Goal Setting in Sport
“I’m a firm believer in goal setting. Step by step. I can’t see any other way of accomplishing anything.”
Michael Jordan
If you want to be a successful person (athlete, artist, businessman or a leader), you will need to set goals to drive and direct your efforts in pursuit of being the best you. Athletes embark on a journey to make their dreams into reality by taking measures like setting goals.
Goal setting is one of the main sport psychology techniques for enhancing performance and would be beneficial to set them or adapt any pre-existing ones, if you want to create success, whatever success looks like for you.
When an athlete talks about a lack of motivation, you can be sure that is often caused by goals that don’t inspire them. Goals serve to keep you on target.
Goal setting is vitally important for maintaining and enhancing motivation as well as focusing attention. It can direct both short and long-term goals and you will be able to see progress through your short-term goals which will increase confidence throughout this process.
There are three types of goals that you need to be mindful of:
The outcome goal is the final result. Outcome goals don’t necessarily have to be a personal best, a result or a ranking, although they can be. There are other goals that are going to inspire the athlete more and are more intrinsic, for example, goals for the environment (play in a different place), development goals (to master a skill) and satisfaction-based goals (as a way to help others). When this is discovered and written down, then the performance and process goals can be established.
Next, we take a look at performance goals which provide the pillars so the performer can track and monitor their progress for their long-term goal. Normally, they are something tangible such as times, skills, distances that they would like to reach and will be a combination of short and medium sized goals. Here, it is important the goals are specific and can be measured so the athlete can be held accountable and not come up with any excuses.
Process goals are the activities, behaviours, plans and strategies that the athlete will need to have if they want to compete at every performance for attaining their goals. They need to be controllable for the athlete, alongside support and hard work, that can added into their training sessions and preparation. This should allow for progression and momentum and can be metaphorically or literally ticked off.
When setting goals, make sure they are SMARTER (Specific, measurable, accountable, recorded, time, enjoyable/evaluate, and are realistic).
You may think that goal setting seems quite obvious and easy, but people set quite generic goals, for example improve my backhand in tennis or my first touch in football, yet this is doesn’t offer any directives or determine how to go about improving these skills. A smart goal is measurable and one that you can quantify which will help you gain a greater understanding of how close you are to reaching this goal.
Instead of setting a goal of “I must have a good first serve in tennis” or “I must get 100% of my first serves in,” which is firstly non-specific and secondly unrealistic, you could write down that: “I would like to improve my first serve in tennis by doing additional practice, after training sessions e.g. 20 minutes of additional practice, 3 times a week for four weeks. I would like to get 80% of my first serves landing in the service box at full pace.”
This is a made-up example and could be achievable for some tennis players and not for others. It offers the process, it is specific, measurable and has a time element to it.
One important tip is to write them down and put them in a place where you will see it and not forget. A goal that is not written down is just a dream. Furthermore, tell someone about your goal or make it publicly known so that you can held accountable for your actions and offers a source of motivation.
If you are struggling with attaining your goals then perhaps they aren’t realistic or maybe you can seek support (coaches, friends, family or teammates) to help you stay on track. Remember that the goals have to be exciting and something you really want to accomplish, and feel is worth your time investing in it.
Another top tip is to make sure you set positive goals instead of negative goals. A positive goal could be to increase the number of serves you get to land in the service box as opposed to a negative one which would be something along the lines of to reduce the number of serves you get landing outside of the service box. This will focus the behaviour that you would want to have instead of those behaviours which would inhibit performance. This would help the focus to be on success and not failure.
It is important the athletes internalise, accept and feel like they are in control of their goals (self-determined). This is one of the most important aspects of goal setting. If the athletes create and implement these goals, they are more likely to stick with them. When a coach sets the goals for the athletes, it isn’t necessarily taken very seriously.