Self Talk - Sport Psychology - Fine Motor vs Gross Motor

[Doug]

http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2012/09/ Ep 181

"Let’s talk sports psychology. When you participate in a sport do you talk to yourself? Do you try to “psych yourself up”, or do you give yourself instructions on how to hold a part of your body or how much energy to exert or when to hold back? This is the kind of self-talk that psychologists study and it’s interesting to learn when you say these things to yourself and when they’ll be most effective.

Read more: http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2012/09/#ixzz2QSRdiz4s"

Just listened to this. Found very interesting.

Instructional Self Talk for Fine Motor

Motivational Self Talk for Gross Motor/Endurance

When working on marksmanship, repeating front sight, smooth press has helped me.

When I am in a class, say in a competition drill, I do the Lightning McQueen stuff

This podcast seems to explain why.

Thoughts and comments?

-Doug

[will_1400]

It depends. If it's something I've studied for years (like martial arts) I keep my thoughts to a minimum. If it's something I'm relatively unskilled at (pistolcraft [in comparison with most here; plus I don't think 'good enough is good enough'], hockey, etc), then I tend to have more deliberate thoughts.

[Lomshek]

I agree with Will. If I need to "remind" myself how to do an activity by talking to myself about it it's because I'm learning that activity. With more experience comes unconscious competence where one can just do.

On a side note the whole gross vs. fine motor thing drives me nuts. As an experienced bike racer who's done 70 mile criteriums in two hours with my heart rate between 175 and 190 the entire time I never had a problem using just the right amount of brake, fine tuning a turn angle to avoid an object or flicking the shifter (downtube years ago or STI lever now). I've done the same thing in mountain biking and have the state title to prove it. You can't get much more fine motor control than riding a front brake down a steep rocky descent with the rear wheel up in the air.

Just like the talking thing I've only experienced issues with what can be termed "fine motor control" when I'm learning a new activity. I'd imagine it's the same for everyone.

[jetfire]

I self-talk before I shoot. When I'm actually pressing the trigger, I don't want to think about what I'm doing any more than I absolutely have to.

Conscious thought is the enemy of fluid action.