---

The purpose of present study was investigation of the effect of attention direction variation by instructional self-talk on performance and learning of Basketball free throw. Therefore, 33 novice female students (mean of the age=22 yr.) who had intermediate trait anxiety were selected randomly. The participants were assigned to 3 matched groups according to pretest. The self-talk with internal and external focus groups repeated the words “wrist” and “center of ring”, respectively, before each free throw during 6 sessions (2 blocks of 10 trials in each session). Control group performed the free throws without self-talk. Retention test was performed 48 hours after the acquisition phase and transfer test was done after that with spectators. In each test, throw accuracy was measured by a 5-point scale. Results of mix 2-factor and one-way ANOVA did not indicate significant differences between acquisition, retention, and transfer groups (p>.05), but the within subjects effect of external focus of attention on transfer was significant (p<.05). Therefore, it seems use of self-talk and its attentional focus variation is not necessary for novice Basketball players.

---

Self-talk as “an internal dialogue, through which the individual interprets feelings and perceptions, regulates and changes evaluations and convictions, and gives him/her instructions and reinforcement”. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of two types of instructional and motivational self-talk on the pattern of coordination and accuracy of basketball free throw to specify the effect of each types of the self-talks on of basketball free throw skill necessities (patterns of coordination and accuracy). Using available sampling method, 20 male basketball players with the mean age of 23.5±5.5 were selected who had at least 5 years of practice in basketball and were playing in one of the credible leagues of the country. In this study the basketball free throw skill was evaluated through two sessions with the time interval of 24 hours in two phases with and without self-talk (instructional and motivational). The data of the motion pattern and the accuracy of basketball free
throw were recorded in both phases of the test, and the kinematic data was used to compute the throw hand elbow-wrist No-RMS in order to investigate the coordination pattern. In statistical analysis, the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics
(mean, standard deviation, tables and figures) and inferential statistics (the analysis of variance with repeated measure and dependent t test). The results of throw accuracy showed that solely the use of instructional self-talk leaded to a significant
enhancement of the basketball free throw accuracy (t(9): 4.388, p: 0/002). Moreover, there was a significant difference between the effect of instructional self-talk and motivational self-talk in favor of instructional self-talk (2: 0.444, F(1,18): 14.364, p:0.001). Exploring the results of coordination pattern revealed that instructional selftalk leads to a significant (t(9): .048, p(1,18): 2.288) decline in elbow-wrist No-RMS and consequently an improvement in elbow-wrist interalimb coordination in performing the basketball free throws. The results indicated that the usage of instructional selftalk are benefical in improving the skills that require motiom coordination and accuracy of performance and it is superior to the use af motivational self-talk in this regard.

---

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of motivational covert and overt self-talk on basketball free throw skill learning in adults. 60 students of Gorgan Islamic Azad University based on pretest scores randomly assigned in three equal groups (n₁=n₂=n₃₌20). Participants in motivational covert and overt self-talk conducted basketball shooting skill acquisition in 12 sessions (each session 30 throws) with repeating “I Can” slow and loud respectively before of each throw. The transfer and retention tests were held respectively 24 and 48 hours after the last session of acquisition. Repeated measures and one-way ANOVA were run to analyze the data and LSD post hoc test was used to compare groups. Significance level for all statistical tests was set at p<0.05. Results revealed that the effect of practice sessions (p≤0.05), group (p≤0.05) and practice sessions × group (F_(10.12,57)=5.84,p≤0.05) was significant (p<0.05). Results showed that motivational covert and overt self-talk in acquisition, transfer and retention tests was better than control group. But comparison between covert and overt self-talk was not significant (p>0.05). The results of this study indicate that motivational overt and covert self-talk is useful for learning relatively complex tasks.

---

Observing a model let learners to make a plan of action that can be used for learning motor skills. Moreover, self-talk is a conversation that performers use it either apparently or secretly in order to think about their performance and reinforce it. Therefore, the purpose   of this study was to investigate the effect of observational learning, self-talk and combination of both on boy’s performance. The statistical samples of the present study included 60 students (12.25±1.24) with forth and fifth grade that were selected as available subjects.  After volleyball AAHPERD pre-test, subjects divided into 6 groups: Instructional self-talk (STI), motivational self-talk (STM), observational learning (OB), combination of Instructional self-talk and learning observation (STI-OB), combination of motivational self-talk and observational learning (STM-OB) and control group (CO) and during one day, they were participated in specific intervention that planed for each group. On the first day of intervention, subjects participated in acquisition phase and acquisition test was taken, after 48 hours' retention and transfer test was Held. In each phase of study self-efficacy was examined. The results of two-way ANOVA revealed that there was a significant difference among all training groups with control group (p≤0.05). These results support the use of cognitive factors, self-talk and observational learning and the combination of observational learning and Instructional self-talk as learning facilitator.