The Relationship between Positive and Negative Self-Talk with Competitive Anxiety and Percentage of Correct Services during a Volleyball Match

Self-talk is a cognitive behavioral technique to improve task performance. The purpose of the present research was to study the relationship between positive and negative self-talk and competitive anxiety, and the percentage of correct services during a volleyball match. The present study was descriptive cross-correlational. The primary population consisted of all volleyball teams that participated in Ramazan cup. A total of 43 persons were randomly selected as sample group. To collect data, Hardy self-talk and Cox competitive anxiety Questionnaire and for assessing the percentage of correct services in the match, video recording and observation were used. The results demonstrated that there is a relationship between the percentage of positive and negative self-talk and correct services during competition but this relationship is not significant. Also, no significant relationship was found between positive self-talk and anxiety percentage during competition, but there was a significant relationship between negative self-talk and anxiety during the competition. According to the results of the study, there is a relationship between self-talk and servicing performance and also reduction of competitive anxiety, so positive self-talk can be used as a cognitive strategy along with the physical exercises.