The Effect of Instructional and Motivational overt Self-Talk on Basketball Free Throw Skill Learning

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of instructional and motivational overt self-talk on basketball free throw skill learning. A total of 60 volunteers based on pre-test scores were matched into three groups. Participants in motivational and instructional overt self-talk groups conducted basketball throwing skill acquisition in 12 sessions (30 repeat) while overtly saying “I Can” and “Wrest-Center” respectively before of each throw. The retention and transfer test was held 48 and 72 hours after the last session of the acquisition. Repeated measures and one-way ANOVA were carried out to analyze data. Results showed that the effect of training sessions, group and group ×training sessions were significant. Results revealed that motivational overt self-talk in acquisition, retention and transfer tests was better than other groups. The results of this study suggest that in relatively complex tasks like basketball throwing skill, motivational self-talk would be better choice than other types of self-talk.