Applying self-speech to tennis: its impact on the atentional focus and performance

Authors

  • Alexander T. Latinjak
  • Miquel Torregrosa Álvarez
  • Jordi Renom
Keywords: Sports, athletic performance, self talk, concentration

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of self talk on adult tennis players’ focus of attention. So, participants (n = 20, mean age = 34,00 years, SD = 6,36) repeated a tennis groundstroke task with out using self talk and applying self determined verbal instructions. After each repetition, the players have rated their performance and their direction of attentional focus in several questions. The analysis of variance with repeated measures revealed a multivariate repetition effect with univariate effects on players’ performance satisfaction and focus of attention. The results showed that self talk can be an efficient technique to direct the athletes’ focus of attention towards task relevant cues. Consequently, this study could be regarded as a first step to prove that the effects of self talk on players attention could be a functional mechanism underlying its effects on performance.

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Author Biographies

Alexander T. Latinjak

Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

Miquel Torregrosa Álvarez

Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

Jordi Renom

Universitat de Barcelona
How to Cite
T. Latinjak, A., Torregrosa Álvarez, M., & Renom, J. (2009). Applying self-speech to tennis: its impact on the atentional focus and performance. Sport Psychology Notebooks, 9(2), 19. Retrieved from https://revistas.um.es/cpd/article/view/92091
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