How to Practice Effective Self-Talk

Creating an inner dialogue that facilitates a positive frame of mind will help performance as much as health.

Self-talk is one of those tools that elite athletes regularly put to good use, but far fewer amateurs ever employ as part of their mental strength arsenal.

If you want to get the most out of your performances, however, you might want to reconsider that fact.

Effective self-talk isn’t just a tool reserved for race days or big events. Producing a positive frame of mind through inner dialogue can help improve training, recovery, and life in general, all of which can lead to better performance and health.

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Effective self-talk can take different forms—some athletes thrive on positive self-talk, while others need “negative” motivators. Regardless of its nature, athletes can create a sense of competence by using self-talk productively—by being proactive and consistent.

Two types of self-talk

There are two forms of self-talk: One method is unconscious (autonomic), and can be developed with proactive work. This type of self-talk happens when it happens; it’s the things that we say about ourselves, to ourselves, or that appear in the moment, but that we don’t necessarily have control over when they come. But we can train how we respond.

The other method of self-talk is conscious, deliberate, and finite. This is how we battle back against what’s going on. Perhaps you’re struggling in a race and your mind is screaming: “I’m dying, I’m dying.” You decide to talk back and say, “Hey, I’ve done my training, I’m fit, I’ve got this.”

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The issue with deliberate self-talk is that it eventually loses its effectiveness. It cannot be sustained indefinitely. As it gets repeated, it will eventually be exhausted, and you will no longer be able to battle back with self-talk.

“[Through training,] we can improve autonomic self-talk so that it’s supportive. And then we also have this deliberate self-talk reservoir that we can use when things start to go the wrong way or sideways,” says Grant Holicky, an endurance coach and sports psychologist. “We need to approach how we talk about ourselves or to ourselves proactively. And we need to get better at reframing situations, and directing what it is that we want to happen instead of just letting it all come.”

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To that end, Holicky notes that it’s not enough to look in the mirror and simply say everything’s going to be okay. You must strive to find real things—positive things—to build your self-talk around. Perhaps it has to do with how much training you’ve completed. Perhaps it can be found in test results or successful workouts. Holicky has his athlete's star workouts that are special, as a reference point and a reminder of what can be pulled into self-talk to optimize readiness.

Because, often, if you’re in the moment and you’re struggling with how you feel, you can quickly get overwhelmed by that sensation. Effective self-talk helps you stop those intrusive thoughts before they even start, or to fight back if they start to rear their head. And if you do it enough, it starts to become autonomic.

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Putting it into practice

It isn’t enough to simply know what self-talk is. There are other things you can do to help it be as effective as possible when put into practice.

Among the various methods, visualization is one of the most effective ways to turn self-talk into functional performance gains. It’s as easy as visualizing yourself in a certain situation, with everything going right and everything going wrong. Perhaps you have a cycling race coming up, so you want to visualize all the positive aspects of your performance—pacing, attacking, crossing the line—but also the negative. Picture yourself having a flat tire or another mechanical issue. Walk yourself through that process while talking through the steps to remain calm, composed, and focused on the things you can control.

Place yourself in as many real scenarios as possible, and then practice the self-talk that brings you through those situations. It doesn’t have to be practiced in a dark room with earplugs in and a mask on. Try it while lying in bed. Try it while eating breakfast. Try it in those first 10-15 minutes of a ride.

“Do it just a little bit—with anything that brings the race butterflies, that brings that realness. Now your brain is going, ‘Oh, this is how I deal with that situation.’ And then when [those feelings or situations] happen in real life, you’ve got tools to help buffer against it,” Holicky says.