Self-talk and emotion regulation

Athletes experience a wide range of positive and negative emotions during a sport competition. Understanding how emotions affect sport performance, and consequently how athletes can effectively regulate emotions, are two central endeavours in sport psychology. In the first part of the chapter, we outline how a cycle of emotions involving the components of triggering, bodily reactions, feelings, and cognitions can explain effects on sport performance. In the second part of the chapter, we explore, inspired by the distinction between spontaneous and goal-directed self-talk, the relationship between self-talk and emotions with a particular focus on goal-directed self-talk as a form of emotional regulation. Based on the Process Model of Emotion Regulation, we explore how athletes can use goal-directed self-talk to regulate emotions by directing the focus of attention, altering the meaning of a situation, or modulating the emotional response.