Destructive self-talk degrades one by making them question their future actions or past actions that soon make you paralyzed with doubt and uncertainty. An example would be receiving self-criticized negative messages in your head after expressing a disagreeable opinion at a family event.

Contrary to destructive self-talk, constructive self-talk is cheerful, motivational, and optimistic when viewing situations. This self-talk improves the mindset of the person and encourages them to see things in a positive light. An example of this would be cheering oneself on for sticking to an opinion when you are vastly outnumbered in a debate.

On the other hand, dysfunctional self-talk focuses on the negative aspects of challenging situations rather than on their positive aspects and has a pessimistic attitude when facing different situations. An example of this would include telling people that their goals are unattainable and telling oneself that achieving their dreams would be impossible.

Researchers studying the thinking patterns of people with clinical levels of depression find that the type of self-talk can significantly impact your mindset and can be the difference between being optimistic or pessimistic. There are a few studies actually examining different outcomes of constructive and dysfunctional self-talk. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Steven Rogelberg and colleagues decided to investigate the nature of self-talk among effective and ineffective managers. They defined effective managers as those who showed strong leadership skills and creativity. The experimental task involved having participants write letters to themselves about their plans and accomplishments. The data from this study thus consisted of written examples of self-talk that could then be rated. One hundred eighty-nine senior executive managers completed the task, and raters evaluated the extent to which the language they used exemplified constructive or dysfunctional self-talk. Letters rated high in constructive self-talk included statements that fit the criteria of being insightful, thoughtfully constructed, self-reflective, and motivational in nature. In addition, the constructive self-talkers saw themselves as capable of achieving their desired goals. As expected, the letters ending with dysfunctional self-talk concluded with doom and gloom predictions that the manager would never be able to achieve his goals. On average, scores were higher on the constructive self-talk scale, quite likely reflecting the fact that these were managers who had achieved a degree of success in their careers. This goes to show that those in leadership positions who share the common optimistic and motivated mindset have more optimistic views on situations and on the future.

Both Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan worked with Mindfulness Meditation Coach George Mumford throughout their careers. His methods on recovering from several addictions and negative-self talk, have resulted in these two professional basketball players being able to put forth their best ability on the court amidst all the pressure put upon them.

Tom Brady, a renowned NFL player, had also had mental coaching services when he was playing for the University of Michigan. Brady currently works with Alex Guerrero, a health and fitness guru who helps with his training, diet, and mental toughness.

Randall Cobb is also another NFL player that has been seen on live television using techniques of positive self-talk. As a pre-game ritual, and during breaks, Cobb actively chants motivating and optimistic messages aloud to tey and creates an atmosphere he is comfortable in. This talk also helps put him in the "zone," where he can perform to the best of his ability.

Progressive relaxation is learning to feel the tensions in one's muscles and learning to let go of that accumulated tension.

Breath control focuses on controlling your breathing in stressful situations, allowing for more oxygen to go to the brain, resulting in better decisions.

Biofeedback is causing one to become more aware of their nervous system and controlling responses through feedback from the body.

The Relaxation Response is a technique that teaches individuals to quiet their mind, concentrate and reduce muscle tension by basic meditation.

Autogenic Training is a series of exercises designed to produce physical sensations to bring upon relaxation.

Cognitive Affective Stress Management training teaches person-specific cope responses, using relaxation and control arousal.

Stress Inoculation training involves repeatedly coping with stress and thinking/imagining stressful situations, which are then managed, to build up an immunity to stress.

