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Research Project for Sports Studies – Research Proposal - 2111463

University of Stirling

School of Sport

Module Title: Research Project in Sports Studies

Module Code: SPSU9RP

Student Number: 2111463

Assignment Number: 1

Assignment Title: Full Research Project Proposal

Word Limit: 4,000 words

Word Count: 3,955 words

Submission Deadline: 12noon Monday November 23rd 2015


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Self-Talk and Sprint Performance in Youth Football Players

for

Journal of Sports Sciences

by

Christopher P. McLaughlin

Supervisor: Dr John F. Mathers

3,955 words

Research Proposal submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of BA

(Hons) in Sports Studies through module SPSU9RP

At School of Sport

University of Stirling

Monday November 23rd, 2015


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Research Proposal Contents

Page 1 – Introduction

Page 1 – Background and Literature Review

Page 9 – Research Aims and Objectives

Page 10 – Research Methods

Page 10 – Participants

Page 11 – Data Collection and Analysis

Page 15 – Conclusion

Page 16 – Limitations and Considerations for Future Research


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List of Appendices

Appendix A – Continuous and Rationalised Independent and Dependent Variables

Appendix B – Equipment Setup for Testing and Data Collection

Appendix C – Informed Consent for University Research Project Participation

Appendix D – Copy of Disclosure Scotland PVG Scheme Membership Certificate

Appendix E – Timetable for Research


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In the world of sporting performance, there are a vast number of factors which may impact

on an athlete and their tactical, technical and mental executions. Particularly in elite sport,

small – and quite possibly statistically insignificant - differences can be what separates the

winners and runners-up of world championships, events or finals. The outcome of a game of

football (soccer) can be affected by a variety of internal and external variables. Performance

and the success of individuals and teams can change based on physical fitness, the officials and

referees, or the style of play used by an opponent. In nature, the game is more stop-start than

continuous, where players move at differing paces and intensities based on the context of the

game as it happens. Players often undertake short burst of sprints, punctuated with active rest

periods when the ball is perhaps at the other end of the field. It could be argued that being able

to move faster, quicker and more efficiently than an opponent can help lead to successful

performance. From this, the aim of any practitioner working with athletes, whether as a coach,

nutritionist, data analyst or psychologist, must be to help aid the occurrence of peak

performance. Sprint time is an important component of football performance, and this study

intends to examine the effect, if any, that self-talk can have on sprint times in youth footballers.

This research proposal begins by offering some background on self-talk followed by a

review of current literature. Next, the aims and objectives of this research are discussed

followed by the experimental design to be followed. Lastly, conclusions are offered along with

potential limitations of this research as well as possible direction for future studies. This

proposal and the subsequent research paper will conform to the standards and guidelines of

the Journal of Sports Sciences.


While sports psychologists and their treatments can certainly help athletes perform at the

highest level they are capable of and achieve this on a more regular basis, there is a slight

degree of ambiguity regarding whether or not psychological interventions can explicitly

improve sporting performance (Hardy, 2006). Furthermore, the question of exactly how exactly

psychological interventions work is of interest to many (Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2009; Tod and

Lavallee, 2012; Van Raalte et al, 2014). There has been great progress in the field in the last 20-

30 years and research has began to shift from so-called first generation research ("what

happens, does X impact Y?") to second generation questions relating to the mechanisms of how

components of performance change (Edwards, Tod and McGuigan, 2008; Tod, Hardy and

Oliver, 2011). This particular study focusses on the area of self-talk in performance psychology.

Following the notion that a person’s behavior can be influenced by what they say to

themselves, a number of cognitive behavioural change techniques have employed self-talk as a

key factor (Ellis, 1976, and Meichenbaum, 1977; as cited in Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2008).

The first peer-reviewed synthesis of self-talk was undertaken by Hardy in 2006. Self-talk can

be defined as: "a multi-dimensional phenomenon, focusing on athletes’ self-verbalisations"

(Hardy et al, 2004) and is possibly an under-developed aspect of self-talk (Tod, Hardy and

Oliver, 2011). Early research initially looked at self-talk in one of two ways - positive or negative,

or either instructional or motivational – and historically, there has been a presumption that

positive self-talk benefits performance (Kahrovic et al, 2014) while negative self-talk is

detrimental to success. While there is some research to suggest this, it is however necessary


not to automatically follow such sweeping generalisations. For example, Theodorakis et al

(1998) found that while positive self-talk may have a beneficial effect on injury rehabilitation, it

did not decrease the anxiety of injured athletes during fitness tests to assess their progress.

