UNDERSTANDING SELF TALK

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UNDERSTANDING SELF TALK

• Damon Burton Bernie Holliday
• Vandal Sport Psychology Services
• University of Idaho

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WHAT IS SELF TALK?

• The steady stream of on-going thoughts or
  internal dialogue that goes on in our minds
  constantly.
• Your self talk influences your moods, emotions,
  and ultimately your behavior.

DQ 2 How constant is your self talk? Have you
ever noticed a time when your self talk was
really good or bad?
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THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF SELF TALK

• Rationality
• Trained minds learn to think more positively,
  logically, and systematically.
• Specificity
• Self talk becomes conditioned to success and
  failure events, changing dramatically based on
  the mindset created in particular situations.
• Automaticity
• Extensive repetition creates highly automatic
  thoughts, called beliefs.
• Automaticity of self talk is a two-edged sword
  when examining its impact on performance.

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SELF TALK ABCS

• A Activating Event
• No Inherently stressful situations or events.
• We are not disturbed by things, but by the views
  of which we take of them Epictetus
• B Belief about the Event
• Athletes attach positive or negative meanings to
  neutral events based on their highly automatic
  belief system.
• C Consequences
• Our beliefs about the event lead to positive or
  negative consequences, both emotionally and
  behaviorally.
• Thus, the meaning that we attach to events can
  positively or negatively impact our emotions,
  behaviors, and ultimately our performance.

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DOES SELF TALK WORK?

• Self talk patterns have been shown to be
  important predictors of sport success.
• Positive self talk predominates in more effective
  performances, while negative thoughts more
  frequently accompany poorer performances.
• Van Raalte et al. (1994) tennis study
• Mental training packages that include self talk
  training as part of the intervention promote
  enhanced performance over 80 of the time.

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REPROGRAMMING SELF TALK

• Reactive versus proactive approaches to enhancing
  athletes self talk
• Most athletes prefer proactive approaches to self
  talk reprogramming, rather than old school
  reactive approaches.
• The key to the proactive approach is to identify
  and create positive, facilitating thoughts (e.g.,
  reprogramming) that can enhance athletes
  emotions and performance.
• Self talk scripts are effective thought
  reprogramming tools.

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TYPES OF SELF TALK

• Positive Affirmations
• Thoughts that focus on your desirable
  characteristics and qualities.
• Goals
• Thoughts that keep your mind positively focused
  on the task-at-hand, promote high effort, and
  enhance persistence.
• Appraisals
• Thoughts that determine the degree to which a
  situation is perceived as threatening or
  challenging.
• Self talk reprogramming promotes appraising
  problems as challenges or opportunities to learn
  and grow rather than threats and opportunities to
  fail.

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TYPES OF SELF TALK

• Attributions
• Reasons or explanations of success and failure.
• Self talk reprogramming encourages performers to
  attribute success and failure to factors they can
  control and change, such as effort, ability, and
  degree of preparedness.
• Cue Words
• Quick reminders used during practice and
  competition.
• Keep the mind positively focused on
  process-oriented, present-focused reminders that
  should facilitate performance.

DQ 3 Which type of self talk do you feel would
be most effective?
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USES OF SELF TALK

• Elevate Motivation
• Intrinsic motivation occurs when athletes feel
  competent and in control. Self talk
  reprogramming should emphasize these factors.
• Enhance Focus/Concentration
• Self talk helps athletes focus on their
  priorities and goals, rather than on
  distractions.
• Manage Stress
• Controlling self talk, particularly limiting
  negative or self-defeating thoughts, helps to
  minimize the amount of stress athletes experience.

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USES OF SELF TALK

• Boost Self-Confidence
• Persuasive self talk can convince athletes that
  they possess the competence and preparation to be
  successful.
• Maximize Skill Development and Performance
• Cues and goals can help athletes remain focused
  on performance-relevant cues while disregarding
  and avoiding irrelevant distracter cues during
  skill development and performance.

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SMART TALK COMMANDMENTS

• 1. Be an optimist, not a pessimist
• Self talk is a choice. Choose the half full
  option. See situations as challenges rather than
  threats.
• 2. Remain realistic and objective
• Think constructively, not just positively.
• 3. Here-n-now self talk
• Avoid woulda, coulda, shouldas, and what
  ifs
• 4. Process self talk leads to product
• 5. Concentrate self talk on controllable aspects
• Possibly the single most important factor.
• 6. Separate performance from self-worth
• We are not our performance.

DQ 4 Which commandment do you have the most
trouble with? Why?
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HOW TO REPROGRAMSELF TALK

• Focus on appropriate positive thoughts and repeat
  those thoughts frequently.
• Athletes are urged to develop self talk scripts
  that can target one or more specific needs (see
  slides 9-10) using a variety of self talk types
  (see slides 7-8) as well as the more general
  guidelines outlined by the Smart Talk
  Commandments.
• Scripts offer athletes a tool that can be used to
  reprogram positive self talk.

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CORRECTING UNPRODUCTIVE THINKING

• Extremely difficult to change negative thoughts
  due to their highly automatic nature.
• However, irrational beliefs and cognitive
  distortions are learned behaviors, so they can be
  unlearned.

