Descriptive study on the use of self-talk in professional tennis players
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v45i0.93132Keywords:
Mental strategies, psychological skills, motivation, performance, sport.Abstract
The search for maximum performance in elite sport is based on physical, technical, tactical and mental training. Tennis, characterized by the game under pressure and the lack of communication with the technical staff, causes a frequent dialogue with oneself. Self-talk has been related to improved performance, depending on the sport, sex and level. However, there are no studies aimed at analyzing the type of self-talk used by women professional tennis players. The goals of this study were to observe which verbalizations are most used in women's tennis and to assess what type of self-talk is the most used. A total of 11 female professional tennis players (24.65±5.62 years old), with an international ranking between 16th and 802nd, answered a self-administered and anonymous survey that was provided to them virtually. The expressions were examined according to the recent classification of the types of self-talk, analyzing their variation with Chi-square. It stands out that all the players knew the technique, except one. The most used type of self-talk was organic goal-directed (AODO), with little change depending on the players' classification and the most used expression was "Let's go". The maturity of professional tennis players allows them to select the AODO in decisive moments of the match and thus maintain greater emotional stability. Knowing what words professional tennis players use can help trainers to manage and to improve which is the best type of self-talk for players’ training.
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