The role of task demands in applying self-talk and its effect on leisure tennis players

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of demands in a certain sport situation in a self-talk intervention. To do so, the 32 adult male tennis players (age = 35.44 years; SD = 5.84) who agreed to participate in the study were divided into two groups that repeated the same exercise during two phases –the baseline and intervention phases– that only differed in terms of the precision required. The analysis of variance with repeated measures revealed the significant effects of repetition and the demand factor on the difficulty of applying self-talk and of repetition on the intervention’s perceived effectiveness, accuracy, performance satisfaction and concentration. The results suggest that the demands involved in a task only affect the degree of difficulty in applying self-talk and that self-talk is an effective technique to improve performance and boost concentration.