Hamed Fahimi; Hassan Gharayagh zandi; Fazlallah Bagherzadeh; Ali Moghadamzadeh; Davood Homanian SharifAbadi
Abstract
.Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of strategic self-talk on volleyball players' performance and visual attention.Methods: This quasi-experimental research employed a pre-test/post-test design with a control group. Participants included 54 novice male volleyball ...
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.Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of strategic self-talk on volleyball players' performance and visual attention.Methods: This quasi-experimental research employed a pre-test/post-test design with a control group. Participants included 54 novice male volleyball players selected via convenience sampling. They were randomly assigned into five groups: instructional self-talk (n=10), motivational self-talk (n=11), instructional-motivational self-talk (n=10), motivational-instructional self-talk (n=11), and control (n=12). The self-talk intervention was conducted over 12 weeks, with three sessions per week. In both the pre-test and post-test phases, serving scores were recorded by the researcher, and participants' gaze behavior was measured using an eye tracker while performing a simple volleyball serve task. Data were analyzed using the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Bonferroni post-hoc tests.Results: The findings revealed that strategic self-talk had a significant effect on simple serve performance (P=0.0001) and quiet eye duration (P=0.0001). Bonferroni post-hoc tests indicated that instructional self-talk improved motor performance and increased quiet eye duration. Combined self-talk groups (instructional-motivational and motivational-instructional) also exhibited enhanced motor performance and prolonged quiet eye duration. However, motivational self-talk alone had no significant effect on motor performance and quiet eye duration.Conclusion: The results underscore the importance of instructional self-talk in enhancing performance and visual attention in novice volleyball players, supporting the attentional mechanisms underlying self-talk.
