Is Self-Talk Impacting Your Game
Does an athlete’s inner dialogue have a significant impact on performance?
What you say to yourself matters. What you say to yourself about your talent and ability to perform a task or achieve a goal matters.
As a ball player, you can talk yourself out of producing on the field, especially in big moments. Here’s how.
Instead of standing at the plate with the abbreviated task of “See the ball, hit the ball,” your mind launches into an extended negative inner dialogue filled with doubts and what-ifs.
For example, “What if I miss the ball? What if I strike out and strand the runners on base? I haven’t performed well at the plate for the past few weeks.”
These lengthy inner dialogues also occur off the field, “I will never break out of this slump. What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t play this sport if I can’t hit the ball!”
While you may think of this inner talk as a dialogue, it would be better described as a monologue for an audience of one. This inner monologue is a one-way conversation or verbal beatdown.
If you continually tell yourself, “I suck. I suck. I suck,” guess what you will start believing? No doubt that “I suck” mentality will show up on the field, infecting every inch of your game.
How can you turn around this mental bombardment of negativity? The answer is to turn the monologue into an internal dialogue or healthy debate. This may sound odd, but it’s not.
Let’s look at the previous negative thought process of “I will never break out of this slump. What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t play this sport if I can’t hit the ball!”
An objective dialogue or healthy debate would be as follows: “Is it really true I will never break out of this slump? I went through a similar situation last year and went on to have a great season. There is nothing wrong with me. All players have periods when they are not producing at the plate. Anyway, I didn’t somehow become ‘untalented.’ Be patient, and the hits will come.”
All players have doubts at times. However, the very best players can debate those doubts and flip the script.
In Game 1 of the 2024 AL Division Series, the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 6-5 with help from Yankee outfielder Alex Verdugo.
Verdugo entered the game with a 2-for-34 slump at the plate. Despite his slump, Verdugo hit the tiebreaking single in the seventh inning and saved at least one run with a sliding catch in the fourth inning.
Verdugo regained his form by objectively countering his slump thoughts and by leaning on his teammates to put his situation into perspective.
VERDUGO: “I just kind of let it spiral out of control a little bit. For me, it was just really leaning on my guys in the clubhouse. They all got my back. They all know what kind of player I am and how I played throughout my whole career and just kept telling me, ‘Man, don’t let this season or this little glimpse make your whole year. You can make up for a lot of things in the playoffs.'”
A productive inner dialogue is based on objectivity, insight, and perspective. When you are proficient in steering your inner conversation in a productive direction, you will improve your production and performance.
To foster a productive inner dialogue, focus on challenging the validity of negative thoughts.
When you catch yourself thinking in a self-critical or defeatist way, pause, debate those thoughts, and counter with more performance-enhancing thoughts.
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- Improve Your Game: Master Your Self-Talk
- How the Dodgers Use Self-Talk to Boost Confidence
- Overcoming Negative Self-Talk for Ball Players
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