The effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on basketball passing and shooting performance in novice students

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on speed and accuracy of passing and shooting in basketball. Seventy two undergraduate students (M-age=20.09 years, +/- 1.12) were randomly assigned into two experimental (instructional and motivational) and a control groups. Three tasks (basketball passing speed, passing accuracy, and shooting accuracy) were conducted in 12 sessions: baseline assessment (pre-test), 10 training sessions, and final assessment (post-test). The results revealed that only in passing accuracy the instructional self-talk group improved its performance significantly. In general the results provided partial support for the task-demand-oriented matching hypothesis.