, task-focused, and motivational self-talk, as well as ST for distraction
purposes. (e.g., “keep on fighting”).
System 2 also monitors the ST generated by system 1 (e.g., swearing in frustration)
which may lead to System 2 Self-talk (e.g., calming self-talk to manage frustration)

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Self-talk

A sport example:

A golfer who strikes the ball poorly.

Immediate reaction of frustration: “I am the worst”
- This system 1 self-talk express the golfer’s experiences and beliefs concerning the
outside world.

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Self-talk

- System 2 self-talk can occur as immediate reaction to system 1 ST. System 2

reconstructs the experiences of system 1 through more rational and deliberate
processing.
“I am the worst” could activate System 2 self-regulatory processes such as the use of
 Instructional ST to manage the swing on the next hole (e.g., “swing loose”)
 Calming ST to reduce frustration (e.g., “Golf is just a game”)
 Motivation ST to sustain effort (e.g., “I’ll do well on the next hole”)

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Self-talk

So why are we talking to ourselves?

- ST expresses experiences, emotions, impressions etc.
- ST allows for self-regulation

So ST can reflect emotional states (~system 1 AND spontaneous self-talk) and/or serve
proactive, goal-directed purpose of self-regulation (~system 2 AND strategic self-talk)

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Self-talk

Implications:
System 2 self-talk is often helpful in directing attention and enhancing performance. This
kind of self-talk is considered strategic self-talk (i.e., instructional and motivation ST).
It also requires mental resources, which are limited!
 Extensive use of strategic self-talk can deplete mental resources and cause
performance drops.
 Why? When system 2 is depleted, only system 1 is available. System 1 is base on gut
feeling, not goal-directed and more emotionally charged, which may go against what
we need to perform.
!!! Strategic self-talk that is well-practiced does not deplete mental resources that
much. So ST must be practiced before using it in competition, as competition drains
mental resources by itself!
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Self-talk

Implications
System 1 information processing is automatic, effortless, but also occurs below level of
awareness.
Negative self-talk may involve system 1, which is emotionally charged and spontaneous.
System 1 does not react quickly to logic and is not under conscious control.
So talking trash to yourself may be difficult to control or eliminate with cognitive
interventions.

However, a positive state of mind or positive mood prevents system 1 to create negative
self-talk.

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2. Imagery
Connecting arousal and anxiety to performance
Imagery

“Before every shot I go to the movies inside my head.

Here is what I see. First, I see the ball where I want it to
finish, nice and white and sitting high up on the green
grass. Then I see the ball going there, its path and
trajectory and even its behavior on landing. The next
scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn
the previous image into reality.
These home movies are a key to my concentration and
to my positive approach to every shot.”

(From Weinberg and Gould, 2015)

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Imagery

Imagery refers to creating or re-creating an experience in the mind.

• Can imagine what has happened or what will happen

• Form of simulation, similar to a real sensory experience (e.g., seeing, feeling,
hearing) but occurs entirely in the mind.

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Imagery

• Should involve as many senses as possible.

• Visual: watch the ball as the pitcher releases it and it come towards you
• Kinesthetic: know where your bat is and transfer weight at the proper time to
maximize power
• Auditory: hear the sound of the bat hitting the ball
• Tactile: feel the bat in your hands
• Olfactory: smell the grass

• Attaching emotional states: re-creating emotion or thoughts and attaching them to

imagery can help control emotional states

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Imagery

Why do athletes use imagery?

Pavio (1985)

Motivational Cognitive

Skills
Goal oriented
(e.g., imaging performing on
Specific (e.g., imaging oneself winning
the balance beam
an event or medal)
successfully)

Arousal Strategy
General (e.g., Including relaxation by (e.g., imaging carrying out a
imaging a quiet place) strategy to win a competition)

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Imagery

What do athletes image?

Surroundings
• Competition venue, the court, the spectators, the press…
When preparing for an event. After imaging the surrounding are no longer new, and
may no longer create anxiety, because you already dealt with that during imagery.
Type of imagery
Athletes us visual, kinesthetic, auditory and olfactory senses when imaging. However,
visual and kinesthetic to a greater extent.
Perspective of imagery
Internal (first person): more emphasis on feeling the movements
External (third person): focus on how it looks, more helicopter perspective
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Imagery

Uses of imagery

Improve concentration
Visualizing what you want to do and how you want to react prevents mind from
wandering.
Image yourself in situations where you often lose focus (e.g., after lost point) and
imagine yourself remaining compose and focused on the next play.

Improve motivation
Seeing oneself winning a gold medal showed to increase motivation to perform.

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Imagery

Acquire skills
Practice skills in the mind to fine-tune them, pinpoint weaknesses and correct those
weaknesses.

Acquire and practice strategy

e.g., baseball batter images the different throws a pitcher can launch and how he will
react to these different throws.

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Imagery

Control emotional responses (Williams and Cummings (2010))

~imaging the situation differently to alter emotional response

Competition appraisal (cf. Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes)

- Challenge: “I view this event a challenge”
- Threat: “I feel threatened by this competitive event”

Balance between demands and abilities to cope determines the appraisal.

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 Imagery
Antecedents Experience of competitive event Outcome

Cognitive appraisal Physiological response

Facilitative
interpretation of
-Self-efficacy
Challenge appraisal Challenge state competitive anxiety
-Perceived control
-Approach/Avoidance goal
Threat appraisal Threat state Debilitative interpretation
focus
of competitive anxiety

Imagery script focused on increased

self-efficacy, perceived control and Challenge appraisal of competition Facilitative interpretation
on possible gains with competition inducing a challenge state of anxiety
(cf. approach goals)
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