Furthermore, Gammage, Hardy and Hall (2001) wrote: “while experimentally-based research

has lent support for the contention that positive self-talk improves performance (e.g. Dagrou,

Gauvin and Halliwell, 1992; Van Raalte et al, 1995; Weinberg, Smith, Jackson and Gould, 1948,)

field-based research has yielded less definitive results… Dagrou, Gauvin and Halliwell (1991) and

Rotella, Gasneder, Ojala and Billing (1980) found positive and negative self-talk did not

differentially influence performance.”

Finally, in a study on marathon runners, positive self-talk which had a negative valence – for

example “don’t wimp out” – was found to aid performance (Van Raalte et al, 2015).

Self-talk has been seen to act beneficially across a number of sports – for example, self-talk

aided elite cricketers (Miles and Neil, 2013) in their batting performance through attentional

focus and informational processing, and swimmers saw good performance facilitated by self-

talk used to decrease interfering thoughts (Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2004). In softball, motivational

and instructional self-talk were found to be more beneficial than self-talk deemed unrelated

with regard to throwing accuracy, while motivational self-talk had enhanced effects compared

to instructional and unrelated self-talk for throwing distance (Chang et al, 2014). Linner (2010)

observed changes in self-efficacy in golfers through self-talk, which in turn affected

performance. Edwards, Tod and McGuigan’s 2008 study explored the effects of instructional


and motivational self-talk on the vertical jump height of experienced rugby players. Due to the

similarity of the research and the level of detail adhered to, the work of Edwards, Tod and

McGuigan (2008) will be used as a template for this research study. Specifically related to

football, self-talk has been linked to an improvement in football penalty kick taking in girls

(Johnson et al, 2004) and positive self-talk training has shown improvements in self-confidence

in youth footballers (Kanniyan, 2015).

Even in early research, it was suggested that a number of factors may impact on how useful

self-talk can be as an aid for development or for performance. There is no one-size-fits-all

approach. Athlete ability and experience, the training or competition setting and the

characteristics of the task being executed may all affect the influence and beneficial effect of

self-talk (Mahoney & Avener, 1977). There is evidence that novice or beginner athletes benefit

from self-talk in different ways, and perhaps to a different degree, than more experienced

sporting individuals. Athletes with less experience and/or a lower skill level could use self-talk

to guide themselves through tasks, and aid memory by ‘chunking’ pieces of important

information together. This could relate to new skills, processes or movements (Miles and Neil,

2013). The timing of when the self-talk is executed by an athlete may also affect the level of

impact it has. While there has yet to be extensive work done to fully support this (Tod, Hardy

and Oliver, 2011) the researcher supposes that using self-talk as near to the onset of exercise or

beginning of a task as possible would heighten its effect.


In Gammage, Hardy and Hall (2001) self-talk was found to have five main functions,

categorised under two umbrella terms. Arousal, Mastery and Drive aspects are grouped under

the Motivational function, while Cognitive functions of self-talk has been seen to have a

cognitive (general) application – using self-talk in terms of tactics and enhancing performance –

or a cognitive (specific) use, where self-talk is used to benefit learning and progress

(Hatzigeogiadis et al, 2009).

Instructional self-talk can be done specifically or in more general terms. For example: “slow

away” for a golfer to move their club head slowly backwards before unleashing a powerful

drive, or “90 degrees” for a gym user learning to perform lunges to remember to get their back

leg and knee down low to the ground. More specific to football, a player might use self-talk

phrases such as “eyes on the ball” or “cushion” in order to prepare them to take a high quality

first touch when receiving a pass. The second function, self-talk for motivational purposes,

utilises self-talk in an attempt to relate to and impact arousal, drive and mastery

(Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2009; Hardy, Begley and Blanchfield, 2014; Smith, Smoll and Cumming,

2007). An example here could be a phrase such as “up!” for a weightlifter performing a bench

press, or “come on” for a tennis player gearing up to serve the ball. Football specifically, a

player may utter something like “tune in” or “it’s still 0-0” in order to keep themselves in a state

of high concentration.

Theodorakis et al (2000) found that the effects of self-talk may relate more to the task

being performed at the time rather than the self-talk itself. This is known as the task-matching


hypothesis. Speaking broadly, precision- or skill-based tasks require higher levels of attention in

order to achieve quality execution. As such, instructional self-talk has been viewed as more

beneficial in this type of situation, in order to focus on more technical points and the

kinaesthetic aspects of movements (Hardy, 2006; Hardy, Begley and Blanchfield, 2014; Hardy,

2015). On the other hand, motivational self-talk has been found to be most beneficial for

endurance or ‘condition’-based tasks, where gross motor skills are more readily involved. The

use of motivational self-talk has been alluded to increasing effort, enhancing self-confidence

and facilitating mood changes (Linner, 2010).

