We’ve covered a variety of psychological skills for competition and performance enhancement but we’ve yet to cover one of the original grandaddies: self-talk.

So in today’s issue I want to introduce this skill to you, talk you through three different kinds, and then set you up with a way of monitoring and tracking yours.

Simply defined, self-talk are the words—both automatic and purposeful—that you mutter to yourself, either out loud or in your mind. Put another way, it is your internal narration.

Now what’s the problem, you might ask?

Well, for most people, they speak to themselves like their own worst nightmares. It’s as if we bottled up an evil spirit and placed it on your left shoulder.

“Why are you playing this game?”

“You suck. Just get off the court.”

“I’m never playing tennis again.”

Sound familiar?

Your self-talk is powerful and impactful and can be the difference between directing your attention toward what you need to execute or crashing and burning.

It can be the difference between enjoying your experience on the tennis court, competing well, and walking off the court satisfied with your performances or leaving the court with a smashed racket and a commitment to never return to competitive play again (a commitment that will usually only last a few days to a few weeks at maximum).

Researchers in sport psychology have devoted a considerable chunk of time and resources in explaining and exploring self-talk. With that being said, you don’t have to know every single detail and use case for all the self-talk types and their valences.

I recommend that you simply start with 3:

This type of self-talk is characterized by words and thoughts that signify… motivation. Examples include: “Let’s go,” “You can do it,” “You got this,” “C’mon,” “Vamos" (for all my Rafa fans). Motivational self-talk will get an athlete hyped, focused, and help to build their resilience while pursuing their goals.

Self-talk that is instructional relates to strategic, technical, or tactical cues that you’ve settled on. For example, in tennis it might be, “Keep targeting their backhand,” or “Make sure you keep up the racket speed,” or even a simple word like, “Fast.” Instructional self-talk is undervalued for its attentional directive properties. In other words, athletes should use instructional self-talk paired with their process goals (I have covered goal setting in detail as a psychological skill before and have posted that article below for your convenience). As an aside, remember to keep your instructional self talk really simple and if you are going to use technical self talk, it should be extremely simple and lean—this is in line with the literature on working memory and attentional focus in sport psychology.

This one hardly needs explaining but it’s worth writing it out; negative self-talk is overwhelmingly harmful for most people. Again, it’s the equivalent of taking someone into battle with you and placing them on your shoulder all the while they constantly needle, abuse, and harass you. “How could you miss that shot, you [expletive].” You get the idea.

Now here’s the thing… by virtue of you reading my newsletter, and familiarizing yourself with applied sport psychology, I feel like you already kind of understand what self-talk is and why it’s so important to monitor.

But where most players fail is that they leave it there. Meaning, there’s no specific effort to monitor their personal self-talk, nor is there any effort to change their self-talk habits. Most players will think, “Oh yeah… I understand self-talk… it’s such a simple skill. Yeah, yeah, be kind to yourself. No. I don’t really need to do more than that.”

If I may, this approach is not useful—at all. Think about the concepts we’ve discussed in-depth in my writing. That simply having the information doesn’t really mean much. It’s really the application and trial and error while failing and succeeding during these steps where the growth occurs.

So with all of this in mind, please take a look at the self-talk log that I’ve made for you. This might be an exercise that a mental performance consultant working in applied sport psychology might assign to one of their clients.

How much of your self-talk is motivational?

How much of it is instructional?

How much of it is negative?

There’s no magic number or figure that you should try to hit in each section… but, obviously, and in general, you want to limit your negative self-talk and really lean in on your instructional and motivational self-talk.

If you do decide to use this sheet before a series of matches, you’ll notice a few things happening.

The first is that you’ll implicitly be wary of the kinds of self-talk that you are using. You’ll be less likely to call yourself an expletive if you know that this is something you’re going to monitor and assess at the end of the match.

The second is that you’ll get a great idea of where to start for working on your self-talk skill.

(There’s no catch here… it really is free.)

Self-talk is a rudimentary foundational skill. But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it should be ignored or swept under the rug. It’s powerful, effective, and one of the most powerful intervention in applied sport psychology.

Monitor and improve yours.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed psychologist, mental health counselor, PsyD, or clinical PhD. I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology and am a sport psychology practitioner-in-training, working toward the Certified Mental Performance Consultant® (CMPC®) credential provided by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). My work focuses on applied, non-clinical mental performance consulting, using evidence-based techniques grounded in psychology, sport science, and applied sport psychology to help athletes enhance focus, manage pressure, build confidence, and improve performance. I do not provide mental health counseling or clinical therapy. When needed, I will always refer clients to licensed mental health professionals for concerns beyond the scope of performance consulting. I have over 20 years of experience in tennis, including as a player, collegiate and professional coach, and director of programs. I am certified by the Professional Tennis Registry and am a member of Tennis Australia. My goal is to bring athletes the best research-backed insights to support long-term development and performance. If you are a researcher or practitioner and feel I’ve misunderstood or misrepresented any concept, I welcome you to reach out, and I will gladly review and issue corrections if appropriate.