Positive Self-Talk in Sports: How It Impacts RPE, Cortisol, and Performance
Imagine two athletes running side by side. Their strides are nearly identical, their heart rates pounding in rhythm. From the outside, they look equally matched. But inside? A completely different story is unfolding.
One is whispering to herself, “I’ve got this. Stay strong. Just one more minute.” The other, under the same strain, is thinking, “This hurts. I can’t do this. I’m falling apart.”
Same pace. Same distance. Same physical conditions. But chances are, only one will finish feeling empowered – and it has little to do with raw fitness.
The real difference lies in something invisible but incredibly powerful: the story they’re telling themselves mid-stride.
This is the subtle, often underestimated power of positive self-talk in sports. Not just a motivational cliché or a trick only for the mentally tough, it’s a scientifically backed strategy that literally changes how hard effort feels (RPE) and how the body handles physical and psychological stress through cortisol regulation.
Whether you’re coaching a young athlete, managing elite performers, or reflecting on your own mindset, learning to recognize and shape self-talk might be one of the most important coaching tools you’ll ever use.
In this blog post, I’ll unpack the latest research comparing positive self-talk, negative self-talk, and no self-talk, explore how they affect the brain and body under pressure, and most importantly, share how you can integrate these insights into your coaching practice in meaningful, results-driven ways.
Because the truth is, words matter. Especially the ones we say to ourselves when things get hard.
Key Takeaways
- Positive Self-Talk Lowers Perceived Effort (RPE) – Athletes who use motivational or instructional self-talk report lower RPE during training and competition. This means exercise feels easier, allowing them to push harder for longer – regardless of actual intensity.
- Self-Talk Directly Affects Cortisol and Stress Response -Studies show that negative self-talk increases cortisol levels and breathing frequency, triggering a heightened stress response. In contrast, positive self-talk helps stabilize hormonal reactions, supporting better endurance and recovery.
- No Self-Talk Is Better Than Negative, But Not as Powerful as Positive – Silencing inner criticism is a start – but replacing it with intentional, empowering language is what actually improves performance and emotional regulation. Coaches should help athletes actively shift from silence or self-sabotage to self-support.
- Self-Talk Is a Trainable Skill, Not Just a Personality Trait – Like any other performance tool, self-talk must be practiced consistently. Personalized phrases, reflection exercises, and post-training RPE journaling can help athletes build this skill over time.
- Coaches Play a Key Role in Shaping Inner Dialogue – The feedback and language you use as a coach can either reinforce or reframe an athlete’s internal story. Modeling and teaching constructive self-talk creates mentally resilient, self-coaching athletes who perform better under pressure.
What Is Positive Self-Talk in Sports?
Positive self-talk in sports is the conscious choice to speak to yourself like a trusted coach or teammate would, especially when the pressure is on. It’s the internal dialogue that keeps you grounded, focused, and resilient when your body wants to quit and your mind starts to doubt.
It might sound like:
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“Stay strong.”
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“You’ve trained for this, trust your work.”
- “You got this!”
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“Control your breath, take it one moment at a time.”
At first, it might seem like something small or even “cheesy” and weird. But the truth is, it’s far from empty pep talk. It’s a practical, science-backed tool that influences how hard an athlete perceives effort to be, and how the body responds to that effort on a biological level.
When used intentionally, positive self-talk helps athletes manage their breath, heart rate, and mental focus, while also regulating stress hormones like cortisol. It shifts the brain from a reactive state (panic, fatigue, overwhelm) to a responsive one (curiosity, control, presence). That shift can be the difference between powering through a hard interval – or mentally checking out and giving up before the finish line.
And most importantly, this skill is trainable. Just like physical conditioning, athletes can develop their inner voice into a performance asset – one that shows up when it matters most.
Why RPE and Cortisol Levels Matter in Athletics
If you’re a coach, understanding how positive self-talk in sports influences both RPE and cortisol gives you something close to a “superpower”. You’re no longer just coaching muscles and movement, you’re shaping how an athlete interprets effort and recovers from it.
Let’s break it down.
RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion)
This isn’t about what’s happening on a stopwatch or heart rate monitor – it’s about what the athlete feels. RPE is a subjective measure of how hard a workout seems, not necessarily how hard it actually is.
