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In many countries outside the US, athletes use calming words to ready themselves before a match or game. They tell themselves phrases like "let's go!" and remind themselves to be present. One of India's highest ranked tennis players silences his inner dialogue so that he is ready to go when the moment comes. Many American athletes, however, get 'pumped up' by calling each other 'sissy' and criticizing themselves so they have more drive to do better. Some sports teams put value in their lives outside the sport by encouraging their team mates that they should "do it for their family's sake." Overall, there is not one pep talk that works best for different sports, different positions, or different players.

This article talks about Pelota mixteca, a sport, and how it has been keeping Oaxacan, a native mexican language, alive. The article talks about the stigma and resistance Mexicans and Mexican-Americans face when speaking non-English languages or their local languages.

Two graduate economics students from Washington State University used Twitter to analyze how sports pundits' reputation was affected by their confidence and accuracy at predicting the outcomes to sporting events. They analysed tweets in which professional pundits and fans made predictions about the winners of a series of high-profile baseball and American Football matches. Each tweet was given a "confidence" rating depending on its language, with words like "destroy" and "annihilate" scoring higher than "beat", for example. Both the pundits and fans' predictions were worse than chance, with the professional analysts only proving correct 47 per cent of the time and amateurs 45 per cent of the time. Yet pundits' confidence was measured as 50 per cent higher than amateurs, and they gained more followers on the networking website as a result, the researchers said. Presenting their findings at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Economics and Finance earlier this year, the researchers explained that being confident could increase a pundit's following by 17 per cent, while predicting every game correctly only raised it by 3.4 per cent.There was a similar pattern among amateurs, with brash people increasing their following by 20 per cent but correct guesses only raising it by 7.3 per cent. In general, pundits are better served by being brash and making people excited, they claimed.

Study finds that positive self talk phrases improve performance, while positive self talk sentences and negative forms of self talk do not improve performance

Article touching upon the usage of sports metaphors in our culture

Who plays baseball/softball in Words R Us?

Positive words from coaches and parents to their kids play a crucial role in the development of the child. Youth sports is about the development of the players. Most coaches often forget this and only focus on the win. This can result in yelling at the players and overall very negative language use. However, being "relentlessly positive" can improve the attitude and play of an athlete.

For you athletes out there, an article on sports psychology and how self-talk, either technical or motivational, can enhance performance.

"Sporting metaphors always overrun the language of politics in the English-speaking world at election time - and perhaps most of all in the US. We have now reached the point in the race for the White House when it helps to keep a glossary of American sporting terms ever close at hand."

This article, courtesy the US Tennis Association, summarizes mental skills that coaches should foster, in order to help athletes control their minds efficiently and consistently as they execute sport-related goals. This not only involves developing skills such as concentration and stress control, but it also includes efforts to influence personal characteristics such as self-esteem and sportsmanship.

Pelota mixteca has been played for hundreds of years by indigenous people throughout the Americas. But it's more than a competitive event.

This sport is a weekly ritual and is a network for an immigrant community. It also serves a pastime for people and allows them to speak their own indigenous languages. Players who speak indigenous languages such as Zapotec and Mixtec travel to these games where there are even under-the-radar international tournaments.

Self-talk has a critical impact on an athlete's performance.

Negative external or internal psychological factors can lead to mental blocks, causing breaks in focus and preparation, poor performance and, at times, injuries to athletes. . If not dealt with, these factors may not only affect the athlete but the team as a whole. To combat these powerful effects, coaches and athletes can focus their efforts on tactics such as goal setting, routines, visualization and confidence. While the article does not specifically target language, readers could extrapolate how effective self-talk might incorporate some of these key tactics.

One of the simplest concepts of sports psychology is developing positive self talk. It's also one of the hardest sports psychology skills to master. Research supports the theory that an athlete who continually practices positive self talk will improve his or her sports performance. Succumbing to negative mental self talk is a sure way to reduce performance and sports success. Over time and with repetition an athlete can develop a new habit of thinking positive statements and thoughts and expect a more positive outcome. It's this connection between the words and the belief that is the ultimate goal of this technique. Another important factor of positive self talk is that it must be possible and believable.