What Jack Draper's Latest Win Teaches Us About Self-Talk

While battling Carlos Alcaraz at the famous Indian Wells Tennis Championship, the British tennis player Jack Draper reportedly gave himself a crucial pep talk during a toilet break.

In the press conference after the match, Draper claimed his eventual victory was largely down to this pivotal moment, explaining how "talking to himself," inspired him to eventual victory. The self-talk followed a second-set disaster where Draper lost six games in a row to the Spaniard, despite beating him in the first set.

Draper revealed that he motivated himself with an energetic talk in the bathroom before taking to the court for the decisive third set, which he seemed to play in a transformed manner. At the post-match press conference, he said, "Yeah, obviously after that set went away, I went to the toilet and just, yeah, kind of looked at myself in the mirror and was like: 'You need to really, you need to really get my stuff together.'"

Given how transformational the serious "talking to" Draper gave himself appeared to be, are there any valuable lessons for the rest of us, wrestling with the stresses of everyday life, or trying to achieve better performance?

The Power of Self-Talk

Modern sports psychology—perhaps even more than other domains of psychology, including therapy—emphasises the benefits of positive self-talk. This is because high-performance athletes often need to "get a grip" rapidly. Since they're in the middle of a dramatic live competition, they typically want to reverse deteriorating performance immediately.

Self-instructional training is one of the technical terms for self-talk, first used in the 1960s with impulsive children trying to learn self-control. Today, "self-talk" is generally defined as verbalizations people make to themselves, either overtly or covertly.

There are two basic kinds of self-talk. One type—instructional—helps athletes direct their performance toward a desired specific outcome, like hitting the ball with more power. A tennis player, for example, might say aloud to themselves, "Follow through more on the backhand" or "Aim to hit the ball deeper." The other main type of self-talk, motivational, is aimed at thinking more effectively about performance.

Instructional self-talk emphasizes the technical aspects of performance (e.g., accuracy, timing, step-by-step reminders). Motivational self-talk is intended to control emotions and increase mental toughness, focus, and confidence.

How Effective Are Different Kinds of Self-Talk?

Perhaps engaging in positive self-talk works simply because it reduces negative self-talk. The effort to verbalise positive affirmations helps to quiet negative thinking, which may have been interfering with performance.

Research supports this. One study, for example, assessed how dart-throwing abilities relate to self-talk. Participants in the positive self-talk condition were instructed to say “You can do it” before each throw, while those in the negative self-talk condition were asked to say “You cannot do it.” Participants in the positive self-talk condition performed significantly better than those engaging in negative self-talk. Another study found winners of tennis matches used significantly less negative self-talk than losers.

Another study, focusing this time on water polo players, tested whether instructional or motivational self-talk was better. Participants in the motivational condition were asked to repeat “I can” before each subsequent throw, whereas those in the instructional condition repeated “elbow hand.”

Those in the motivational condition demonstrated improved distance and power with their throws. Instructional self-talk, on the other hand, had a greater effect on improving precision.

Should Self-Talk Happen Out Loud?

Self-talk can originate from the athlete themselves, or be statements designed by a coach, and assigned to the competitor to say in a match. We still don’t know whether self-statements assigned to an athlete, or vocalisations freely chosen, are better.

We also don't yet have a clear answer from the research literature on whether it makes a difference to vocalise out loud or speak to yourself internally.

In one study, overt self-talk and tennis match performance were recorded during two tournament matches. Fifty-four percent of players used overt positive self-talk at least once, whereas 21 percent used overt positive self-talk 13 or more times during matches. Ninety-six percent of players exhibited overt negative self-talk at least once and 88 percent more than 13 times during matches.

Self-Talk Essential Reads

Is Your Inner Critic Controlling You? How to Heal From Within

7 Reasons to Talk to Yourself Out Loud

It's possible that in high-stakes situations where loss appears possible, there is a tendency for athletes who care about victory to become negative about themselves and their prospects. It may be, then, that positive self-talk is simply helpful because it combats that propensity.

There is some evidence from the performance literature that verbalisations that are spoken aloud have a social impact because we are aware that others can hear us, which then leads us to take what we said more seriously.

Perhaps verabalising negative self-statements, which is common during tennis matches, serves the positive function of venting frustration. It may also signal to spectators that the player is fully aware they have dropped below the standard they expect of themselves.

However, it also illustrates an important psychological principle: We are often, mysteriously, spectators to our own behaviour. It often feels like we can’t actually control our performance, despite our best efforts—just like onlookers can’t will their favourite player to victory, despite their best efforts.

Audiences, however, usually try to lift their teams with applause and loud vocal support. If this has a psychologically positive effect, is it possible that we benefit from self-talk simply because we have got into the habit of linking external support with reassurance and calming, and therefore perform a bit better?

While studies find that winners of tennis matches used significantly less negative self-talk than losers, however, some athletes who used negative self-talk won matches. For these athletes, negative self-talk could have served motivational functions. Specifically, “That’s terrible!" may be a way of saying, "You're a good player and can do better!"

Do Different Self-Talk Approaches Work for Different People?

One of the most titanic battles in the history of tennis came between two players characterised by almost opposite approaches to self-talk. Björn Borg was so quiet and calm on court that his nickname became "Ice Borg" or "Ice Man," while his main adversary of the time, John McEnroe, was famous for loud fulminating explosions, to the extent that he was nicknamed "Superbrat."

Maybe the answer, then, is to work out which approach works best for you. John McEnroe has gone on to a successful career in sports commentating for the media, clearly requiring overt expressiveness, while Björn Borg has remained relatively, characteristically, quiet.

Meanwhile, Jack Draper went to the privacy of the toilet to have a quiet word with himself. Perhaps what is most revealing about this incident is how surprised he appeared to be that self-talk made such a difference. If anything, this might reveal a hitherto lack of serious sports psychology input in his team's approach.

But ultimately, maybe it was time away from the court that was the secret, as it allowed him some calm time to refocus. Maybe we all, from time to time, need to find the opportunity to speak seriously to ourselves; that may be just as important as precisely what we say.