While there is less research for explosive tasks, such as sprinting, in relation to self-talk (Tod,

Hardy and Oliver, 2011) it could be presumed that they would be impacted in a similar way to

endurance or conditioning movements.

Student populations have been used most often for studies examining the effects of self-

talk. This is perhaps due to the increased accessibility for university researchers to work with

such participants. There is a gap in the literature where the least common age of participants is

20 years old or below (Tod, Hardy and Oliver, 2011). This study will use participants of ages 12-

14 due to the accessibility opportunities for the researcher in question, and to attempt to help

bridge this gap. One other gap in the existing literature is the lack of studies examining self-talk

in pre-competition settings. However, this is not altogether surprising as it less likely that teams

or athletes would be willing to accommodate a scientific researcher in close proximity to them

during the build-up to a match, race, event or tournament.


In the review by Tod, Hardy and Oliver (2011) it was noted that 67% of self-talk studies featured

instructional self-talk, while 41% of studies looked at comparing two different types of

intervention, for example instructional self-talk versus motivational, or positive self-talk versus

negative.

There are four possible mechanisms which attempt to explain how self-talk could influence

performance (Tod and Lavallee, 2012). First is the cognitive mechanism. Self-talk is said to be

able to heighten the efficiency of an individual’s informational processing and attentional focus

(Hardy et al, 1996). An increase in concentration thanks to the employment of self-talk and key

words can decrease the frequency and severity of interfering (and often negative) thoughts.

However, further research is needed in this area. Motivation is the second mechanism. With a

focus on self-efficacy, using self-talk – regularly motivational in nature – has been attributed to

prolonged persistence, as well as benefiting performance on a challenging task. There is,

though, some debate on self-talk having a direct effect on self-efficacy. Thirdly, a behavioural-

based mechanism has been suggested. Following effective self-talk, it is said that behavior can

then change to more desirable actions which can aid performance. This mechanism has been

seen as particularly helpful for novices in one of their earlier stages of learning (SOLs). Fourthly,

the affective mechanism highlights that self-talk can positively influence anxiety. Anxiety has

been shown to impact the actions and technique of an individual (Kanniyan, 2015;

Nieuwenhuys et al, 2008; Wilson, Vine and Wood, 2009) as well as a decrease in penalty-kick

taking performance in football players (Wilson, Wood and Vine, 2009). Having the ability to


reduce anxiety has been seen to help facilitate best performance (Smith, Smoll and Cumming,

2007). Effective self-talk could accomplish this. Further research will be necessary in order to

confirm a relationship explicitly linking self-talk to cognitive content and affect (Edwards, Tod

and McGuigan, 2008; Tod and Lavallee, 2012; Tod, Hardy and Oliver, 2011). It is suggested

(Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2009; Tod and Lavallee, 2012). that the four mechanisms work in tandem

to bring about a change in movement or performance by affecting moderators such as self-

confidence, self-efficacy and anxiety.

It is important to remember that self-talk, as with all psychological methods and treatments, is

a very individualized matter. As discussed previously, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. It is

worth looking at the following question, as cited by Tod, Hardy and Oliver (2011):

“What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem,

under which set of circumstances?”

(Paul, 1967)


Research Aims and Objectives

The aim of this study is to examine the potential effects that different types of psychological

self-talk have on the sprint performance times of male and female youth football players aged

12-14.The work – and subsequent findings – of the study are intended to help support football

coaches by adding to the evidence base surrounding self-talk through a soccer-specific study.

Ford et al (2010) noted that one issue in football coach education systems – as detailed by

Farrow, Baker and McMahon (2008) and Williams and Hodges (2005) is the significant time

delay from the production of high-class research and its delivery in coach education settings.

This research shall hopefully add to the existing body of literature and be part of a transition to

a point where coaches are fed the latest and best research at a faster pace in order to develop

them and the players with whom they work. It is hypothesized that sprint performance times

will improve through the self-talk interventions. Furthermore, it is the belief of the researcher

that a more pronounced improvement will be seen from the motivational self-talk group, due

to the nature of the task being performed.


Methods

In brief, participants’ sprint times will be initially measured, and then three equal groups

will be created. Two of these will undergo a self-talk intervention, with the third acting as a

control group. Sprint times will be measured again to assess any changes or impacts from the

self-talk. This experiment and research paper will conform to the standards and guidelines of

the JSS.

Using the work of Edwards, Tod and McGuigan (2008) as a template, the variables to be tested

in this research study are highlighted in Appendix A.

