Self-talk and emotions in tennis players during competitive matches

A theory-driven classification recently introduced to sport psychology
distinguishes between goal-directed self-talk as a controlled type of
self-talk, and spontaneous self-talk as an uncontrolled type of selftalk.
Based on this classification, the aim of this study was to explore
the relationship between self-talk and emotions. To this end, twenty
competitive tennis matches were video-recorded. Shortly after the
match, the players were confronted with situations from the match
and asked to rate the intensity of their emotions experienced, the
intensity of their outward emotional reactions, and to report on their
self-talk. Multilevel fixed and random effect models showed that the
intensity of emotions experienced and outward emotional reactions
were lower in instances where players reported solely goal-directed
self-talk than in instances where players reported solely spontaneous
self-talk. Moreover, in the fixed model, the intensity of emotions
experienced was also lower in instances where players reported
goal-directed self-talk in conjunction with spontaneous self-talk,
compared to instances where players reported solely spontaneous
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self-talk. Finally, exploratory analyses suggest
that these effects are mostly true for negative emotions rather than
positive ones. Overall, the findings support the relevance of dualprocess
self-talk approaches. These findings encourage players to
gain awareness about their emotions through spontaneous self-talk,
while they can use goal-directed self-talk for emotion regulation.
Lay summary: During a match, most tennis players talk a lot to
themselves. This study shows that their self-talk is related to (a) the
emotions they experience and (b) the emotions they show to the
outside. Specifically, a goal-oriented type of self-talk is related to less
intense emotions.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Players can gain awareness about their emotional states through
spontaneous self-talk.
Players can use goal-directed self-talk to proactively and reactively
regulate emotions. Video-assisted recall can be helpful to assess and learn to
deal with challenging psychological states during sport
competitions.