The results in a study done by the Universal Journal of Psychology, show that there was a positive correlation between the usage of breathing techniques and sports performance. In other words, the higher the use of breathing techniques, the higher the level of sports performance. Many kinds of research had proved that breathing techniques benefit not only athletes involved in individual sports but also in team sports. However, even though the breathing method is the most straightforward technique of relaxation, but not many athletes are practicing it due to a lack of knowledge. The result showed that there is a positive correlation between the usage of progressive muscle relaxation and sports performance. In other words, the higher the use of progressive muscle relaxation, the higher the level of sports performance increases. Progressive muscle relaxation is a powerful technique to reduce oxygen metabolism, respiration, blood pressure, muscle tension, and negative thoughts. Also, “William & Harris” discovered huge benefits in concentrated breathing in athletes. While it may not be possible to implement a breathing exercise in the middle of a football match, for example, there are many scenarios in which the ability to relax through deep breathing can be profound. Many athletes struggle with ‘over-arousal,’ where they are overly anxious and stressed or even over-motivated, before matches, and this can have a debilitating effect on performance during the game. PMR and concentrated breathing techniques can help overcome these adverse pre-match effects by decreasing arousal to a more suitable level for the match situation, thus ensuring that performance is not adversely affected.

According to the Drive Theory, the more arousal you experience, the higher your performance will be. This approach also explains why beginners find it difficult to perform well under pressure.

Arousal effects on sports performance are influenced by how you perceive this state.

This theory explains the link between anxiety, arousal, and performance. If anxiety levels are low, you’ll perform best at a medium level of arousal. If anxiety levels are high, your level of arousal will drop off suddenly. The catastrophe model takes into account both cognitive and somatic anxiety.

According to this theory, a positive interpretation of anxiety leads to better performance.

Anxiety causes poor performance, regardless of your level of arousal. This theory is still being researched.

The optimum level of arousal that an athlete requires to perform his best depends on his individual needs. Each individual will react differently to anxiety and arousal.

Too much or too little arousal and anxiety will cause poor performance. A medium amount of anxiety and arousal will result in optimum performance. The relationship between these two factors is influenced by activity type, level of expertise, and personality types. For example, introverted people are more likely to perform well under low arousal conditions.

Ronaldo takes a deep breath before taking crucial shots in soccer. He relaxes his mind and takes a deep breath to cool his nerves and to help deliver oxygen to his brain, so he can focus when making decisive decisions.

An Argentinean soccer player who also takes deep breaths when trying to focus before scoring a decisive goal or a freekick.

The Canadian Olympic champion in slopestyle skiing and other professional athletes have gone to Hawaii where they dive underwater for up to five minutes. This helps control breathing, which further helps control arousal/excitement tendencies in high-pressure situations.

Visualization is a training technique that is essentially mental imagery and rehearsal of images/movements related to a sport. When athletes visualize, they can create images while depending on auditory images (sounds), kinesthetic images (movements), tactile sensations (touch), and purely emotional stimulation, which can greatly elevate their performance. This training technique is designed to help the athlete visualize perfection when doing movements associated with the sport/ physical activity. By understanding the direct and powerful relationship between mental imagery and performance, the athlete can act instinctively as how they rehearsed in their head, and this instinctualization can create a pattern of repeated movements. Athletes can also use visualization to employ tactics in real-time game situations. For instance, soccer players can visualize how they will defend the ball that is coming their way. Their visualization will help give them confidence in terms of defending the ball appropriately and swiftly. Moreover, visualization can help when trying to recover from an injury. Thinking about what the athlete will do after healing, such as positive movement, will help improve the athlete's mindset while simultaneously aiding them in the recovery process. All in all, this versatile training technique can help the athlete focus, concentrate, and elevate their performance.

Individuals in practically all sports, at all levels of play, have extensively used the mental imagery exercise, and several cases have proved that it benefits the athletes. For example, one case involved a seventeen-year-old Caucasian female, a high school gymnast. Her problem was she kept experiencing high anxiety prior to her competitive meets. She would perform excellently in practice but never performed well during competition when it mattered the most. During the competition, her heart would race fast; she would sweat and tremble and completely lose focus. To reverse this issue, she had to gain control of her thoughts. So first, the patient had to specifically describe every detail in her warm-up routine from beginning to end. This even included saluting the judges right before starting her routine. The guided imagery therapy began by using the progressive muscle relaxation technique. Once her muscles were relaxed, she was then ordered to engage her visual, auditory, and tactile senses to picture a competitive meet. She then specifically gave a description out loud in detail as she imagined herself going through the movements for each routine while in her team colours and hearing the noise of 10 of the fans screaming. Every detail was vital because when she saluted the judges during competition, it was implied that gesture would cue her to feel focused and relaxed. This exercise was practiced several times during therapy sessions, and she was also instructed to practise at her house. After twelve weeks, she felt less stressed and more relaxed and focused. Her relaxation and focus were to the point where she was having more fun during the competition. With this happening, results were achieved, and her visualization helped elevate her performance in future competitions.