And that “seems” part? That’s where self-talk comes in.
When athletes learn to manage their inner dialogue, their RPE often drops. The workout didn’t get easier, but their experience of it did. And when something feels more doable, we’re naturally more willing to stick with it, push through, and finish strong.
Cortisol: The Body’s Stress Thermostat
Cortisol gets a bad reputation, but it’s essential, especially in short bursts. It helps us react to physical and psychological stress. But when cortisol stays elevated for too long (as it often does under chronic pressure or internal negativity), it starts to wear the body down.
What happens is:
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Increased fatigue
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Slower recovery
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Weaker immune function
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Trouble sleeping or focusing
In sports, that’s a recipe for burnout, injury, or plateau.
What’s powerful in this whole story is that positive self-talk in sports has been shown to reduce or stabilize cortisol during high-exertion activities. It acts like a volume dial, turning down the stress response just enough to keep the athlete composed, energized, and in control.
The Role of Interpretation: “I’m OK” versus “I’m Overwhelmed”
Our brains are constantly filtering physical signals through an emotional and cognitive lens. Self-talk becomes the narrator in that process. The same elevated heart rate, burning legs, or heavy breathing can be interpreted as:
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“This is too much, I can’t handle it.”
or -
“This is what growth feels like. Keep going.”
And that interpretation makes all the difference.
In short: teaching your athletes to manage what they say to themselves can transform how they experience challenge – and how their bodies respond to it. And that’s next-level coaching!
Key Research on Positive Self-Talk in Sports, RPE, and Cortisol
If you’ve ever wondered if something as simple as a phrase in your head could really change performance, recovery, or stress – science says: “Yes, it can!” In fact, the impact of positive self-talk in sports has been measured in both physical endurance and hormonal response.
Below are four of the most compelling studies that help us understand how positive, negative, and neutral (or no) self-talk influence RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) and cortisol, and why this matters for coaching.
1. Basset et al. (2021) – Type of Self-Talk Matters: Its Effects on Perceived Exertion, Cardiorespiratory, and Cortisol Responses During an Iso-Metabolic Endurance Exercise
What they did:
This study explored how different types of self-talk influence perceived exertion (RPE), cortisol levels, and cardiorespiratory responses during endurance exercise. Researchers recruited 24 healthy, recreationally active men, and randomly assigned them into three groups:
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Positive self-talk group – used motivational phrases like “You’re doing well” and “You’ve trained for this.”
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Negative self-talk group – used self-deprecating or discouraging statements like “You’ll never make it.”
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Control group – listened passively to an educational documentary during the task.
Each participant completed a 60-minute treadmill run at 70% of their VO₂max (a moderate, steady-state endurance effort). Researchers measured RPE every 10 minutes, monitored breathing and heart function, and took saliva samples before and after the exercise to assess cortisol.
What they found:
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RPE: Participants using negative self-talk reported a significantly higher RPE throughout the run than both the positive and control groups.
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Breathing frequency and minute ventilation: These were also significantly higher in the negative group – meaning they were breathing faster and more shallowly, indicating greater physiological strain.
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Cortisol: Salivary cortisol levels increased more in the negative self-talk group, showing a stronger stress response.
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Heart rate and oxygen uptake: Interestingly, there were no major differences between groups for these measures – indicating that all groups were working at the same physical intensity.
Bottom line: The difference wasn’t in how hard their bodies were working – it was in how hard it felt, and how the body reacted hormonally and neurologically to that perceived strain.
Why It Matters for Coaches:
This study drives home a critical coaching insight: negative self-talk doesn’t just feel worse – it makes the body work harder to do the same job.
Athletes using discouraging internal language had:
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Higher stress hormone levels
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Increased breathing demands
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Greater perceived effort (even though their pace and heart rate were exactly the same as everyone else’s)
This tells us that teaching athletes to manage their self-talk isn’t optional – it’s performance-relevant. Positive self-talk helped regulate stress, breathing, and perceived effort, keeping athletes calmer and more efficient under pressure.
