There are many people who talk negatively to themselves, this creates an opportunity for doubt to creep in and for an you to lose focus or your ability to perform when you least what it to. Positively framed thoughts and directions enable us to block out doubts and negative thoughts. Positive thinking is linked to successful performance, at any level.

Why is positive self-talk so important?

1. Positive self-talk can fuel motivation and helps you to stay on track to achieving goals.

2. Negative motivation is a distraction that can take you on a downward spiral and discount all of the great work that you put into your physical training.

Self talk serves two main functions: instructional and motivational. Instructional self talk is talk that is focused around the technical aspects of the sport. This would include any of the thoughts you have that remind you how to perform.

Motivational self-talk has three focuses a) building confidence b) psyching up or relaxing and c) drive (increasing effort)

Tips:

• Phrases should be brief and phonetically simple,'charge', 'calm', 'breathe'
• Associated with the task at hand and work with the rhythm and timing of the task. These tend to be technically or tactically focused. They are the short reminders used to help you execute their roles while competing.
  • 'now', 'power', 'hard'
• Practice positive self-talk. When negative thoughts enter it is important to replace them immediately with positive ones. Incorporate both instructional and motivational statements. By focusing on the things you want to do increases the chance that you will do it. If you focus on the negative then that will increase the likelihood if it happening.
  • Example: saying 'don't trip' our brain has to process both words individually so it would think 'don't' means not to do what follows and 'trip' means tripping over something. Then it puts the words together to understand it and understands that 'don't trip' means 'not to trip over something'. You have now thought about tripping twice where if you were thinking about what you want to do, you will more than likely do it!