Ep. 11 - Dr. Judy Van Raalte and Self-Talk in Tennis

Dr. Judy Van Raalte is a Professor of Psychology at Springfield College, a Certified Consultant (CMPC) for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and is listed in the United States Olympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry. She has presented at conferences in 18 countries and published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, the NCAA, and the International Tennis Federation. She served as president of the American Psychological Association's Society of Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology and as vice president of the International Society of Sport Psychology.

Highlights from the interview:

4:17 - Judy discusses her introduction to the sport of tennis and her interest in the mental side of sports

7:27 - Negative self-talk in tennis and why the sport causes tennis players to outwardly show frustrations and publicly insult themselves

9:43 - Judy's introduction to self-talk in an academic sport psychology setting

14:15 - How tennis players and athletes learn self-talk

20:06 - System 1 and System 2 self-talk

29:31 - The connection between self-talk and staying mindful in the present moment

33:57 - Instructional and motivational self-talk

38:05 - Pairing self-talk with sport psychology interventions such as imagery and mindfulness

44:12 - The connection between sport psychology research and how it is applied in practice

49:57 - Suggestions for tennis players on how to improve their self-talk

To learn more about Josh and Brian's backgrounds and Sport Psychology businesses, go to TiebreakerPsych.com and PerformanceXtra.com. If you have feedback about the show or questions on the mental game in tennis, email us at TennisIQPodcast@gmail.com or use the hashtag #tennisIQ on Twitter. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or your podcast platform of choice (Spotify, Apple, Google, etc.) to stay up to date on future episodes!