Research shows that talking to yourself can really help when it comes to sports and achieving your goals. Around 70% of athletes use self-talk to stay focused and feel motivated during competitions.

Here are two main types of self-talk:

1. Motivational Self-Talk – This type helps you feel positive and boosts your confidence.
2. Instructional Self-Talk – This type gives you clear hints to improve your skills.

Some statistics show just how helpful self-talk can be:

• A big study found that using self-talk can improve performance by an average of $0.39$ standard deviations, which means it really makes a difference!
• Another finding said that athletes who focused on positive self-talk did $45\%$ better on tasks than those who thought negatively or didn’t talk to themselves at all.

Here are some tips to help you develop positive self-talk:

• Create a mantra, or a simple phrase, that feels good to you.
• Pick specific words that match your personal goals.
• Try self-affirmation, which means reminding yourself of your strengths to build toughness.

Using these self-talk strategies can help improve your sports performance and help you reach your goals!