As I progress through my goal setting plan (see Introducing Goal Setting and Setting Short Term Goals), I begin to notice patterns in my training performance. One of these patterns is that when I am stressed (with reference to my climbing, faced with a difficult move or moves), I employ a lot of self talk. Looking through my reflections, I see a list of words and phrases that I consistently use when in this state. Some of the more common ones that show up repeatedly are 'Come on!', 'Beast!', 'This is easy, you should be able to do this!', 'What the hell was that!', 'You have this!' and 'Idiot!'.
This isn't uncommon in sport. We see examples of this everyday. For example, tennis player, John McEnroe, and his fiery outbursts on the tennis court. A famous line of his 'You cannot be serious!' may seem negative to observers but this aggressiveness could be used to spur McEnroe on (more on this 'negative' self talk later on). Another example, is rugby legend, Jonny Wilkinson. Wilkinson explained that for every conversion and penalty kick, he would go through a mental routine which combines the mental skills of imagery (more on imagery at a later date) and self talk to successfully carry out the action. Self talk comes into play when Wilkinson places the ball down and he tells himself that he can 'make this kick'.
It is not difficult to realise that we have voices in our head. The real trick is figuring out what type of self- talk you have, how beneficial or destructive it is to your performance and then changing it, if needs be, to work to your advantage.
So what exactly is self-talk
The words or phrases that subconsciously pop into our head during performance reflect our minds contents. Specifically, how we evaluate our performance or how we think others evaluate our performance (Hardy, Jones and Gould, 1998). It is what is described as ‘the key to cognitive control’ (Bunker, Williams and Zinsser, 1993). Simply, it allows an insight as to exactly what is going on in our minds. If we can train this aspect of mental training, then we can direct our thoughts, especially during periods where performance can be optimised.
The experiences we have growing up shape the mental skills we have, not just as athletes but as individuals. This can be said of the reverse as well. The mental skills we develop as athletes can shape our future experiences. And this is why mental training is so important (but more on this at a later time). Mental training can help athletes develop positive mental skills which are transferable to other aspects of an athletes life.
For example, take a naturally talented basketball player who has confidence issues on the court when playing in front of big crowds. The player has developed an inner dialogue, effectively telling the player not to draw attention to himself and to keep out of the limelight. The player has developed negative self talk which is disruptive to the players performance. If we take a look at the players life growing up, we find that at home, the player is the youngest of 6 children and is constantly being picked on. He has learnt that by keeping quiet and in the background, his older siblings will forget about him and pick on him less. Therefore, he has grown up shy, reserved and outspoken. This will affect heavily on the individual's confidence and self-esteem and if not dealt with correctly, this experience will transfer into future experiences for the individual. And in this instance, the players experiences growing up has transferred on to his performance on the basketball court. Realising this, the player engages in mental training in an attempt to alleviate his stress on the court. The player could engage in a number of confidence building techniques such as goal setting, team cohesion or perhaps self talk. With time, the athlete learns to come out of his shell a bit more by becoming less shy and reserved. This reflects in his performance in that he is not as bothered about playing in front of large crowds as he was before. The techniques that this athlete has learned in sport can be applied to other aspects of his life like school or at home. This will reinforce the athletes rise in confidence and over time, being confident will simply be part of the individuals personality.
This scenario demonstrates that an individuals past experiences affect how mentally resilient an individual can be today. However, it also demonstrates that by learning mental skills and therefore, developing effective coping strategies, obstacles can be overcome. The above example, is assumptive. However, having worked with clients for many years, I can advise that an athletes life outside of sport, both past and present, is pivotal in determining the athlete they are. I approach my work from a holistic perspective which embodies the athlete as a whole and not just their experiences in the sport environment.
By looking at my reflections and paying close attention to comments that I have made in the progress, I can depict parts of my personality just by analysing my inner dialogue. For example, one of the self talk words I use, 'Beast', might reflect the image I have of an ideal climber and I am imagining myself to think that I am that ideal. Therefore, I believe that I am strong, tough and powerful. Everything that an ideal climber is, in my mind. By using this word, I am reinforcing these ideals so that I push myself mentally which should then be reflected in my performance. I notice I use 'Come on!' a lot, especially before a particularly stressful period (with reference to my climbing, before embarking on a hard climbing sequence). These two examples are reflections of motivational self talk. I have somehow developed motivational self talk as an athlete without realising so. This, in itself, represents my devotion, drive and diligence when faced with stressful situations. On the other hand, we have self talk phrases that can be seen as a little less positive: 'This is easy, you should be able to do this', 'What the hell was that!', 'You have this' and 'Idiot'. These phrases could perhaps reflect how hard I am on myself and how much of a high standard I set myself. With me, there is no room for error and I get increasingly frustrated with myself if I make mistakes.
