The Skill of Talking to Yourself: Self-Talk

Belief systems are the main ingredient to confidence. They build and reinforce habits of thinking and how athletes and teams prepare, perform, and reflect.
 
But without knowing it, athletes can sabotage their success with self-defeating self-talk. Developing an honest practice toward learning about one's inner dialogue, connected to how one acts, should be a daily practice of introspection.
 
The most pervasive form of self-talk that interferes with athletes' performance is Judgmental Self-Talk. This sounds like "what's wrong with me?" or "why do I always do that?" Sometimes a coach plants these thoughts in athletes' minds by asking the same rhetorical questions. It's too problem focused—especially during training and games—and interferes with their ability to make the next play. Coaches usually think this is effective because athletes should try to correct their mistakes in an effort to not make them again—but it becomes inefficient since now athletes are just replaying the mistakes in their minds.
 
The reality is that all athletes have had moments where, when things went wrong, they practiced negative self-talk. They are self-critical and ruminating on results. It's important to understand that "wherever our attention goes, energy flows." In other words, we give power to where we direct our attention. The best part about this is that we are in control of where we direct our attention. The two types of self-talk that we want our athletes to be focusing on during play are Motivational and Instructional.
 
Motivational Self-Talk: 
Should occur during pauses in play, between quarters, or when they need to come up with clutch plays. It keeps athletes' mindsets and confidence directed properly and focuses on what they are about to achieve rather than what happened before. It helps them find extra energy when tired.
 
"Come on Brian, you got this."
"I am the best shooter in the pool—no one can stop me"
"Let's go! Commit!"
 
Instructional Self-Talk
Employs cue words, 1-2-3 words, or short phrases to focus on the execution of the actual play (shooting, passing, defending, counter attack, etc.). These are action-oriented words used during play. They need to focus on the process of the play as opposed to the outcome they want to achieve. When practiced consistently, the mind will create mental movies (mental representations/images) that will help reinforce the action into automatic behaviors. This allows athletes to remain mindful and in the moment. However, when slumping or struggling and not using these cues, it's important to bring them to mind intentionally until the right performance is found again.
 
"Hips up."
"Slide right."
"Legs, legs, legs."
 
If you ask any number of athletes right after they played at their absolute best—their peak levels—they probably would say they weren't thinking about anything at all. Their minds were just blank. This is the goal—but 99 percent of the time it isn't the reality. We have to be intentional with our self-talk to give ourselves the best chance to find excellence in our play.