It’s a MuSt Win: The Effects of Self-Talk to Enhance Passing Performance Under Pressure in Elite Football Players

Strategic self-talk is a powerful mental skill that athletes can use to self-regulate the effects of pressure and enhance task performance. Multistates (MuSt) theory considers the combination of emotion- and action-centered self-regulation to be the most effective strategy to optimize athletes' performance and subjective experience. The aim of this study was to test the tenets of MuSt theory ona pressurized performance task, involving male junior football players (N= 20, Mage =18.6) competing at the elite level in Finland. The task tested the players' passing abilities over six trials while they applied different self-talk strategies in attempts to improve passing performance. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of strategic self-talk as a form of self-regulation. Specifically, the combination of emotion- and action-centered cue words proved to be the optimal strategy for coping with the demands of the task. The study findings have relevant practical implications for players, coaches, and practitioners.