Participants

45 male and female youth footballers born 2001-2003 will participate in this study. This

sample size was chosen due to the numbers used in other studies and confirmed as sufficient

by G*Power Statistical Power Analyses.

All of the participants play for the same football club – Cumbernauld Colts FC, based in

North Lanarkshire. Written informed consent will be gained and parental permission obtained

as the footballers are aged 12-14. Permission to work with the players has been obtained from

the club chairman. An example of the Informed Consent for Research Form (ICFR) which will be

used, as adapted by the researcher, can be found in Appendix A. Participants of this age were


chosen due the fact that while most research to this point has examined university-age

students, there is a gap in the literature where the least common age of participants in self-talk

studies was 20 years old or below (Tod, Hardy and Oliver, 2011). Each of the participants will be

familiar undertaking sprint due to their experience of playing football.

The researcher has an existing Disclosure Scotland PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups)

Scheme membership in place through the Scottish FA for working with the group of young

people at the football club in question (see Appendix B).

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection is intended to take place in early-mid January 2016, following ethics

approval from the University of Stirling School of Sport Ethics Committee. A timetable for the

research process can be found in Appendix C.

All testing and will take place at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld. Participants will first

go through an initial pre-test, where 10m sprint times will be gathered to be used for grouping

purposes. Sprinting has been chosen due its relation to the game and its importance to

performance.

Participants will stand at a cone 1m distance from a light-gate. On the signal from the

researcher, they are free to begin their 10m sprint at any time. Three attempts will be

undertaken and the quickest time ran by each participant will be used for the study. This, rather

than average, will be used because part of the aim of the study is to understand peak sprinting


performance, rather than average speeds, so the fastest time only will be examined. This also

allows for participants to feel confident and familiar with the testing conditions, and negates

and scenarios where the participants run less in a less efficient manner than they are capable

of. The light gate will be obtained from the University of Stirling under permission from Sports

Centre and School of Sport staff. Initial approval has already been granted for this. To avoid any

order effect, participants will take part in a training session and be called out individually to

participate in the testing. Participants will not be aware of the order in which they will be

called. Before undertaking sprint attempts, participants will be asked to rate their current level

of fatigue. Other details such as weather, possible stresses from school, and the team’s most

recent results will also be considered. It will also be noted which participants have already

worked with – or been coached by – the researcher, in order to attempt to shed light on any

unusual statistics which may arise. The same training session will be used during the post-

intervention re-test. After the initial test, the participants will be equally split into three groups

based on their sprint times. The data will be run through SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social

Sciences) in order to create these groups.

Two groups will be given a psychological self-talk intervention, while the other will act as a

control group. However, in order to avoid a Hawthorne effect the control group will also be

given an intervention. This will not be psychological in nature, but shall focus on tactical

elements of the game. Of the two intervention groups, one shall receive education and

information on instructional self-talk, while the other learns about motivational self-talk. The

participants will be given a specific phrase which they will then use in the next period of testing.

The phrases for both the motivational and instructional interventions will have the same


number of syllables. The reason for this is that instructional self-talk is generally more technical

in nature, which can lend itself to a higher number of words. This would then take longer to say,

and hence may induce a lower tempo or decreased intensity in its verbalisation and subsequent

performance. Knowing that not all self-talk cues work to the same extent (Hatzigeorgiadis,

2007) the use of phrases with the same syllables means that the research can focus more on

the type of self-talk used rather than the specific cue.

In the post-treatment re-test, participants will follow an almost identical protocol. If, for

example, there is adverse weather during the retest compared to the initial testing, maintaining

an otherwise consistent environment allows for data to remain valid. Thus, a wet pitch due to

rain may mean that all three groups see a decrease in sprint performance, but it would still be

possible to determine which group saw the smallest average decrease, hence which treatment

was the most effective. One solution to any problem faced by testing outdoors would be to run

the study in a sports hall rather than on a football pitch, but the testing in the same location

where the players train and play matches will provide a greater degree of ecological validity.

Having had the self-talk intervention, participants will return to the cone 1m away from the

light gate. Again the participants will receive a signal from the researcher which allows them to

begin as soon as they wish. The participant will be instructed to overtly verbalise their given

self-talk phrase, loud enough for the researcher – 12m away (1m past finish line in the centre of

the running area) – to hear, and then begin sprinting straight away. If the overt self-talk cannot

be heard by the researcher, this attempt will be disqualified from the results and another

attempt carried out until the criteria is satisfied. Again, three attempts will be undertaken and


the quickest time ran by each participants will be used. A post-test manipulation check will be

in place to discover what the participants were thinking about before, during and after their use

of self-talk, in order to determine whether the self-talk was being followed (Edwards, Tod and

McGuigan,2008). Appendix A shows the setup for the sprint testing.