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DEALING WITH NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

• D1 Detect
• Self-awareness of unconscious thought patterns.
• D2 Detour
• Thought stopping.
• D3 Dispute
• Reframing using counterarguments.
• E New more beneficial effects

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DETECTING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

• Cognitive distortions are general types of faulty
  thinking.
• Irrational beliefs are more specific, but highly
  automated, negative thoughts that create
  behavioral and emotional problems for athletes.

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COMMON COMPETITIVE COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS

• Catastrophizing
• Expecting the worst.
• Exaggerating the consequences.
• Overgeneralization
• Forming conclusions based on insufficient
  information.
• Blaming
• Not accepting responsibility for mistakes.
• Musturbation
• Musts, shoulds, and ought tos.
• A form of concrete, inflexible, and unforgiving
  thinking.
• Polarized thinking
• Good or bad, right or wrong, succeed or fail,
  etc.
• Leaves little room for mistakes or being human.

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COMMON COMPETITIVE IRRATIONAL BELIEFS

• Fear of Failure
• It is terrible and unbearable when my game is
  not the way I want it to be.
• Social Approval
• I must win the approval of others and impress
  everyone who sees me perform.
• Control-based irrational belief.

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COMMON COMPETITIVE IRRATIONAL BELIEFS

• Perfectionism
• I should be completely competent in every aspect
  of my game at all times, never have ups and
  downs, and never make mistakes.
• The team that makes the most mistakes usually
  wins Coach John Woodens philosophy on playing
  hard and mistakes.
• Mistakes are a normal and necessary part of
  learning.

DQ 5 Which types of mistakes are more acceptable
in sport, school, life?
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COMMON COMPETITIVE IRRATIONAL BELIEFS

• Equity
• Life should be fair and if I diligently work at
  my game, I should improve, play well, and get the
  rewards I deserve.
• Life is not fair!
• Hard work increases your chances of success, but
  there are no guarantees.
• Social comparison
• The behavior and performance of other
  competitors is extremely important to me and can
  destroy my game.
• Cannot control others performances nor can they
  control your own performance.

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DETOURING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

• Thought stopping uses intense internal cues such
  as a word, image, kinesthetic movement (e.g.,
  snapping a rubber band), or some combination of
  cues.
• Stop the stream of negative thoughts as quickly
  as possible so you can begin focusing on
  reframing the situation.

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COUNTERARGUMENTS TO DISPUTE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

• Productive way to view the situation.
• Put your negative thoughts on trial.
• Argue why the negative belief is irrational and
  unproductive and provide a more logical and
  helpful view of the situation.
• Counterarguments are solutions, not cover-ups!!

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PHASES OF SMART TALK TRAINING PROGRAM

1. Education
2. Acquisition
3. Practice
4. Performance

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EDUCATION PHASE

• General Education
• Understanding the mental training tool and how it
  relates to the athletes performance.
• Personal education
• Athletes self understanding of their self talk
  patterns.
• Two dimensions
• Quantity -- negative thought count on Day 1.
• Quality -- complete Smart Talk Log for Days 1-6,
  assessing three positive and three negative
  situations as well as your predominate emotions
  and thoughts for each situation.
• Quality rate your daily PMA from 1-10 for Days
  1-6.
• Quality -- Develop counterarguments and
  believability ratings for each negative situation
  on Days 1-6.

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ACQUISITION PHASE

• Stage 1 Reprogramming Self Talk
• Day 7 -- develop a self talk script using the
  Smart Talk Script Development Form and Handout.
• Your script should take no more than five minutes
  to read (2-4 minutes, ideally).
• You may record this onto an audio cassette or CD
  and include background music.
• Stage 2 Repetition to Automate Thoughts
• Days 7-12 -- read or play your script 4-5 times
  daily.

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ACQUISITION PHASE

• Stage 3 Reframe Remaining Negative Thoughts
• Stage 4 Monitoring Improvement in Self Talk
  Patterns
• Days 7-12 Stages 3 and 4 can be accomplished by
  continuing to complete the Smart Talk Log, PMA
  rating, and counterarguments/belief ratings while
  noticing similarities and changes in self talk
  patterns.
• Day 12 Complete a second negative thought count
  to examine changes in negative thought quantity.

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PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE PHASES

• Stage 1 Advanced Self Talk Monitoring and
  Programming
• Day 13 onward continue to monitor PMA daily.
• If PMA drops below 5, then identify problematic
  situations and develop counterarguments.
• If PMA drops below 5 for three straight days,
  then complete the Smart Talk Log Form for three
  subsequent days.
• Day 13 onward continue to use script, but
  decrease the frequency to 2-3 times daily.

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PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE PHASES

• Stage 2 Video Recreation of Self Talk Patterns
• Video is an effective way to enhance recall of
  thoughts and feelings during critical competitive
  moments.
• Stage 3 Imagery Practice
• Day 13 onward Develop a list of negative
  situations that you have difficulty reframing.
  Several times each week, imagine using your
  counterarguments during these moments to
  successful reframe these situations so you can
  perform your best.

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PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE PHASES

• Stage 4 Use Smart Talk in Practice and
  Competition
• Use the 3D reframing strategies to combat any
  remaining negative thoughts during practice and
  competition.
• Detect, detour, and dispute any remaining
  negative thoughts.
• Modify your script to reprogram these thoughts
  using more positive and helpful alternative
  statements.