Les effets de dialogue interne sur le processus de décision chez les jeunes joueurs élites de hockey sur glace
Self-talk (S-T) is a mental skill which is used more and more by elite athletes but there is a lack of research on its effect in team sports. Its impact deserves to be evaluated as much during team contexts and real competitions as it does in individual sports because self-talk can affect a team sport athlete's ability to perform mental skills such as good tactical decision-making and focusing on the proper stimuli. Therefore, with the participation of 10 elite hockey players varying from 16 to 20 years old, this study examines the effect of two distinct self-talk treatments, a motivational one and an instructional one. The analysis, evaluating the efficiency of the subjects' ability to accomplish collective tactics (effect on decision process) during the regular season games, has shown that all athletes showed some improvement in their performances. Generally, the group associated with the instructional self-talk treatment has proven to be considerably more effective in decision-making than the motivational group. However, the athletes from the motivational self-talk group generated better results than expected. It seems also that, in the short term, the instructional self-talk treatment was more difficult to assimilate than the motivational one but its positive impact appears to have lasted longer. Furthermore, the more experienced players did not display a better progression in their decision process compared to the less experienced ones. Also, motivational self-talk appears to have produced better effects than the instructional one when used during periods of fatigue and stress.
Motivation Instruction Hockey Internal dialogue Self-talk Collective tactics Decision process