For coaches working with endurance athletes – or anyone who needs to keep pushing through discomfort – this study reinforces the value of training mental scripts just like interval sets or technique. The words we use in our head can either amplify fatigue or quiet the internal storm.
2. Blanchfield et al. (2014) – Talking Yourself Out of Exhaustion: The Effects of Self-talk on Endurance Performance
What they did:
Blanchfield and colleagues conducted a controlled study to test whether motivational self-talk could influence endurance performance and perceived exertion (RPE). Twenty-four recreational athletes (15 men, 9 women) were split into two groups: a self-talk intervention group and a control group.
All participants performed a cycling time-to-exhaustion (TTE) test at 80% of their peak power output. After the first test, the self-talk group went through a 2-week intervention where they developed and practiced four personalized motivational self-talk statements during their regular aerobic workouts. The control group received no intervention. Afterward, both groups repeated the cycling test.
What they found:
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The self-talk group increased their time to exhaustion by 18%, while the control group showed no improvement.
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RPE was significantly lower at 50% of isotime in the self-talk group after the intervention, suggesting that the athletes felt less exertion at the same point in the workout.
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No significant changes were found in heart rate, blood lactate, or facial EMG (a physiological measure of effort), meaning the improvements weren’t due to physical adaptation, but to the altered perception of effort.
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Nearly all athletes in the self-talk group improved their performance, and the reduction in RPE was considered a key mechanism behind this.
Why it matters:
This study provides robust experimental evidence supporting the psychobiological model of endurance performance, which argues that the brain – not the muscles – ultimately decides when to stop. When the brain perceives effort as too high, it triggers the decision to quit.
Motivational self-talk helped athletes reinterpret how hard the task felt, delaying the point at which their brain told them to stop. This shows that by changing internal dialogue, athletes can train their mind to sustain performance longer without changing their physiology.
The study is a powerful validation of using structured, personalized self-talk as a performance-improving tool – not through fake confidence, but by altering the perception of effort, which is often what limits performance in the first place.
What They Did
Kaushal and his research team at Memorial University set out to explore whether positive or negative self-talk could influence two specific performance variables:
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Heart rate (a physiological marker of stress and exertion)
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Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) (a subjective scale of how hard exercise feels)
They recruited 29 trained male runners (ages 18–55) and randomly placed them into three groups:
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Positive self-talk group
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Negative self-talk group
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Control group (listened to a neutral documentary)
Each runner completed:
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A VO₂ max test (to determine aerobic capacity)
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A 60-minute steady-state treadmill run at 70% of their VO₂ max (during this run, RPE was recorded every 5 minutes, and heart rate was continuously monitored)
Before the test:
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Runners in the self-talk groups created their own motivational or discouraging phrases in a coached session.
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These were personalized and categorized by intensity (slightly encouraging to highly encouraging).
What They Found
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Heart rate: No significant differences between the groups.
→ All runners were pushing equally hard from a physiological standpoint. -
RPE (perceived exertion):
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The positive self-talk group reported significantly lower RPE scores throughout the session.
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Mean final RPE: 1.89 ± 0.93
-
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The negative self-talk group felt it was much harder, despite running at the same pace.
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Mean final RPE: 4.60 ± 2.50
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The control group (neutral distraction) fell somewhere in between.
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The takeaway – the internal story runners told themselves had a measurable impact on how difficult the run felt – even though their bodies were working at the same level.
Why It Matters for Coaches
This study is a “gem” for performance coaches, because it shows how:
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Perception can be shaped – even in highly trained athletes
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Positive self-talk helps “conceal” exertion, allowing athletes to tolerate discomfort and maintain performance longer
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Negative self-talk worsens perceived strain, which can lead to early fatigue, pacing errors, or mental shutdown – even when the body is still capable
From a practical standpoint, this gives us permission, and evidence, to train self-talk like we train intervals, strength, or skills. It’s not just “mental nonsense”, it changes the way the brain and body interact under stress.
4. Hatzigeorgiadis et al. (2011) – Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis
What they did:
This research team conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies involving 62 effect sizes to evaluate how self-talk interventions influence sports performance. They specifically explored moderating variables such as the type of task (fine vs. gross motor), task familiarity (novel vs. well-learned), type of self-talk (instructional vs. motivational), and whether athletes received training in how to use self-talk. They also assessed differences between novice and experienced athletes and the effects of assigned vs. self-selected self-talk cues.
