Self-talk and softball performance: The role of self-talk nature, motor task characteristics, and self-efficacy in novice softball players

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the effect of self-talk on softball throwing performance. Additionally, two moderators, nature of self-talk and type of motor task, as well as a potential mediator of selfefficacy were examined. Design: An experimental, within-subjects, and counterbalanced design. Methods: Forty-two senior high students (mean age = 17.48 ± 0.55) were instructed to use instructional, motivational, and unrelated self-talk with counterbalanced order prior to softball throwing for accuracy and distance tasks. Results: Both instructional and motivational self-talk conditions had better performance than unrelated self-talk on softball throwing accuracy, whereas motivational self-talk had better performance than both instructional and unrelated self-talk in softball throwing for distance. Results for self-efficacy were similar, with self-efficacy for accuracy performance higher in both instructional and motivational self-talk conditions than with unrelated self-talk, while selfefficacy was highest in the motivational self-talk condition and lowest with unrelated self-talk. Significant correlations between self-efficacy and motor performance were also found with both tasks. Conclusion: These findings partially support the task-matching hypothesis, confirm the moderator role of type of self-talk and task type, suggest that self-efficacy has a mediator role, and provide direction for self-talk effectiveness.

Psychological Profile, Competitive Anxiety, Moods and Self-Efficacy in Beach Handball Players

“…Some authors have emphasized the need to assess specific measures of self-efficacy [23], but others point out that a general perception of self-efficacy may be an adequate predictor of behavior [26]. Self-efficacy has been deeply analyzed in the sports field, as one of the psychological constructs considered most relevant to athletic performance [27][28][29].…”

Perceived School Climate and Students’ Mental Health

“…Chang et al (2014) examined the effect of motivational and instructional selftalk on the performance of the softball launch, and showed that both types of self-talk improved the softball throw performance. Motivational self-talk at higher distances had a great impact on the improvement of performance (13).…”

The Effects of Attentional Strategies (Augmented feedback, Instructional Self-talk, and Instruction) on Motor Learning in Ten-Year-Old Children

“…This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited tention, provision of technical information, and introduction of appropriate executive solutions (7,8). Studies by Chang et al Kolovelonis et al and Zourbanos et al respectively in basketball skills, handball, and softball throwing used instructional self-talk techniques to benefit from external attention (9)(10)(11). But, there are also studies that contradict with the results of these studies (12,13).…”