Research Article
Workshop of Self-talk Intervention for Beginners of Badminton Coaches
Department of Sport Education, Faculty of Sport, Education and Health, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia
Self-talk just like imagery, relaxation and goal setting is categorised as one of the mental skills packages considered to enhance performance1,2. Because of its influence on performance, coaches and athletes have often promoted it (i.e., the mental skill of self-talk) as one of the performance enhancement2 soft skills in sports psychology or sports science and of course in badminton. This is so, because of the existing relationship between self-talk (ST), personal factors, contextual factors and performance of individual athletes3.
There are four main components which should be developed simultaneously in the practice process of badminton, namely physical, technical, tactical and psychological skills4. Those four components are believed and proved to covariate each other at improving the learning process of sports skills and sports performance. Lidor et al.5 noted that a combination of those four components in the practice process becomes a main factor in determining success and quality of practice5. In addition, it also positively contributes to the athlete’s performance.
In Indonesia, one of the mentioned four components which are not optimally developed and frequently ignored is the psychological skill component, especially the implementation of PST. Despite the common belief that PST is one of the most effective strategies in the improvement of sports performance and development of psychological skills, some coaches still choose not to implement it6. However, some of them have tried to apply PST but have not managed to do it well7. Some of the causes are the assumption that PST must be carried out by professional consultants or sports psychologists8 and because coaches lack knowledge and confidence9. Furthermore, it has been noted that PST is carried out if coaches face a severe condition or special problems7.
This matter also takes place in the implementation of ST as an integral part of a PST program. Although in some analysis ST has been proved to be effective in improving movement performance in some sports10, the psychological aspect11-14 and there is a relationship between ST, personal factors, contextual factors and performance3, meanwhile analysis on beginner athletes is still very limited10,11 and inconsistent15. Thus, coaches need assistance and should be given adequate skills and knowledge to implement ST in the daily practice process. The success of PST implementation depends much on coaches, because coaches are the key element functioning as managers of training. Consequently, the need for developing a PST program (including ST) for coaches calls for the need for coaches to have knowledge, skills and positive attitudes to implement PST (ST) integrally with daily training programs. By doing so, PST (ST) can be developed for coaches and athletes with consideration for characteristics of each branch of sports. De Freitas et al.6 explained that “In fact, the different psychological skills, variables and techniques do not exert the same influence in achieving success across different sports”. Furthermore, PST intervention programs developed for coaches are still limited16, especially for badminton youth coaches. In fact, the success of PST implementation for athletes depends on the coaches’ mastery on PST itself. In conclusion, there must be something to do for this important and urgent matter before preparation and designing a PST implementation program. One of the solutions is to prepare coaches with knowledge and skills about PST (ST) by conducting a workshop. The workshop mainly aims at preparing the coaches with skills to organize practice and acts as a role model.
The ST workshop focuses on basic badminton coaches who train beginner athletes in schools or clubs in west Java. The main consideration in the workshop is the central role of coaches during the practice process. Another consideration is the mastery of badminton basic skills for beginner student-athletes aged 10-12 years old in the social cognitive perspective17 starting from the observation process, emulation, self-control and self-regulation18. Meanwhile, the determination of ST application estimation on student-athletes aged 10-12 is based on cognitive development tasks in Piaget theory19 which stated that children aged 10-12 are involved in a transition process between the concrete operational cognitive stage (age 7 up to 11) and the formal operational stage (age 11 up to adult). Concrete operational character includes performing operations logically with concrete materials, classifying and in serial order. For instance the ability to do transitivity. Transitivity is the ability to infer a relation between two objects based on knowledge of their relationship with a third object. Formal operational character includes solving abstract and hypothetical problems and thinking combinatorially. In short, beginner-athletes are capable of recognizing and understanding information, thinking systematically and interpreting instructions given by coaches to make conclusions.
As previously explained, theoretically, the workshop is based on social cognitive theory17 which places coaches in a very strategic social role; not only as a role model but also giving social help to develop association between the used ST and the success to do movement. At the same time, coaches are expected to give social feedback during the learning process, from observation, emulation, self-control and self-regulation stages. Some studies found a relation between coaches’ behaviours and statements with ST athletes20,21. Furthermore, in another study, it is reported that coaches’ behaviours and statements can affect athletes’ mind patterns and the influence is different for every ST dimension22.
Therefore, it is necessary for coaches to have a comprehensive and thorough understanding related to the applicative concept of using ST in badminton basic skills (BBS) training for beginner student-athletes aged 10-12, dealing with types of ST, its function and when to apply it in the training process.
Based on the previous explanation, the ST workshop is based on the facts that the training process of badminton beginner athletes in school or club level is more concentrated at improving physical, technical and tactical skills, while the improvement of psychological skills is still neglected, including ST technique. Thus, this workshop is intended to produce applicative documents related to the function of ST in the badminton practice process for beginner student-athletes aged 10-12.