What they found:
Self-talk had a moderate overall positive effect on sports performance, with an average effect size of 0.48. Key findings included:
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Instructional self-talk was more effective for tasks requiring fine motor skills (e.g., dart throwing) than gross motor skills (e.g., running).
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Self-talk was more effective in novel tasks than in well-learned ones, likely because there was more room for improvement.
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Training mattered: athletes who were trained in how to use self-talk experienced significantly greater performance improvements than those who weren’t.
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Interestingly, all athletes – novices and experts – benefited from self-talk, although the effect was slightly stronger in beginners.
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The effectiveness didn’t significantly depend on whether the self-talk was assigned or self-selected, or whether it was spoken out loud or silently.
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The data partially supported the “matching hypothesis”: instructional self-talk worked better for precision tasks, and motivational self-talk trended toward better outcomes in endurance/strength tasks.
Why it matters:
This large-scale review confirms that self-talk isn’t just a mental trick – it’s a proven performance booster. Importantly, the study emphasizes that not all self-talk is created equal. Coaches, athletes, and sport psychologists can maximize impact by matching the right type of self-talk to the right type of task and by incorporating training in self-talk strategies as part of regular athletic preparation. These findings lay a solid foundation for using targeted, science-backed inner dialogue to enhance focus, skill acquisition, and resilience across sport levels and disciplines.
5. Zourbanos, Theodorakis & Hatzigeorgiadis (2006) – Coaches’ Behaviour, Social Support and Athletes’ Self-talk
What they did:
Over 200 Greek athletes completed surveys measuring how they perceived their coach’s behavior – especially esteem support (e.g., praise, encouragement) and negative activation (e.g., criticism, pressure) – alongside their own positive and negative self-talk.
What they found:
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Coaches who were supportive and offered esteem-boosting feedback saw athletes report more positive self-talk.
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Coaches who tended toward criticism triggered more negative self-talk.
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Statistical analysis confirmed that athletes’ internal dialogue was directly shaped by how coaches acted.
Why it matters:
This study spotlights how powerful coaching language really is – not just externally, but internally. When coaches consistently reinforce positive dialogue and avoid negative triggers, they’re laying the groundwork for athletes to talk themselves up, not down – during training and competition.
What This Means for You as a Coach
You already wear many hats: strategist, technician, motivator, mentor. But one of the most impactful roles you play is often the most invisible – you help shape the inner voice your athletes carry with them long after practice ends.
Your words, your tone, even your pauses – they all influence how your athletes speak to themselves in moments of pressure, fatigue, or uncertainty. And as the research shows, that inner voice affects everything from perceived effort to hormonal stress response.
So how do you coach from the inside out? Start here:
Model the Inner Voice You Want Them to Build
Talk openly about the self-talk you use or used in your own performance days. Say things like: “My cue during that drill was – stay low and breathe steady.”
You’re not just giving instructions – you’re showing athletes that managing mindset is part of the process, not something separate or secondary. Normalize it. Make it visible. Make it coachable.
Use Esteem-Based Support
Instead of only praising results or talent, highlight effort, focus, and growth:
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✅ “I loved your patience in that last action – smart, composed.”
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✅ “That was great recovery after that turnover. You stayed in it.”
These kinds of affirmations don’t just boost confidence – they help athletes internalize a more compassionate, empowering inner dialogue.
Replace Negative Activation with Constructive Language
Even well-intentioned criticism can plant seeds of self-doubt. Reframe it:
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❌ “Don’t mess this up.”
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✅ “Keep your line and trust your rhythm.”
This small shift keeps feedback actionable and reduces the risk of triggering fear-based or self-sabotaging inner scripts.
Teach Self-Talk Awareness Through Simple Reflection
After high-stress moments – good or bad – ask:
“What were you saying to yourself right before that play?”
This one question builds awareness and encourages athletes to connect their thoughts to their performance. Over time, it helps them take ownership of their internal world.
The Bottom Line
As coaches, we often focus on physical drills, tactical systems, and reps – but this research reminds us that our language becomes their internal language. And that internal voice can either calm them under pressure or unravel them.
