Using 鈥榮elf-talk鈥� as part of your endurance sport training? Here鈥檚 what you need to know
New research suggests how you can get the edge over your competitors in endurance sport
You have probably caught yourself muttering some encouragement to yourself, perhaps when you were facing a particularly difficult physical challenge, or experiencing some sort of stress; 鈥淐ome on, you can do this!鈥� or 鈥淚 know I can do this!鈥�
Sports psychologists have now found that speaking to yourself in the second person: 鈥淵ou need to dig deep!鈥�, is actually more effective than speaking to yourself in the first person, 鈥淚 need to dig deep!鈥�
In a piece of just-published research () sports psychology researchers at 麻豆传媒高清版 found that participants told to use the second-person pronoun 鈥榶ou鈥� when encouraging themselves while cycling created a superior power output than those told to use the first person pronoun 鈥業鈥�.
This was the first study to show that how athletes use self-talk makes a difference. The research could provide coaches and others with a new element to consider when developing effective self-talk interventions.
James Hardy of the University鈥檚 School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences and one of the paper鈥檚 authors explained:
鈥淪ports psychologists have long known that self-talk can be useful for aiding enhanced performance. However, nothing was 
known about the way that a subtle grammatical difference in self-talk, using first (鈥淚 can do this鈥�) or second (鈥淵ou can do this鈥�) person pronouns, can effect performance; that is, until our recent research.鈥�
鈥淭here are of course different types of tasks associated with sports and much less is known about endurance tasks, which is why we applied this to cycling.鈥�
鈥淥ur findings from 16 active males indicate that second person self-talk generated significantly greater power output and faster time-trial performance than first person self-talk. Interestingly, the participants did not report noticing any difference in ratings of perceived exertion. So they were able to do more work but didn鈥檛 notice any difference in workload.鈥�
This is the first evidence that strategically using grammatical pronouns when implementing self-talk can influence physical performance providing practitioners with a new aspect to consider when developing interventions.
Publication date: 9 July 2019