The hypothetical outcome is in the form of documents on the concept of ST applicative techniques in the badminton practice process for beginner student-athletes. To realize this product, this ST workshop refers to the learning process stages based on experience developed by Boyett and Boyett23 which consists of experience formation, reflection, concept formation and concept testing stage23. This applicative document has two strategic values, first, related to the completeness of the analysis until each ST sub-function is developed bottom-up and methodologically it becomes a tutorial document for basic badminton coaches at pedagogical level. These two strategic values also mark the novelty of this study while differentiating it from other studies.
Participants: The workshop participants are 16 basic badminton coaches aged 21 up to 32 (M = 24.8; SD = 2.79) coming from 8 badminton schools and clubs in 10 regencies in west Java. Participants were obtained by purposive sampling technique24, with the following criteria: (1) Basic badminton coaches in west Java, (2)Graduates of Faculty of Sports Education and Health (FPOK) Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) students in FPOK UPI semester 8, 9 or 10 who will or are in the middle of taking badminton specialization and/or sports psychology, (3)Having status as coaches at schools or clubs in west Java, (4)Possessing coaching certificate minimum in local or branch level.
Measures
Workshop materials. The workshop materials were validated first before being used. The validation process aimed at determining the validity level by panel expert judgement (PEJ) to be suitable with validity criteria for learning materials arranged by Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (BSNP), for content validity, face validity and linguistic validity25,26. The analysis showed the whole material validity by 83 and 82% for content validity, 86% for face validity and 79% for linguistic validity. Another validity analysis result came from the workshop participant response, the result showed between 74 and 93%, each by 85% for the whole validity, 87% for content validity, 84% for face validity and 87% for linguistic validity.
Workshop process: The workshop process was measured by the percentage of participants’ involvement during the workshop on those aspects: responsibility, independence, honesty, work performance, innovation and creativity, communication and cooperation27. Based on Aiken’s V formula analysis, it showed the index of content validity coefficient (ICVC) between 0.65-0.90, ICVC for the whole involvement by 0.79, responsibility (0.90), independence (0.85), honesty (0.80), work performance (0.65), innovation and creativity (0.75), communication (0.85) and cooperation (0.70).
Procedure: Each workshop participant took part in the workshop for 2 days to review and formulate the ST technique applicative concept on children beginner student-athletes. The workshop procedure used experiential learning approach, which was methodically done in four process stages namely experience formation, reflection, concept formation and concept testing23. The first two stages emphasized on cognitive process to understand, analyze, evaluate and create workshop materials. Each participant was involved in personal activities to learn workshop materials carefully according to their groups. In the next step, participants go through inherent process to recall previous activities and write the involvement experience during the experience formation for then arising this issue to be an intern discussion topic among group members. Concept formation was a stage where participants give meaning on participants’ involvement in two phases. The first phase was a discussion process among group members till they had a consensus to form a new concept to be a discussion topic in the class level. The second phase is hypothetical concept determination through dialogic-multilogic process among all group members and facilitators to make a hypothetical-applicative concept which will be implemented in the training process. On this phase, each group representative in a panel presented the result of their discussion to be reviewed together by all group members and facilitators to formulate intervention hypothetical-applicative concept which can be used by coaches in the training or learning process. During the workshop, every participant’s involvement was maintained through an observation format and at the end of each workshop session, participants must complete reflection task units on provided participants’ worksheets.
The main workshop product was in the form of a draft of an applicative concept for ST technique function in badminton practice process for beginner student-athletes aged 10-12. Meanwhile the documents related to characteristics of children aged 10-12, the bases and philosophical need of children’s participation in sports activities and badminton basic skill analysis were supporting outcomes related to ST implementation attempts in the practice process. Each workshop session, just like what had been explained before was carried out through four stages. They were experienced formation, reflection, concept formation and concept testing. While the involvement level of each participant was obtained from observation phase by facilitators toward workshop participants with seven aspects of evaluation during the workshop. Figure 1 presented an example of the workshop process for the applicative concept of implementing ST.
Data in Table 1 showed an analysis of results on participants’ involvement observation in the workshop process, starting from training activity (TA) 1 up to 4.
The Table 2 and 3 presented the outcomes of the applicative concept of ST use obtained from the workshop process through the four stages in the form of cue ST-instructional and motivational, its function and its use in the practice process.