You have the power to shape more than athletic performance – you shape how athletes relate to themselves. Their self-talk becomes the bridge between potential and performance, between fear and focus.
Putting It All Together
Across every study, the takeaway is consistent:
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Negative self-talk ramps up effort perception and physiological stress.
-
Neutral/no self-talk is better than negative – but doesn’t provide the performance boost.
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Positive self-talk in sports lowers RPE, stabilizes cortisol, and improves endurance and execution.
The research not only validates what many great coaches have intuitively known – it gives us measurable evidence and actionable tools to train the mind as deliberately as the body!
How Positive Self-Talk Affects Physiology in Sports
Imagine the body as a finely tuned engine and the brain as its driver. In the middle of a high-intensity workout, the terrain gets tough – fatigue kicks in, the legs burn, and the heart pounds. What the “driver” says in that moment can either ease the tension or make it worse.
That’s where positive self-talk in sports comes in. It’s like giving the driver a calm, clear GPS instead of a panicked passenger screaming that the car is falling apart or burning. The difference in message changes not only how the moment feels – but how the body physically responds.
Here’s what science tells us happens behind the scenes:
Cortisol Regulation
Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone. In small doses, it helps us respond to challenges – but when elevated for too long, it drains energy, slows recovery, and even disrupts immune function.
Positive self-talk has been shown to help lower or stabilize cortisol levels during intense activity, which means athletes recover faster, feel more energized, and stay healthier over time.
Respiration and Breath Control
Negative self-talk often triggers panic-like breathing – fast, shallow, inefficient. In contrast, when athletes use calming or focused internal dialogue (“breathe steady,” “stay smooth”), they reduce breathing frequency and avoid breathlessness.
This translates to more efficient oxygen use and a steadier pace under pressure.
Cardiac Rhythm and HRV
Heart rate variability (HRV) is a key marker of the nervous system’s flexibility and resilience. Positive self-talk helps keep athletes out of “fight-or-flight” mode and closer to a parasympathetic, recovery-ready state.
The result? Better aerobic efficiency, reduced fatigue, and improved pacing.
Muscle Endurance and Mental Load
When the brain believes it’s under threat – because of inner criticism or doubt – it sends early fatigue signals, even if the body has more to give.
Positive self-talk buffers that mental strain, allowing muscles to keep working without being shut down prematurely by the brain’s “danger” signals.
In other words, negative self-talk is like pouring “sand into the engine”. It creates internal friction, saps energy, and shortens performance. But positive self-talk acts like a high-grade fuel stabilizer – it helps everything run more smoothly, especially when the pressure rises.
This isn’t just psychology – it’s physiology. The brain’s interpretation of effort determines how the body performs. That interpretation is shaped by the story an athlete tells themselves in the heat of the moment. And that story is coachable!
Real Coaching Stories: The Power of the Right Words
Real coaching is about the stories we tell our athletes, both out loud and under their breath. These two examples show how intentional language, whether from a coach or within an athlete’s own mind, can shift performance in meaningful ways.
Coach Jeff (Football Coach, USA)
Who he is: Christopher Mance II, a U.S.-based mental skills coach, shares a powerful example in his “Coach’s Guide to Modeling and Encouraging Positive Self-Talk” . He tells the story of “Coach Jeff,” an experienced American football coach who started noticing a pattern:
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During critical game moments, players started making mistakes and losing focus.
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Coach Jeff realized many of these lapses were connected to internal negative talk – phrases like “Don’t mess this up” or “I’m embarrassed”.
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In response, he started modeling positive self-talk aloud in practice: phrases like “We stay calm – eyes up, play next”.
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Players not only replicated the phrases – they internalized them during games. Mistakes dropped, composure improved under pressure, and players started coaching themselves from within.
Why it matters: Coach Jeff’s approach demonstrates the ripple effect of a coach’s words. By modeling calm, directive internal dialogue, he gave athletes something to internalize, anchoring their mental game under stress.
Valorie “Miss Val” Kondos Field (UCLA Gymnastics Coach)
Who she is:
Miss Val led the UCLA women’s gymnastics team to seven NCAA championships over nearly three decades and became renowned not just for her technical coaching, but her mastery of culture, ritual, and mindset.