The data will be run through a repeated measures, mixed-model ANOVA using the Statistical

Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) in order to find any differences which appear between

the three groups post-treatment. This will determine which intervention has been most

effective in aiding sprint performance. Analysis of variance testing will help determine whether

any benefit has been made in sprint performance across the whole participant cohort, and

which groups had the largest and smallest changes after using self-talk.


Conclusion

Psychological interventions have been historically proven to be of consistent benefit to

athletes, coaches and sports scientists alike. Self-talk, defined as: “a multi-dimensional

phenomenon, focusing on athletes’ self-verbalisations” (Hardy, Hall and Hardy, 2004) has been

linked to enhanced performance across a variety of sports and tasks within them.

As discussed, sprinting in football is an important aspect of the game, and being able to

maximise this component can lead to an all-round improvement in general performance. The

use of self-talk may help improve this aspect of performance. This study will try to bring further

knowledge to the topic area. It is hypothesized that sprint performance times will improve

through the self-talk interventions. Furthermore, it is the belief of the researcher that a more

pronounced improvement will be seen from the motivational self-talk group, as per the task-

matching hypothesis Theodorakis et al (2000). This work aims to provide important information

regarding a pertinent issue in the field, and can also give direction to future research. Future

research may use a larger sample size, or use both male and female participants but keep each

group separate from the other. Changing the timing of when the self-talk is employed may yield

different results, as might repeating the exact same procedures but undertaking both tests in a

pre-competition setting – an area where gaps exist in the current research base (Hardy, 2006;

Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2011). One further intention of the researcher is to be able to use the

findings gained to help assist coaches deliver high-quality football sessions and programmes.


While this research has been planned thoroughly and will be undertaken with great

attention to detail, there are some limitations which may be worth investigating at a later date.

For example, the majority of the participants will be known to the researcher. There are

positives and negatives to this. On one hand, it may lead to the participants giving a higher

degree of effort in their testing. Contrastingly, the participants may feel more at ease with the

researcher – this could impact performance or effort. However, if the effect of this familiarity is

the same in both tests then no erroneous data should emerge. Secondly, the inclusion of male

and female youth footballers in the one study may impact results. While using both genders

offers an extra opportunity for smaller analyses, social or psychological factors relating to self-

determination and/or social anxiety may impact upon performance.

In summary, it is hoped that this study can add to the current body of knowledge by

highlighting the effects of motivational and instructional self-talk interventions on football

sprinting performance.


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Appendix A

CONTINUOUS AND RATIONALISED INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES

Variable Type/Category Independent Dependent

Continuous Self-Talk Performance

Rationalised Type of post-intervention Self-

Talk

Time in seconds for a 10m

sprint


APPENDIX B

EQUIPMENT SETUP FOR TESTING AND DATA COLLECTION

APPENDIX C


INFORMED CONSENT FOR UNIVERISTY RESEARCH PROJECT PARTICIPATION

UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

STUDENT 2111463

Introduction:

This Informed Consent for Research (ICfR) form relates to a study to be undertaken for the

fulfillment of requirements for student 2111463 in relation to the degree of BA (Hons) Sports

Studies from the University of Stirling. This study is psychology-based and experimental in

nature, involving the use of a self-talk intervention and evaluating any impact that has on

performance.

Aim:

The aim of this study is to examine the potential effects that different types of psychological

self-talk have on the sprint performance times of male and female youth football players aged

12-14.

Participation:

Participation in this study is completely voluntary and an individual may change his/her mind

and withdraw from the programme at any time. All data obtained will remain confidential and

be used only for the purposes of this study. The researcher has an existing Disclosure Scotland

PVG in place through the Scottish FA for working with the group of young people at the football

club in question – Cumbernauld Colts FC.


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I, _________________________ (PRINT NAME) confirm that I have read all of the above

information and agree to take part in this study. I understand that I can withdraw at any time

and that all data obtained will remain confidential and only be used for the purposes of this

study.

I, _________________________ (PRINT NAME) confirm that I have read all of the above

information and give my parental permission for my son/daughter ____________________

(PRINT NAME) to take part in this study.

Player’s signature:

Parent/Guardian’s signature:

Date:

If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact the club (www.cumbernauld-

colts.com) or the researcher directly on 07495940859 or [email protected]


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APPENDIX D

COPY OF DISCLOSURE SCOTLAND PVG SCHEME MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATE


APPENDIX E

TIMETABLE FOR RESEARCH

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