Self-talk in a basketball-shooting task.
This study examined the effectiveness of two different types of self-talk on the performance of a basketball-shooting task. 60 physical education and sports sciences students were organized into one control and two treatment groups which used self-talk. During the experiment, the control group performed with the general instructions, whereas the self-talk groups used the cue-words "relax" and "fast," respectively, Analysis showed that only the participants of the self-talk group who used the word "relax" improved their performance significantly as compared to the other two groups. It appears that self-talk can positively affect performance if its content is appropriate for the task performed.
Theodorakis
Y
Y
Department of Physical Education & Sport Science, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Greece. ytheo@pe.uth.gr
Chroni
S
S
Laparidis
K
K
Bebetsos
V
V
Douma
I
I
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001490:Basketball; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D014705:Verbal Behavior