What she did:
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Instead of “generic” pep talks, she taught athletes to create meaningful mental cues aligned with their values – phrases emphasizing joy, gratitude, and presence.
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When facing adversity – such as injuries or setbacks – she guided gymnasts to consciously shift their inner dialogue. Her famous reframing during her own cancer treatment: “I get to go to chemotherapy,” illustrates the mindset that she coached athletes toward.
What changed:
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Gymnasts reported going into major competitions feeling grounded, emotionally safe, and mentally resilient.
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Even Katelyn Ohashi – who went viral with a perfect 10 routine in 2019 – credited Miss Val’s emphasis on joy and mindful self-talk for helping her overcome performance anxiety and rediscover her love for the sport. Katelyn Ohashi’s experience with Coach Valorie Kondos Field underscored the crucial role a supportive coach plays in an athlete’s journey. It showed that true success goes beyond winning medals – it also encompasses personal growth, authenticity, and genuine joy. Miss Val’s guidance reached far beyond gymnastics, empowering Ohashi to fully embrace her identity and find deeper happiness and fulfillment throughout her athletic career.
Applying Positive Self-Talk in Sports Coaching
As coaches, we spend countless hours perfecting technique, endurance, and strength – but often overlook the one aspect that ties them all together: the athlete’s internal conversation. While understanding the science behind positive self-talk in sports is important, the real magic is in how you implement it in your coaching sessions. Here are five practical, straightforward strategies to bring this powerful mental tool into your day-to-day coaching practice:
1. Introduce Phrase Training During Practice
Just like warming up physically, athletes benefit from a mental warm-up using intentional self-talk. Start each training session by assigning clear, empowering self-talk phrases that athletes can use throughout their practice:
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Example phrases:
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“Stay present, see the next play.”
- “Communicate, commit, compete.”
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“Control your breath, control your pace.”
- “Focus on what’s in my control.”
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“I’ve prepared for this.”
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Encourage your athletes to modify these examples or make their own unique phrases that resonate personally with their experience and values. When they find words that genuinely reflect their mindset, their confidence and consistency naturally improve, making their self-talk a powerful addition in both practice and competition.
2. Integrate RPE Journals with Self-Talk Tracking
Give your athletes a structured way to connect their internal dialogue with their perceived exertion. After each session, have them briefly journal about their experience:
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Rate their perceived exertion (RPE) on a simple 1–10 scale.
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Reflect and write down the specific self-talk phrases they used.
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Note how different self-talk impacted their performance, mood, or overall sense of control.
This reflective practice helps athletes discover patterns and understand precisely how their inner dialogue shapes their physical experience. Over time, they learn to consciously manage effort through positive self-talk.
3. Reframe Your Coaching Feedback
Your words, as a coach, become the internal narrative athletes replay in their minds. Feedback isn’t just about correction – it’s also about shaping resilience and mindset.
Consider shifting your language from critical to constructive:
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❌ Instead of: “You fell apart at the end.”
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✅ Say: “Let’s figure out how to stay stronger through that final part”
This subtle change encourages solution-oriented thinking, reduces internal negativity, and equips athletes with a growth-focused internal dialogue for future challenges.
4. Use Action-Oriented Language
The subconscious mind often overlooks negatives – phrases beginning with “don’t” or “avoid” can unintentionally reinforce undesirable outcomes. Instead, provide clear, positive, and actionable instructions to guide your athletes toward the desired outcome.
❌ Avoid:
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“Don’t lose your player!”
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“Don’t give up the ball!”
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“Don’t miss the tackle!”
✅ Try instead:
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“Stay tight, follow your player.”
- “Attack the gap, finish strong.”
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“Protect the ball, play strong.”
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“Commit fully to your tackle.”
- “Hands up, anticipate the pass.”
This approach helps athletes focus on what they should do, not what they should avoid, simplifying mental processing and making positive self-talk easier and more intuitive.
Using direct, action-oriented phrases encourages athletes clearly visualize and focus on the intended outcome. It simplifies their mental processing, improves confidence, and promotes intuitive, high-quality performance during competition.
