(1) Background: Self-talk (ST) is used to influence athletes’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Samples of squad and competitive athletes are underrepresented, although research has proven the positive effects of ST in the context of sports. Thus, the present study focused on the impact of ST on psychological and performance outcomes of junior sub-elite athletes. (2) Methods: N = 117 athletes (55 females, 62 males; M = 16.0 years) were randomly assigned to either one of two experimental groups or to a control group (n = 30). The experimental groups received an ST intervention for either one week (n = 36) or eight weeks (n = 38), and the control group received no ST training. The dependent variables (competitive anxiety, volitional skills, self-efficacy, and coaches’ performance ratings) were assessed three times before and after the intervention. It was expected that (a) an ST intervention would reduce the competitive anxiety and increase volitional skills, self-efficacy, and performance; and, (b) long-term training would lead to higher effects than short-term training. (3) Results: As expected, ST training led to (less) somatic state anxiety and (higher) state self-confidence, self-optimization, self-efficacy, and performance. Additionally, long-term training was more effective than short-term training. (4) Conclusions: Targeted ST interventions may help to improve junior athletes’ psychological states and performance.

Psychosocial Skills in a Youth Soccer Academy: A Holistic Ecological Perspective: Objectives: The latest research in talent development show that more varied psychological and especially social and cultural circumstances play an important role in talent development. This study assumes an ecological approach to explore which psychosocial skills are important in a youth soccer academy and how psychosocial skills are practiced in this particular environment. Method: The research takes the form of a case study. Data were collected from multiple perspectives (in-depth interviews with managers, coaches and players), from multiple situations (observation of training, competitions and meetings) and from the analysis of documents. Results: The findings reveal explicit (being practiced and talked about) and implicit (indirectly practiced and talked about) psychosocial skills in the youth soccer academy and a differentiation between internal and interpersonal psychosocial skills. Conclusions: Important explicit psychosocial skills are motivation, self awareness and the ability to work hard. However, even more important for the young soccer players dealing with the transition to professional soccer seem to be implicit psychosocial skills such as managing performance and process outcomes (internal) and the ability to utilize team skills and general social skills (interpersonal). Despite the fact that the environment expects the young players to display these skills, they are only indirectly practiced. This study demonstrates the interweaving of psychosocial skills and practice in the talent development environment, and thus underlines the social construction of psychosocial skills in elite sport.

The primary objective of this study is to look for differences and similarities in motivation, self-concept, and competitive anxiety between adolescent German and Chinese soccer and Pakistani hockey players. This comparison is done within the cross-cultural framework of individualism/collectivism with Germans regarded as representatives of an individualistic country, and Chinese and Pakistani players as representatives of collectivist countries. Measures were subscales of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire, and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory 2 in Chinese, German, or English versions. Chinese and Pakistani players reported higher ego- and lower task-orientation and higher cognitive anxiety than German players. Results in somatic anxiety were mixed with Germans scoring higher than Chinese, but lower than Pakistani athletes. With respect to physical self-concept, there were large differences in all subscales between German and Chinese players, and smaller, but significant differences in three subscales between German and Pakistani players, with Germans always scoring higher. Results are discussed based on the framework of individualism and collectivism and on the demands of competitive sports.

The quality of the talent development environment and how it supports youth athletes has been identified as one major factor of success. Nonetheless, in psychological talent assessment there is a lack of standardized instruments addressing environmental aspects. One well-known questionnaire is the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire (TDEQ; Martindale et al., 2010). Until recently, the TDEQ had been translated into several languages, but not into German. Within this study, the five-factor, 25-item TDEQ‑5 (Li, Wang, Pyun, & Martindale, 2015) was systematically forward and backward translated and administered to 276 German youth athletes from different sports, aged between 13 and 21 years (mean [M] = 16.01; standard deviation [SD] = 2.1). In addition, 63 of these athletes completed both the German and English TDEQ‑5 to test for quality of translation. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the five-factor structure was acceptable according to the chi-square test to degrees of freedom ratio (1.9), root mean square error of approximation (0.058), and standardized root mean square (0.061). The comparative fit index (CFI) of 0.88 and the Tucker-Lewis Index of 0.86 was slightly below the 0.90 cut-off value. The reliabilities of the TDEQ‑5 factors were considered moderate to satisfactory (α = 0.62 to 0.75). In conclusion, the German TDEQ‑5 appears to be an applicable tool for use in research and applied settings but needs further analysis. In particular, we encourage future research to test the construct validity and ecological validity of the German TDEQ‑5 and suggest practitioners to utilize the tool to test and drive applied interventions within talent development environments.