Looking at my self-analysis above, I do agree with these statements. When I think about it, the self talk that I employ in sport is not only evident in this aspect of my life but it also crops up in stressful situations in other aspects of my life. For example, not so long ago, I presented in front of a group of teenagers with no materials to hand and a broken projector. My inner voice was shouting at me, 'Idiot', but as opposed to panicking, I found that this word motivated me to come up with fresh ideas on the spot. Soon I was thinking 'You have this!' and then 'This is easy, you should be able to do this' as I worked my way through the presentation.
The above examples from my personal dialogue are from a motivational perspective but self talk can appear in other perspectives as well. Other self talk perspectives include task relevant self talk, mood-related self talk and positive affirmations. Task relevant self talk are words or phrases focused on specific technique. For example, a tennis player executing a serve could use the words 'meet, part, brush and boom!' to split up the one big movement of a serve to smaller individual actions thus, creating a flow between the actions. Mood-related self talk are words or phrases focused on physiological function. For example, a nervous athlete before a game could use 'still legs' to stop the legs from shaking. And lastly, self talk that are positive affirmations. These are used to confirm and reinforce self belief and confidence. For example, the great Mohammed Ali used the phrase 'I am the greatest'. These different perspectives demonstrate that self talk may not come about before stressful situations, as it did for me, but can be triggered by different stimuli.
How does self-talk work?
Self talk comes about when the mind is exposed to a particular situation and decides to voice it's inner thoughts, whether positive or negative. These inner thoughts will affect the individuals emotions which will then have a direct influence on our actions and behaviours. Positive self talk can increase adrenaline levels, refocus a mind, increase confidence or reinforce self belief. Essentially, returning the state, mind and body back to an individuals optimal performance level.
An excellent example of self talk in use is by professional climber Pete Whittaker making the first ascent (the first to follow a particular climbing route) of 'Dynamics of Change'. Take a look at this video and see for yourself self talk in action (about 1 min and 51 seconds into the video).
There is no denying that an athlete has to be at the top of their game, both physically and mentally, to pull off the moves in this climb and to send (finish) this route. During Whittaker's climb, and that impressive high heel hook (a climbing technique used to gain height on steep terrain whilst keeping your hips into the wall and giving your arms rest) he pulls off, we hear Whittaker employ self talk to get him through the most difficult parts of the route. 'Come on' is used before he gets himself into position for the high heel hook, and then used again during the move itself. This keeps Whittaker calm, relaxed and focused on what he needs to do. We then hear him use 'Concentrate' to regain his focus. Despite overcoming one of the crux’s (the most difficult portion of a climb), he still needs to remain in control and calm to climb the rest of the route. Then we hear Whittaker use 'top rope, top rope' numerous times after executing the heel hook move to get him to the top of the route (top rope is a form climbing where a rope is already in place above to prevent falling the great distance that would have happened should he have fallen during this portion of the climb). Fear will be playing a huge part in Whittaker's mind at this stage. He successfully reigns this fear in by using this phrase to trick his body and mind to imagine that he has a rope tied to him which is anchored above. Not only does this keep Whittaker calm, relaxed and focused but it also increases his confidence and self belief during the really scary part of the route. The climbers ability to keep himself mentally in check means that he can go on to physically perform the actions required to get to the top undisturbed. I think you will agree, that any doubt in this climbers performance would cause him to come off the wall and seriously injure himself.
Although this video demonstrates an exemplary example of effective self talk in action, self talk can work to our disadvantage as well. Rather than positive reinforcing words and phrases, they can become negative debilitating words and phrases. As easy as it is for positive self talk to develop, it is just as easy for negative self talk to take over.
