Abstract
Athletes need good and excellent attention for optimal performance in their competitions, and many athletes have turned to self-talk training programs or self-talk as a way to strengthen their traditional training program. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the effect of self-talk based on focusing attention on the mental imagery and physical self-image of male football players in Kirkuk. The subjects of the current study were 24 football players from Kirkuk, aged between 16 and 18 years, who were selected according to the criteria for entering the research and full knowledge of the work implementation steps, and were randomly placed into 2 groups of 12 people, self-talk training and control. . Before starting the training protocol, an integrated test of visual and auditory performance was held to check the types of attention (selective, divided and continuous) as well as the score obtained from the shot performance as a pre-test for all participants. The group did educational self-talk exercises for 20 minutes in each session. The control group did their normal daily activities. At the end, a post-test was conducted for all groups. To determine the difference between the pre-test and the post-test of each of the experimental and control groups, the dependent t statistical method was used, and the independent t test was used to compare between groups using the latest version of SPSS software. After analyzing the measured factors, the results showed that self-talk exercises based on focussing attention compared to the control group caused a significant improvement in mental imagery and body self-image in football players in Kirkuk. Therefore, it can be concluded that coaches use this tactic to improve the performance and attention of athletes.