A Preliminary Study on the Functions of Self-Talk in Tennis Athletes

Sofia Grammatika, Nikos Zourbanos, & Olga Karagianni

Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Hellas

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine the use of self-talk by tennis players and their perceptions regarding the perceived functions of athletes’ self-talk. In this study, participants were 118 athletes who completed the Functions of Self-Talk Questionnaire (Theodorakis, Hatzigeorgiadis, & Chroni, 2008). Results showed that 83.2% of athletes stated that they are having positive and negative thoughts during training and during competition. The use of motivational self-talk was recorded at a higher rate (70%) than the use of instructional self-talk (22.5%). Athletes reported more often positive thoughts than negative ones during train- ing and competition. Moreover, the results showed that among the functions of self-talk participants had the highest scores on effort, followed by concentration, confidence, cognitive and emotional control and finally automaticity. The results are discussed in relation to the systematic use of the self-talk technique in tennis.

Keywords: Self-talk, tennis, self-talk functions