World-record holder Ledecky has said: "I have my goals and I visualize things to help me achieve those goals ... I know what my stroke should feel like at different parts of the race, and I can just kind of picture that in my mind." She too embraces and utilizes the training technique of visualization to ensure peak performance.

"One of the things that has been good for me I think, besides training, has been my sort of mental preparation," Phelps said of the technique. Phelps visualizes how we will perform his swim stroke during competitions and hence this repeated imagery and integration of movement to make it become an instinct

Shane Murphy, Doug Jowdy and Shirley Durtschi conducted a survey on imagery, asking Coaches at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO and found that 94% of them as well as 90% of the athletes used imagery in their sport. One hundred percent of the Coaches and 97% of the athletes surveyed agreed imagery DOES enhance performance. When the athletes were asked why they use imagery; 80% used it to prepare for competition; 48% used it for dealing with errors in technique; 44% for learning new skills and 40% used it for relaxation. Twenty percent of the athletes used it every day while 40% used it three to five days. So, as you can see, imagery is recognized as a powerful tool to aid performance at a high level.

Goal setting is a very powerful training technique that one can implement for success in any environment. Goal setting helps one stay on course to reach a goal while enhancing their motivation to set further goals. Goals direct attention to tasks at hand and highlight what needs to be completed. It allows you to implement strategies to develop specific elements of the business that need to be utilized to complete the goal. Also, goals mobilize your efforts. You will put your efforts into moving towards the goal as you are provided with the incentive of completing the goal. Goals prolong your persistence because you are rewarded with incentives as you achieve your goals. People who set goals stick at tasks for longer as they achieve smaller goals that combined form larger goals. Moreover, Goals foster the development of new learning strategies. In order to achieve the goals, you may need to develop new strategies to complete the task at hand. There are three types of goals that a team leader needs to be aware of.

This paper focused on the effectiveness of setting goals in sport and exercise environments. Locke's theory of goal setting has indicated that specific, difficult, challenging goals lead to higher levels of task performance than easy goals, no goals, or "do your best" goals, was presented. More recent research investigating the goal-performance relationship in sport and exercise settings has also found support for the effectiveness of goals. However, the findings are not as robust as those in the industrial literature. Basic goal setting principles were presented, including setting specific goals, setting realistic and challenging goals, setting both short and long-term goals, setting performance goals, writing goals down, providing support for goals, and providing for goal evaluation. A process for teams setting goals was outlined along with a seven-step process to set goals most effectively. It should be remembered that the effectiveness of any goal-setting program would largely rely on the interaction of the coach, exercise leader, or sport psychologist and the motivations of the specific participants. In essence, individual differences and environmental considerations should always be taken into account when setting goals.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, the fastest man ever recorded in history is also a believer in goals. “If you want to be the best, or you want to strive for more, you’ve got to set goals in life,” he told ITV News. “I try to set the highest standard that I can for myself, that’s what keeps me going.”

Shannon Miller said that focusing on short-range goals kept her motivated to reach her long-range dream of competing at the Olympics. “It’s great to have that ultimate goal,” she said, “but regardless of what that long-term goal is, you have to set those short-term goals. Think about what you can do each and every day to make that long-range goal happen.” Her goal setting helped her achieve her dream long-term goal, and even became a seven-time Olympic medalist.

Olympic Swimmer Gary Hall Sr. Writing down interim goals and posting them in a prominent place helped him get to the Olympics. “When I was 16 years old, training for my first Olympic games, my coach wrote all of my goal times down on the top of the kickboard I was using every day in practice,” Hall recalled in The Champion’s Mind by Jim Afremow. “I couldn’t escape them, but the result, after executing the plan, was that I made the Olympic team.”

Viswajit Kuttuva Sriganesh | PSK4UE | Ms. Everest