Self talk is a never ending cycle. Once a thought has developed, it is hard to break out of this cycle. If positive self talk has developed, this is a good habit to have. However, if negative self talk develops, this can result in disastrous results for an athlete in the form of depreciated performance and positivity over time. Figure 1 demonstrates the frustrating effects of a negative self talk cycle. If an athlete is exposed to a situation which produces an uncomfortable level of anxiety and thus, negative thoughts ensue, this will impact on their feelings which will then be reflected in their performance. Over time, this cycle of negative thoughts, feelings and actions will be automatic, in which it becomes a script, and this can be difficult to get out of once developed. This will carry over to further sessions and these thoughts will infiltrate an individuals belief systems.
FIGURE 1
This isn't uncommon in sport. We see examples of this everyday. For example, tennis player, John McEnroe, and his fiery outbursts on the tennis court. A famous line of his 'You cannot be serious!' may seem negative to observers but this aggressiveness could be used to spur McEnroe on (more on this 'negative' self talk later on). Another example, is rugby legend, Jonny Wilkinson. Wilkinson explained that for every conversion and penalty kick, he would go through a mental routine which combines the mental skills of imagery (more on imagery at a later date) and self talk to successfully carry out the action. Self talk comes into play when Wilkinson places the ball down and he tells himself that he can 'make this kick'.
It is not difficult to realise that we have voices in our head. The real trick is figuring out what type of self- talk you have, how beneficial or destructive it is to your performance and then changing it, if needs be, to work to your advantage.
So what exactly is self-talk
The words or phrases that subconsciously pop into our head during performance reflect our minds contents. Specifically, how we evaluate our performance or how we think others evaluate our performance (Hardy, Jones and Gould, 1998). It is what is described as ‘the key to cognitive control’ (Bunker, Williams and Zinsser, 1993). Simply, it allows an insight as to exactly what is going on in our minds. If we can train this aspect of mental training, then we can direct our thoughts, especially during periods where performance can be optimised.
The experiences we have growing up shape the mental skills we have, not just as athletes but as individuals. This can be said of the reverse as well. The mental skills we develop as athletes can shape our future experiences. And this is why mental training is so important (but more on this at a later time). Mental training can help athletes develop positive mental skills which are transferable to other aspects of an athletes life.
For example, take a naturally talented basketball player who has confidence issues on the court when playing in front of big crowds. The player has developed an inner dialogue, effectively telling the player not to draw attention to himself and to keep out of the limelight. The player has developed negative self talk which is disruptive to the players performance. If we take a look at the players life growing up, we find that at home, the player is the youngest of 6 children and is constantly being picked on. He has learnt that by keeping quiet and in the background, his older siblings will forget about him and pick on him less. Therefore, he has grown up shy, reserved and outspoken. This will affect heavily on the individual's confidence and self-esteem and if not dealt with correctly, this experience will transfer into future experiences for the individual. And in this instance, the players experiences growing up has transferred on to his performance on the basketball court. Realising this, the player engages in mental training in an attempt to alleviate his stress on the court. The player could engage in a number of confidence building techniques such as goal setting, team cohesion or perhaps self talk. With time, the athlete learns to come out of his shell a bit more by becoming less shy and reserved. This reflects in his performance in that he is not as bothered about playing in front of large crowds as he was before. The techniques that this athlete has learned in sport can be applied to other aspects of his life like school or at home. This will reinforce the athletes rise in confidence and over time, being confident will simply be part of the individuals personality.
This scenario demonstrates that an individuals past experiences affect how mentally resilient an individual can be today. However, it also demonstrates that by learning mental skills and therefore, developing effective coping strategies, obstacles can be overcome. The above example, is assumptive. However, having worked with clients for many years, I can advise that an athletes life outside of sport, both past and present, is pivotal in determining the athlete they are. I approach my work from a holistic perspective which embodies the athlete as a whole and not just their experiences in the sport environment.
By looking at my reflections and paying close attention to comments that I have made in the progress, I can depict parts of my personality just by analysing my inner dialogue. For example, one of the self talk words I use, 'Beast', might reflect the image I have of an ideal climber and I am imagining myself to think that I am that ideal. Therefore, I believe that I am strong, tough and powerful. Everything that an ideal climber is, in my mind. By using this word, I am reinforcing these ideals so that I push myself mentally which should then be reflected in my performance. I notice I use 'Come on!' a lot, especially before a particularly stressful period (with reference to my climbing, before embarking on a hard climbing sequence). These two examples are reflections of motivational self talk. I have somehow developed motivational self talk as an athlete without realising so. This, in itself, represents my devotion, drive and diligence when faced with stressful situations. On the other hand, we have self talk phrases that can be seen as a little less positive: 'This is easy, you should be able to do this', 'What the hell was that!', 'You have this' and 'Idiot'. These phrases could perhaps reflect how hard I am on myself and how much of a high standard I set myself. With me, there is no room for error and I get increasingly frustrated with myself if I make mistakes.