Table 1: | Analysis results for participants’ involvement observation in the workshop process |
TA1-4: Training activity 1-4 |
Fig. 1: | Workshop process for an applicative concept of ST use in the practice |
Table 2: | Workshop product on applicative concept of instructional-ST use |
BBS: Badminton basic skills, ST: Self-talk |
Table 3: | Workshop product on applicative concept of motivational-ST Use |
BS: Basic skill, ST: Self-talk |
In line with the workshop product, the ST-instructional showed seven cues of ST for high service-BS (ready, back-maximum, front swing, hitting, strong whip’s end, cross swing, ready again) and 11 cues of ST for clear lob-BS (ready, see the shuttlecock, cross steps, behind the shuttlecock, open-shoulders, front-ears, hitting, high-straight, whip’s end, cross swing, ready again). Meanwhile for product of motivational-ST cues fits with its sub function category, namely mastery, arousal and drive motivational sub function28. Sub function of motivational mastery-ST obtains three cues (focus, yes, I can). Sub function of motivational arousal-ST gets four cues (ready, readier, calm, inhaling deep breath). Sub function of drive motivational-ST gets eight cues (good, stay motivated, try again, stronger, harder, strong-high-back, show, do your best). All cues product is hypothetical cue which can be functionally used for research need and corporated into practice process. Before incorporation was done, each coach should understand and determined applicative concept in each use of ST cue, related to questions of what, where, when and why those ST cue should be implemented in movement skills learning as recommended28.
The question ‘what’ deals with the ST content was used, it consisted of ST characteristics (negative or positive), structure (single or plural), personal (first or second person) and movement task (specific or general). The question ‘where’ and ‘when’ relate to circumstance (practice or competition) and ST time allocation (before, during, or after practice or competition) and question ‘why’ is dealing with reasons bases in using each ST cue in motor learning and BBS performance (instructional and motivational function). For instance, the cue of instructional-ST “high-straight” (Table 2) in clear lob-BS, from the ST content aspect is considered belonging to positive-ST, plural-ST and specific movement task ST cue because it focuses on specific movement of arms to be perpendicular close to ears and the impact of racket with shuttlecock should be in the highest point. Viewed from circumstance aspect, it applies practice circumstance and in terms of time aspect, it implements at the time when impact the racket with the shuttlecock. Meanwhile from function aspect, it obtains accuracy from the impact between racket and shuttlecock. Another example, the cue of motivational-ST “I can”, viewed from content aspect, it belongs to positive, plural, first person and general ST cue. Viewed from circumstance aspect, it can be used for increasing self-confidence. The same applicative concept development is implemented for another ST cue, both cue of instructional-ST and ST-motivational. Applicative concept of the use of those cues should be taught first before the
student-athletes use them in learning or training process. By determining the concept in using each ST cue as it is presented on Table 2 and 3, every ST cue has clear applicative concept to be able to be used in training process. Some empirical evidences support the previous ST cue outcomes, because some cues were proved to be applied in previous studies and were proved to be effective to facilitate movement learning development, sports performance and psychological skills, like ST cue ready and hitting29,30, I can31,32,13, ball33, relax34, target28, behind35, focus32, you can do it36, etc.
The next step after developing and incorporating the applicative concept in the use of ST into practice or learning process is introducing ST to student-athletes35 dealing with practical application and concept of its use, like the definition, types and its function, how and benefits of using it, including relates it to learning or practice purposes so that student-athletes understand what goals they should reach using the ST. Dealing with this, the subject’s level who will use ST needs to be considered, whether ST intervention will be applied through assigned ST approach37 or vice versa self-determined ST36,38. Whatever approach which will be used and in whatever level the subject is, the coach must play a strategic role to teach those ST cues especially for beginner student-athletes and they need time and practice to learn how to apply ST effectively. It is because practice is the strongest moderator variable which influences ST effectivity34,39, especially on the beginning step of learning new movement13. This workshop outcomes are strengthened by analysis result on participants’ involvement observation during the workshop by 90% in four workshop activities (M = 31.46, SD = 1.47).
Based on the findings both from the literature reviewed and from the field, it was concluded that self-talk is part of the mental skills considered to enhance performance which was recommended by both coaches and athletes because of its ability to enhance individual capacity to perform. It is said to have a strong relationship with personal factors and contextual factors, which greatly impact on the overall individual functioning in a sport.
This study seeks to set a foundation for self-talk as both a bottom-up and methodology in tutorial documents for basic badminton coaches at a pedagogical level. This perspective was based on a main workshop product which in the form of a draft of an applicative concept for self-talk technique function in badminton practice process for beginner student-athletes aged 10-12.
Meanwhile the documents related to characteristics of children aged 10-12, the bases and philosophical need of children’s participation in sports activities and badminton basic skill analysis are supporting outcomes related to ST implementation attempts in the practice process. Each workshop session, just like what has been explained before, is carried out through four stages.
They are experience formation, reflection, concept formation and concept testing. While the involvement level of each participant is obtained from observation phase by facilitators toward workshop participants with seven aspects of evaluation during the workshop.
The product of this workshop will be very useful to practical needs in field. Coaches must teach their student-athletes how to use self-talk as a strategy of improving learning, sports performance and psychological skills. The recommended process steps in using self-talk in the practice process are identifying motor skill aspects which will be learned; developing the self-talk applicative concept; introducing self-talk to student-athletes; during the intervention process, teachers or coaches can give social feedback and social assistance for training process improvement; to ensure the integrity and consistency of the use of self-talk, monitoring should be done both personally and socially.