How Positive Self Talk Improve Performance During Sports

How Positive Self Talk Improve Performance During Sports

You may be cleared off self-talk during the sports performance in order to keep your mind positive and focused on the performance. The self-talk technique is encouraged by coaches as well as experienced athletes for increasing the performance during the sports. Self-talk can be of two types, it can be positive or negative according to the situation. But what experts say that you always engage your mind in positive self-talk to boost performance during the competition. 

In this article, we will learn about what is positive self-talk, how to practice self-talk, and steps for developing positive self-talk habits. 

What Is Positive Self Talk?

You may have noticed that your mind is always engaged in some kind of thoughts all day. You may have thought if this thing has happened, I will be better, or if I did things that way, maybe sports performance gets better, or next time I will do more hard work to improve my performance. These thoughts are running all day in our minds. What we can do is to focus on them, as positive self-talk always encourages us to do better, whereas negative self-talk can ruin our mind’s presence as well as make us feel worthless. 

For instance, if you have completed a 5k run and there is a sound you heard you could do that, then that voice will boost you up and encourage you to complete your race without any pressure. 

Psychologists say it is important to self-talk with ourselves so that our mind stays concentrated on the present moment and helps in increasing our performance. 

How to Practice Positive Self Talk

How to Practice Positive Self Talk

So you may be wondering how to overcome the negative messages running in your mind and turn them into positive thoughts. Sports psychology says if you want to improve your performance during the competition, you have to replace negative self-talk into the positive one. 

For instance, if you are an athlete and you have to complete a 10000-meter race, if your mind tells you that “I will not finish this race,” this might reduce your performance, and you will stop running. You have to replace this thought with a positive statement like “I will finish this race.” Such thoughts help in boosting performance, and soon you will win the race. Self-talk is the connection between words and beliefs that can help you in achieving your ultimate goal without getting anxious and taking loads of stress. 

Self-talk is the way of making things possible and achievable. Positive thoughts can mold your performance into the best one, whereas negative self-talk can increase stress. Positive self-talk makes you believe that you can achieve the target and help you to stay focused on the goal. Research studies show that at least those who use positive self-talk techniques have shown improved performance, whereas those who think negative thoughts have deteriorated their performance. 

Steps for Developing a Positive Self Talk Habit

  • Repeat Mantra: You can repeat the “mantra” that you used to repeat during your training session. Sports psychology says that repeating mantras like “GO, GO, GO” helps in boosting performance and encourages us to keep staying increasing the performance. 
  • Try different positive self-talk phrases: As you get the habit of repeating the mantra, now you can start to talk yourself with the long positive phrases, that encourage you to like, “I can do it,” “ I am a good player,” “I can win the race” and so on. This will keep you encouraged during your competition. 
  • Try Visualization: You not only have to positive self-talk with your mind, but you also have to visualize with that victory scene. The picture you create helps in making your performance that way or can be in a better way. 

Thus, positive self-talk is the psychological based technique to improve your sports performance stupendously and release all the stress and anxiety from your mind. 

Manglam

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