Looking at my self-analysis above, I do agree with these statements. When I think about it, the self talk that I employ in sport is not only evident in this aspect of my life but it also crops up in stressful situations in other aspects of my life. For example, not so long ago, I presented in front of a group of teenagers with no materials to hand and a broken projector. My inner voice was shouting at me, 'Idiot', but as opposed to panicking, I found that this word motivated me to come up with fresh ideas on the spot. Soon I was thinking 'You have this!' and then 'This is easy, you should be able to do this' as I worked my way through the presentation.
The above examples from my personal dialogue are from a motivational perspective but self talk can appear in other perspectives as well. Other self talk perspectives include task relevant self talk, mood-related self talk and positive affirmations. Task relevant self talk are words or phrases focused on specific technique. For example, a tennis player executing a serve could use the words 'meet, part, brush and boom!' to split up the one big movement of a serve to smaller individual actions thus, creating a flow between the actions. Mood-related self talk are words or phrases focused on physiological function. For example, a nervous athlete before a game could use 'still legs' to stop the legs from shaking. And lastly, self talk that are positive affirmations. These are used to confirm and reinforce self belief and confidence. For example, the great Mohammed Ali used the phrase 'I am the greatest'. These different perspectives demonstrate that self talk may not come about before stressful situations, as it did for me, but can be triggered by different stimuli.
How does self-talk work?
Self talk comes about when the mind is exposed to a particular situation and decides to voice it's inner thoughts, whether positive or negative. These inner thoughts will affect the individuals emotions which will then have a direct influence on our actions and behaviours. Positive self talk can increase adrenaline levels, refocus a mind, increase confidence or reinforce self belief. Essentially, returning the state, mind and body back to an individuals optimal performance level.
An excellent example of self talk in use is by professional climber Pete Whittaker making the first ascent (the first to follow a particular climbing route) of 'Dynamics of Change'. Take a look at this video and see for yourself self talk in action (about 1 min and 51 seconds into the video).
There is no denying that an athlete has to be at the top of their game, both physically and mentally, to pull off the moves in this climb and to send (finish) this route. During Whittaker's climb, and that impressive high heel hook (a climbing technique used to gain height on steep terrain whilst keeping your hips into the wall and giving your arms rest) he pulls off, we hear Whittaker employ self talk to get him through the most difficult parts of the route. 'Come on' is used before he gets himself into position for the high heel hook, and then used again during the move itself. This keeps Whittaker calm, relaxed and focused on what he needs to do. We then hear him use 'Concentrate' to regain his focus. Despite overcoming one of the crux’s (the most difficult portion of a climb), he still needs to remain in control and calm to climb the rest of the route. Then we hear Whittaker use 'top rope, top rope' numerous times after executing the heel hook move to get him to the top of the route (top rope is a form climbing where a rope is already in place above to prevent falling the great distance that would have happened should he have fallen during this portion of the climb). Fear will be playing a huge part in Whittaker's mind at this stage. He successfully reigns this fear in by using this phrase to trick his body and mind to imagine that he has a rope tied to him which is anchored above. Not only does this keep Whittaker calm, relaxed and focused but it also increases his confidence and self belief during the really scary part of the route. The climbers ability to keep himself mentally in check means that he can go on to physically perform the actions required to get to the top undisturbed. I think you will agree, that any doubt in this climbers performance would cause him to come off the wall and seriously injure himself.
Although this video demonstrates an exemplary example of effective self talk in action, self talk can work to our disadvantage as well. Rather than positive reinforcing words and phrases, they can become negative debilitating words and phrases. As easy as it is for positive self talk to develop, it is just as easy for negative self talk to take over.
