Jane E. Magnusson^,, Carl A. van Roon

An athlete’s performance can be influenced in positive and negative ways by what and how they think (i.e. their self-talk). While there is evidence indicating that self-talk can influence performance it is not clear if the level an athlete has achieved in their sport influences the effect that self-talk has on their performance and/or what type of self-talk is of greatest benefit to them. The present study investigated if personalising self-talk makes it more effective than prescribed words in relation to enhancing an athlete’s performance and if this effect differs between novice and elite Taekwon-Do athletes. It was found that for elite athletes ‘personalised’ self-talk enhanced performance whereas ‘prescribed’ self-talk was detrimental to performance; however for novice athletes the relationship was less clear. The factors that influenced the relationship between self-talk type and the performance of elite and novice athlete are discussed.

sport psychology, self-talk, mental skills, Taekwon-Do