Self Talk

Administration in Athletic Training Beth Antoine

Exercise
Its in your head
I can do it! I cant do it.

STRONG

VS.

WEAK

What is Self Talk?

internal monologue with yourself
self talk in athletics
rehabilitation peak performance

10 Things About Self Talk

1 Self Talk is Constant 2 Takes Place in Real Time 3 Your body reacts as if your self talk is real 4 Heavily influenced by your beliefs 5 Its Fascist 6 Happens the most when you need it the least
Dunn 2001

7 Can be a major life force 8 You often talk to yourself like you would never talk to someone else 9 Negative self talk creates a harmful internal environment 10 Listen to your bodyit listens to you!
Dunn 2001

Negative vs. Positive

Scenario: 2 months s/p ACL reconstruction
I cant do this. Im never going to get better. Why try? I can do this rehab and I will work my way back up to my full potential.

Changing Negative Self Talk

1 Acknowledging negative ideas 2 Question ideas 3 Positive counter statements

Acknowledging Negative Ideas

Some types
filtering, polarized thinking, catastrophizing, control fallacies, emotional reasoning, blaming, and global labeling (Copeland, 2001)

Athlete must want to change Athlete may need help recognizing negative statements

Question Ideas
What is the evidence for this? Is this always true? Has this been true in the past? What are the odds of this really happening? What is the very worst that could happen? Am I looking at the whole picture? Am I being fully objective?
Bourne, 2000

Positive Counter Statements

write them down
avoid negatives, use present tense and first person

practice
have a copy with you read everyday

believing will come

Examples
1 I cant do this. Im never going to get better. Why try? 2 Have people in the past recovered from ACL reconstruction? What are the odds of never getting better? Are you looking at the whole picture? 3 I can do this rehab. I will get better and work up to my full potential.

Continuing with Positive Self Talk

Not limited to rehabilitation Enhance performance Example: BSB player facing a pitcher he has never gotten a hit off before 1. I cant hit off of him. I am going to strike out. 2. I have seen this pitcher before so I know what to expect. I can do this and I will get a hit.

Resources for More Info:

http://www.expage.com/trainingbag1 http://www.psychedonline.org/Articles/Vol 3Iss5/CognitiveDistortion2.htm www.mdsports.net/docs/mentalskillsbaseb all.pdf

References:
Bourne, Edmund J. The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook. 3rd ed. Oakland, CA; New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2000. Copeland, Mary Ellen. The Depression Workbook. 2nd ed. Oakland, CA; New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2001. The Top 10 Things to Know about Self Talk. Available at http://www.topten. org/public/BA/BA552.htm Accessed 22 January, 2004.

More References:
Kolezynski, Joe. Belief, Self Talk, and Performance Enhancement. Available at http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/sports /selftalk.html Accessed 22 January 2004.