Self talk is a never ending cycle. Once a thought has developed, it is hard to break out of this cycle. If positive self talk has developed, this is a good habit to have. However, if negative self talk develops, this can result in disastrous results for an athlete in the form of depreciated performance and positivity over time. Figure 1 demonstrates the frustrating effects of a negative self talk cycle. If an athlete is exposed to a situation which produces an uncomfortable level of anxiety and thus, negative thoughts ensue, this will impact on their feelings which will then be reflected in their performance. Over time, this cycle of negative thoughts, feelings and actions will be automatic, in which it becomes a script, and this can be difficult to get out of once developed. This will carry over to further sessions and these thoughts will infiltrate an individuals belief systems.
FIGURE 1
How can we use self-talk to our advantage?
Self-talk is one of the main performance enhancement techniques athletes use to increase performance. It is also one of the easiest to understand but also the most difficult to incorporate and to maintain in training. As with any mental training technique, practice is key. Self talk can only be effective if practised on a regular basis. It is not enough to simply spend one session or a few minutes every other week on self talk. If we are trying to get in the habit of creating a positive self talk cycle, then we will need to keep on reinforcing the positive thoughts until we can do this automatically. Treat mental training the same as one would for physical training. How often do you spend on learning a new physical skill?
As mentioned before, we need to be aware of the self talk that we currently engage in. This can tell us a lot about the athlete's current mental state and will direct further mental training. For example, the words and phrases I employ in my performance are motivational. Now that I am consciously aware of this, I would benefit from this by religiously using these words to consistently motivate myself during performance. As I have already developed a positive self talk cycle, reinforcing this cycle in my performance will only strengthen the effect that the positive self talk has on my emotions and then consequently, my actions. This will eventually work in situations where I am especially low in motivation. However, as I mentioned before, this can only happen after lots of practice. So by tuning in to what I unconsciously say and then turning this to my advantage, I will have trained my mind to think of these specific positive motivational thoughts consistently. I can guarantee then that my emotions and actions/behaviours will be positive because of this mental training.
If an athlete participates in a lot of negative self talk then there are a number of techniques to stop this crippling cycle. The athlete can participate in thought stopping which is a three step technique to turn their negative thinking into more positive self talk. There are also a number of pen and paper techniques that involve the athlete challenging their negative thoughts so that they become ridiculed or dismissed. Another technique is to distract the athletes mind by focusing instead on matters at present.
FIGURE 2
All these techniques have one focus. To train our minds to mentally stop and question the negative thoughts before it engages our feelings and behaviours. On paper it seems quite straightforward, in practice it will be a lot more difficult (as with any other mental training technique). Although subconscious, we have already trained the mind to think a particular destructive negative cycle once before. This proves that we can certainly train our minds to form a new positive self talk cycle. Our thoughts, our emotions and our actions can be influenced if we practice and train this aspect of mental training.
The effectiveness of self talk depends on one of two important factors. First, the connection to the words or phrases that an individual has will determine how much effect self talk has on performance. For example, some of the phrases I use in my climbing like 'Idiot' or 'What the hell was that' may appear negative but for me, they actually act as motivational cues for when I am extremely stressed. This is much like the McEnroe example I used above. Rather than depreciating my performance, it has the opposite effect in that it drives my performance and makes me more focused on the task at hand. On the other hand, if I used these phrases before going into competition, they may produce the undesired effect. I would like to be feeling relaxed, confident and in control before a competition and phrases like 'Idiot!' will undermine my performance and psyche me out. And second, the sport that an individual partakes in plays a big part in self talk words. For example, 'Beast' might work wonders for me in climbing. This word in the English Oxford dictionary means 'An animal, especially a large or dangerous four-footed one' but it is also defined in the urban dictionary as 'a person who is very good at something'. A beast in my definition is someone that is strong, tough and powerful and these characteristics are reflective of a good climber. However, 'Beast' might not be a word that is seen as advantageous to have if you are a gymnast. In gymnastics, you will more likely be looking to be delicate, refined and elegant and using the word 'Beast' may produce the opposite behaviours.
Athletes will learn a lot if they learn to listen to themselves. Try it for yourselves. Next time you are out on the field, court, centre, arena listen to what your thoughts are telling you and you might be surprised at what you find out. It will certainly shed some light on you as an individual and how you perceive yourself. Importantly, it will give you all the clues on how to direct further mental training for your performance.
Published 16th December 2015.