Embrace the challenge: Acknowledging a challenge following negative Self-Talk improves performance

Abstract

There are mixed results regarding the performance effects of negative self-talk. An interesting consideration is that negative self-talk may not have to be replaced to improve performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine if negative self-talk can improve performance when interpreted as a challenge. Participants (N = 93) completed a baseline VO_2max test and were randomized into self-talk groups (i.e., motivational, negative, neutral, and challenging) after matching based on their predicted VO_2max and sex. During a subsequent session, participants completed a thirty-minute self-talk condition followed by twenty-minutes of “do your best” cycling. The results revealed a significant group by time interaction effect, where the challenging self-talk group significantly outperformed the negative self-talk group during the final five minutes of the task. Overall, these results provide initial support for implementing challenging self-talk and suggest that time within an endurance task moderates the self-talk-performance relationship.

Lay Summary: Participants in the study used self-talk that was either motivational, neutral, negative, or negative with a challenging statement during a 20 minute cycling task. The results showed that participants who used negative self-talk, such as “My legs are tired” did much worse in the final five minutes of the task than those who added a challenging statement to their negative self-talk, such as “My legs are tired, but I can push through it”.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

• Rather than working to replace negative self-talk, practitioners can have athletes acknowledge it and add a challenge statement to enhance endurance performance.

• Time within an endurance task and level of fatigue are important to consider when implementing self-talk interventions.

• Self-talk interventions may be most effective when they include a cognitive skill applicable to organic negative ST.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Jeremy Noble for his assistance.