A Closer Look at How Self-Talk Influences Skilled Basketball Performance

Abstract

Empirical literature addressing the effectiveness of self-talk for expert performers is lacking. We addressed this shortcoming within the existent literature and examined the comparative effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on basketball free throw shooting accuracy and salient movement kinematics. We recruited 20 professional basketball players to participate in a 2 × 2 pre/post-test experiment. Free throw accuracy and movement patterns were recorded, with the latter subsequently used to calculate elbow–wrist coordination variability. Results indicated superior shooting accuracy and reduced movement coordination variability for instructional self-talk compared to baseline conditions, whereas no differences emerged for motivational self-talk. Findings from the study help practitioners to better guide skilled performers how best to use self-talk; an area in urgent need of further research.

Interaction of mindfulness disposition and instructional self-talk on motor performance: a laboratory exploration

“…Results found the instructional group performed better than the control group. Similar results were also found in studies by using different motor tasks such as basketball passing accuracy and speed (Boroujeni & Shahbazi, 2011), softball throwing accuracy (Chang et al, 2014), handball accuracy (Zourbanos et al, 2013), and basketball free throw shooting accuracy (Abdoli et al, 2018). In contrast, some research found instructional self-talk has no effect on the motor task.…”

“…Specifically, we found that all participants performed better both in standing long jump and line tracking under the instructional self-talk condition. The effects of instructional self-talk on motor performance may be due to performers focusing on relevant cues in the environment and specific technical/mechanical aspects of the skills compared to those who did not receive instructions (Abdoli et al, 2018; Boroujeni & Shahbazi, 2011; Chang et al, 2014; Theodorakis et al, 2000).…”

Effects of Self-Talk Training on Competitive Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, Volitional Skills, and Performance: An Intervention Study with Junior Sub-Elite Athletes

“…Additionally, dependent variables are incomplete and they contribute to further gaps in knowledge. For example, numerous studies have been conducted on motor performance in the learning of new skills [7,8,9,10], whereas the effects of ST on performance in competitions or at least on the performance of elite athletes has only rarely been considered [5], with some notable exceptions [20,24,25]. Increasing ST studies with elite or sub-elite athletes would not only expand our knowledge, but it would also contribute to evidence-based practice in sport psychology with elite athletes [24].…”

Mind and body: Psychophysiological profiles of instructional and motivational self‐talk

“…Meta‐analytic evidence indicates that both instructional and motivational self‐talk benefit performance (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Galanis, & Theodorakis, 2011). However, for motor tasks placing a premium on precision, instructional self‐talk seems to have a relative advantage over motivational self‐talk (Theodorakis, Weinberg, Natsis, Douma, & Kazakas, 2000), as shown by behavioral metadata revealing larger performance benefits ( d instructional = .83 vs. d motivational = .22; Hatzigeorgiadis et al., 2011) and more consistent movement kinematics (Abdoli, Hardy, Riyahi, & Farsani, 2018).…”