Based on the premise that what people think influences their actions, self-talk strategies have been developed to direct and facilitate human performance. In this article, we present a meta-analytic review of the effects of self-talk interventions on task performance in sport and possible factors that may moderate the effectiveness of self-talk. A total of 32 studies yielding 62 effect sizes were included in the final meta-analytic pool. The analysis revealed a positive moderate effect size (ES = .48). The moderator analyses showed that self-talk interventions were more effective for tasks involving relatively fine, compared with relatively gross, motor demands, and for novel, compared with well-learned, tasks. Instructional self-talk was more effective for fine tasks than was motivational self-talk; moreover, instructional self-talk was more effective for fine tasks rather than gross tasks. Finally, interventions including self-talk training were more effective than those not including self-talk training. The results of this study establish the effectiveness of self-talk in sport, encourage the use of self-talk as a strategy to facilitate learning and enhance performance, and provide new research directions.

The present study examined the effect of instructional and motivational self-talk on the occurrence of interfering thoughts and performance on two water-polo tasks with similar characteristics performed in the same environment. Two experiments were conducted in the swimming pool, one involving a precision task (throwing a ball at target) and one involving a power task (throwing a ball for distance). In the first experiment (precision task), both self-talk groups improved their performance in comparison to the baseline measure, with participants using instructional self-talk improving more. In the second experiment (power task), only the motivational self-talk group improved its performance significantly. In both experiments the occurrence of interfering thoughts declined for both groups. The results of the study provide further support for the effectiveness of self-talk and give preliminary evidence regarding likely mechanisms through which self-talk influence performance, that is through indications that self-talk reduces thoughts not related to task execution, thus enhancing concentration to the task.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of motivational self-talk on self-efficacy and performance. Participants were 46 young tennis players (mean age 13.26, SD 1.96 years). The experiment was completed in five sessions. In the first session, participants performed a forehand drive task. Subsequently, they were divided into an experimental and a control group. Both groups followed the same training protocol for three sessions, with the experimental group practicing self-talk. In the final session, participants repeated the forehand drive task, with participants in the experimental group using motivational self-talk. Mixed model ANOVAs revealed significant group by time interactions for self-efficacy (p < .05) and performance (p < .01). Follow-up comparisons showed that self-efficacy and performance of the experimental group increased significantly (p < .01), whereas self-efficacy and performance of the control group had no significant changes. Furthermore, correlation analysis showed that increases in self-efficacy were positively related to increases in performance (p < .05). The results of the study suggest that increases in self-efficacy may be a viable mechanism explaining the facilitating effects of self-talk on performance.

The purpose of the present study was to test the effectiveness of a 10-week self-talk intervention on competitive performance in young swimmers. Participants were 41 swimmers (M age 14.59, SD = 1.58years), whose performance was recorded on 2 competitive occasions with a 10-week interval. In-between the 2 competitions, participants in the intervention group followed a self-talk training program. The results showed that the intervention group had greater performance improvements than the control group, thus, supporting the effectiveness of the program in enhancing sport performance in a competitive environment. The findings provide directions for the development of effective self-talk interventions