Integrating self-talk within the map model in experienced soccer players: an exploratory study

In soccer, 70-80 % of the penalty kicks taken are scored. Because the expectation for penalty kicks is to score, the kicker can experience high stress and overthink their movements as they run to the ball, leading to suboptimal performances (Ellis & Ward, 2022). On the other hand, if the kicker pays optimal attention, they are more likely to handle anxiety, distractions, and experience optimal performance (Whitman, 2016). A performance-enhancing model that has helped understand this relationship between attention and performance is the Multi-Action-Plan (MAP) model (Bortoli et al., 2012). The MAP model differentiates four performance types, separating optimal vs suboptimal performance, and low vs high attention control (Bortoli et al., 2012), but the relationship between self-talk and those performance types has not been investigated. To address this gap, 16 experienced soccer players attended two different days, taking 30 penalty kicks against a goalkeeper on each visit. On day 1, participants identified their core component of the action. On day 2, participants reported their self-talk aloud before each penalty kick. Results show that instructional self-talk appeared the most across performance types of the MAP model, which was followed by task-irrelevant, motivational, negative, and other, task-relevant self-talks. Combinations of self-talks were considered, and instructional-motivational self-talk was the most reported combination. This study is the first to report MAP model performance percentages across participants and to link instructional self-talk with the action’s core component. Future research should explore whether this combination produces greater performance gains when using the MAP model.