5. Teach the Science Behind Self-Talk
Athletes in team sports often associate self-talk with motivation, but it’s so much more than feel-good words – it’s biology. When you explain the real science behind self-talk, you’re not just inspiring athletes, you’re giving them a mental performance tool backed by physiology.
Help them understand that positive self-talk in sports:
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Helps regulate cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone
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Improves breathing patterns and heart rate regulation
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Improves focus, recovery, and muscular endurance
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Keeps their nervous system calm and coordinated under pressure
Once they realize this, they’ll start seeing self-talk not as empty words, but as fuel.
How to frame it with your team:
You could say:
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“Your brain believes what you tell it. Feed it something useful.”
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“Every phrase you repeat is a repetition for your nervous system.”
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“The calmer your self-talk is, the smoother your game will be.”
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“Think of your words like in-game instructions – from you, to you.”
And for athletes under pressure:
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“Slow your breath, calm your words – then play.”
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“Strong teams start with strong self-talk.”
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“Anchor your mind, and your game follows.”
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“Shift your words, shift the game.”
These types of phrases can be introduced during practice, post-game reflections, preparation meetings, or even on locker room posters. When athletes start to associate better self-talk with real physical outcomes, they’re far more likely to use it in the heat of the game – when it counts most.
Putting It All Together: Coaching the Inner Voice
Positive self-talk in sports isn’t some abstract mental trick – it’s a concrete, research-backed tool that impacts athletes on every level: physically, emotionally, and neurologically. It’s the kind of tool that shows up mid-sprint, mid-set, or mid-game when everything feels like too much. And when used well, it can be the difference between giving up and pushing through.
As a coach, your role is about more than tactics and technique – it’s about helping athletes build the kind of inner voice they can rely on when you’re not beside them. When you introduce intentional self-talk strategies into your sessions, you’re doing more than offering encouragement. You’re teaching them how to coach themselves – how to stay composed under pressure, how to regulate stress, and how to reframe moments of struggle into opportunities for growth.
You’re planting the seeds of an inner dialogue that says:
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“I can get through this.”
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“I know how to adjust.”
- “I can do this.”
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“This is where I get stronger.”
These are the words that carry athletes through setbacks, losses, fatigue, and fear. And the best part? Once they learn to use these words in sport, they take them into school, work, relationships, and life beyond the field.
So yes, coaching self-talk improves performance, but it also builds resilience, emotional maturity, and a sense of inner safety that every athlete deserves.
And that’s not just good coaching – that’s transformational leadership.
Conclusion: The Mindset That Moves the Body
The evidence is undeniable – positive self-talk in sports isn’t just a motivational bonus. It’s a real, measurable asset to performance, recovery, and resilience. It lowers perceived exertion, helps regulate stress hormones like cortisol, and gives athletes a mental edge when physical limits are being tested. In high-pressure moments, it often becomes the difference between holding on and falling off.
But like any powerful skill, it doesn’t happen by accident. It has to be taught, practiced, and reinforced, just like strength, technique, or strategy. And that’s where you, as a coach or leader, come in – not just as an instructor of drills, but as a cultivator of mindset.
Because when you teach athletes to manage their inner voice, you’re not just making them better competitors – you’re equipping them for life. You’re helping them build trust in themselves, recover faster from setbacks, and stay composed when the moment gets loud.
Your Challenge: This Week’s Coaching Action
Choose just one of the five self-talk strategies outlined in this post, and test it out, either with your athletes or on yourself.
Here’s how to keep it simple:
- Do it for three sessions.
- Track the shift. Did the athlete’s energy change? Did the tone of their self-talk become more focused? Did their RPE improve?
- Listen for language. What phrases stuck the most? What clicked?
Then come back and reflect:
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What changed in their performance or mindset?
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What phrase became their go-to in hard moments?
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What surprised you most about how they responded?
Let’s commit to training the inner voice as deliberately as we train the body – because ultimately, that voice follows our athletes into every arena, long after the whistle blows.
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Here you can find my online video courses: Level 1 Video Course for Coaches; Level 2 Video Course for Coaches; Sliding Technique Video Course and Agility Ladder Drills Video Collection with 102 drills.
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