How to Stop Negative Self-Talk

Self-talk is one of the most powerful predictors of an athlete’s behavior and performance under pressure. How you speak to yourself matters. Self-talk impacts your emotions, behavior, and relationships. Developing awareness and control over your self-talk in pressure situations is an absolutely vital step on your path to optimal performance.

What is self-talk?

Self-talk is dialogue that athletes have with themselves in their mind (Lodato, 2022). It is a form of intrapersonal communication that impacts athlete emotions, behavior, actions, and motivation (Lodato, 2022). Self-talk often surfaces within athletes in reaction to the outcome of a play, situation, or event in competition in which the athlete desires change for the future (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Self-talk can enhance concentration, assist with breaking bad habits, sustain athlete motivation, and increase effort (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). As an athlete, it is critical to develop awareness and control over self-talk in competition.

3 Types of Self-talk

Coaches and players often think self-talk as either positive or negative. However, there is actually a third category that often gets missed. Self-talk generally falls into the following three distinct categories: positive and motivational, instructional, and negative (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Developing an awareness of these three categories is the first step to self-awareness which eventually leads to self-regulation during competition.

1. Positive or Motivational Self-Talk

Positive or motivational self-talk is general, optimistic and supportive. It maintains a positive attitude and is typically directed towards increasing one’s effort (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Research suggests that positive and motivational self-talk is mostly effective for increasing motivation and psyching up athletes prior to competition (Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2014).

Here’s a few examples: “I am doing the best I can“, “I’ve got the next one!” or “I am getting better.“

2. Instructional Self-talk

Instructional self-talk directs the athletes mind toward specific and strategic task-oriented aspects of performance (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). In other words, instructional self-talk provides either technical or tactical feedback on a specific skill. If you’re trying to think of an example of instructional self-talk for your specific sport or position, think back to things you’ve heard your coaches yell at you during practice.

In volleyball, hitters often use the cue word “reach” to remind themselves to extend their arm before contact or “snap” to give the ball top spin. Similarly, setters might tell themselves to have “high hands” as a reminder to refrain from dropping their elbows, or “quick release” to speed up the pace. Each of these examples serve as mental coaching cues to improve and execute the desired technique or skill. Instructional self-talk utilizing task-relevant cues is most effective when you are in the process of learning new skills or trying out a new technique.

Here’s a few examples instructional self-talk for volleyball: “high hands”, “reach and snap your wrist“, or “keep your eye on the ball“.

3. Negative Self-talk

Negative self-talk is notoriously self-critical, destructive, and ultimately counter-productive (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). You are most likely to experience negative-self talk after you make an unforced error. We often get stuck over thinking about the negative. Negative self-talk often cultivates anxiety, promotes self-doubt, and can erode confidence (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Negative self-talk can also deteriorates team cohesion if you are playing a team sport. There are some circumstances in which negative self-talk can help by serving as a wake-up call, adding pressure, or creating tension. However if negative self-talk is used during competition, it should be intentional and productive (Lovato, 2022). Otherwise, negative self-talk is generally something you want to avoid and learn to maintain control over when you are competing.

A few examples of negative self-talk include: “How could you miss that ball?!”, “You don’t belong on this team” or “You’re such a __(fill in the blank)_____!”

Negative Self-Talk Interventions

There are numerous interventions and strategies to improve self-talk habits within athletes. Mikes (1987) outlined the following six guidelines to apply self-talk techniques in sport: (i) keep phrases short and specific, (ii) speak to yourself in the first person and present tense, (iii) construct positive phrases, not negative ones, (iv) state the phrases with intention and attention, (v) be kind to yourself when you speak, and lastly (vi) repeat your phrases often before, during and after competition (Weinberg & Gould, 2019).

As a mental performance coach, teaching negative self-talk interventions and helping athletes manage their internal dialogue is one of the most foundational mental skills that make up sport psychology.

Never forget that how you speak to yourself matters. Personally I love Brené Brown’s mantra, “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” My guess is that most of you would never speak to your teammates or friends, the way you speak to yourself both on or off the court or field. I challenge you to commit to changing the content and tone of your inner voice and learn to speak to yourself with respect and encouragement. Positive self-talk is more than just a mantra, it’s an intentional way of being.

Download a FREE WORKSHEET to improve your internal self-talk by creating a negative thought replacement plan.

Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with Dr. Brooke Rundle to discuss how mindset coaching and mental performance consulting can help you stop negative self-talk in competition.