Abstract
The present study was designed to examine the effect of self-talk on anxiety, self-confidence and basketball free throw performance. In the baseline condition high school basketball players completed the CSAI-2 inventory prior to completing 20 free throws. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a self-talk group (n = 10) or control group (n = 9) who received time-management training. Participants were requested to practice their assigned mental skill until the next testing session, three days later. The same testing conditions were present in the post-intervention phase as in the baseline. It was hypothesized that the participants who received self-talk training would experience decreased levels of anxiety, increased levels of self-confidence, and improved free throw shooting performance in the post-intervention trial compared to baseline measures. A mixed design was used to analyze the results. Overall, the self-talk training did show a positive effect resulting in increased self-confidence post-intervention compared to the control group, F(1, 17) = 7.11, p = .016. The control group did not produce any significant differences from pre- to post-intervention. The self-talk group showed significant improvements in overall performance, t(9) = -3.40, p < 0.05; somatic anxiety, t(9) = 2.355, p < 0.05; and self-confidence, t(9) = -2.273, p < 0.05. Encouraging athletes to use self-talk strategies is beneficial even in a brief time frame.
