When you finally reach these heights, the sense of accomplishment is unmatched. Without them, you might wander aimlessly, without any sense of purpose or direction. Every sports journey starts with a goal. For some, it may be to make the varsity team.

For others, it could be to earn a college scholarship. And for a select few, it may be to win a gold medal at the Olympics or to become a professional athlete.

Michael Jordan is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world because he had a goal to be the fastest and did whatever it took to make that happen. Lionel Messi is one of the greatest soccer players in history because he had a goal to be the best and has done everything necessary to achieve that goal.

The journey to becoming a great athlete is not an easy one. There are always obstacles to overcome and challenges to face. As Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt, and Lionel Messi have shown us, if you want something badly enough, you can make it happen.

What do you want to achieve? Let that be your driving force, and see where it takes you. Short-term goals help keep you focused and motivated daily, while long-term goals give you something to strive for in the future. The best method to set practical goals is to use the SMART system.

This stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. In other words, your goal should be something you can realistically accomplish, with a timeline attached. Personal goals motivate us to achieve our potential.

They push us to become better versions of ourselves and accomplish things we never thought possible. They can be anything from improving performance in a particular sport to staying healthy and injury-free.

These goals are intended to hold you accountable and remain motivated to surpass these objectives. A few other examples you could implement are increasing the number of shots per game or improving game IQ throughout a season.

But how will one become a better shooter or improve their knowledge about the game? Actively set steps such as shooting on your own three times a week or asking a coach or parent to record the games with a system like Trace to rewatch and assess your previous play.

Team goals are equally important. They unite individuals with their teammates and help them work together towards a common goal. Accomplishing team goals is a great way to build team morale and spirit. There are many examples a team could implement throughout a season or year-long period. More often than not, goals are created as stepping stones to achieve long-term goals.

All sorts of goals, in general, have been affiliated with athletics for years, but a new era has come about. In every aspect of our lives there are goals or quotas to meet. In school there are GPA requirements, at work there are performance numbers, in social life there are certain levels to achieve, never has there been more pressure on one to perform and meet these goals.

The same has been transmuted heavily into the world of athletics, fittingly fulfilling the prophecy of the definition, if you will.

Nowadays, there is much weight placed on how athletes prepare in the off-season, and how they arrive before the season starts. It has given birth to a cottage industry and new terms, something the founders of our respective sports would not have dreamed of.

There is now media coverage of how athletes "come in," "arrive," "show up," and "appear" at preseason training camps and evaluations. Chances are that the media will cover an athlete that comes in "looking heavy" or on the contrary, maybe a "new slimmer version" may be spotted.

Before, only the top Olympic athletes could receive top-notch training, usually provided by their countries.

However, training centers have appeared all over the globe, training athletes from 5-year-old golf prodigies, to university level athletes looking for the edge over their teams regular workouts. In this ultra competitive environment, it is vital to do everything to perform at optimal levels, and setting cogent goals is at the heart of top on-field performance.

I want to start of by explaining what goals are USELESS for an athlete to set. First off, I don't believe field goals are necessary at all, and they may even become a negative influence on athletes participating in team sports.

Athletes come in all shapes and sizes, but all of us love to compete. When it comes to on-field competition, if one needs goals which end up becoming trivial quotas to succeed, then the cause is lost already.

The truth is that the atmosphere of athletic competition is motivating enough as it is, and setting goals to meet in that venue is assuming that without them, the athlete will not perform up to his or her standards.

They can only become a distraction. Individual Quotas For Team Sports:. This is one of the biggest problems with sports today, the intense fascination with individual statistics in team sports. It hurts the team greatly to have a player who is constantly setting some sort of quota to meet, whether it is points, goals, yards, etc.

It can lead to disputes and even more likely poor decisions. It all stems from the fact that goals are most necessary to sustain motivation and the right mindset when it is easy to get off track, this situation rarely presents itself on the field of play, rendering goals useless and dangerous to set in that situation.

As far as off-season preparation goes, goal setting is imperative to the success of an athlete. There is a problem though, as an athlete the main goal is to become excellent at the target sport, sport specific skills are most important, however the physical aspect gets confusing.

A powerlifter simply wants to increase each of his lifts as much as possible while staying in the desired weight class, a bodybuilder wants to simply gain muscle without fat, and lose fat without losing muscle. Athletes have numerous things they can tweak to improve their performance.

This makes goal setting as an athlete hard! Developing a sound set of goals as an athlete is both an art and a science, comparable to predicting the weather. There are a lot of knowns and unknowns, a lot of hunches, a lot of patterns and a lot of prior experiences.

Achieving goals is a combination of motivation, work and a bit of luck. Most often a good plan is needed. Once the overall scope or blueprint is set, the tasks need to be subdivided. All the options for this are too vast to explain. They can be split up by the aforementioned goals involving the contradictory effects of calorie manipulation, or by simply dividing the total necessary progress into time periods and concentrating on achieving those goals in those desired lengths of time.

If the goals are either not achieved, or far surpassed, they should be calibrated to better fit the athlete. Other changes may need to be made based on certain other circumstances.

Living in the northwest USA, he knew that he could use the winter to bulk up. So during the time period of December through April, he decided to gain 25 pounds to get up to pounds, lift heavy and gain most of the strength he needed for his lifts, only leaving about 15 pounds to go on each lift, all while running sparsely but effectively to retain his speed.

As soon as the weather got warmer, he set out to lose a body fat and gain speed while only having a bit to go to reach his strength goals. He ended up coming in at pounds 10 percent body fat, running a 4. His senior year was a successful campaign. First we should start with the easiest goals to set.

These include aspects of performance that simply need to be performed to be sufficient, for example, doing core work, cleaning up diet, practicing a skill. It is hard to put a concrete condition on all of these, but luckily it is often as simple as performing this on a regular basis.

Doing ab work twice per week for the whole off-season is going to be more than plenty. The same goes for ridding one's diet of soda, or making a resolve to perform some aspect of one's sport once a week.

This is easy, conflicts with essentially nothing and will benefit nearly everyone, just remember to do it. Further, he realizes that this would knock him out of his weight class, in which he has a good shot at competing for the state championship in next season.

So he puts those longings on the backburner and sets goals more attainable for him while still staying within his weight limit. He ends up bench pressing a formidable pounds and winning the state title, earning a scholarship in the process.

Athletes need to know their situation with the general need for their development quest for more athleticism or power for example , whether this is determined by their position, weight class, event, etc, is up to them.

Once that is clearly known, the athlete can move on with more strict goals. Athletes need to realize what they need and what will happen if they strive for certain things. In general, these aspects go together:. Quantitative Goals:.

Next an athlete needs to set quantitative goals. These are usually the most powerful and pronounced goals on an athletes mind. They need to be set in a smart fashion, with reasonable expectations.

The basic goals should consist of core lifts: bench press, squat, deadlift, Olympic lifts, etc. In general, these should be evaluated based on certain principles to set achievable, yet challenging, goals.

As general rule, beginners will make more progress, as will those dedicated to making themselves stronger above all else. Those already advanced and lifting big weights, and those that are able to put strength on the backburner should set modest goals to avoid pressure to achieve goals that are too unreasonable and unnecessary.

If you are a shot putter, go ahead, go crazy with it, if you wan to run a marathon, I think your efforts can be better spent! In regard to goals outside the weight room, it is important to realize that basic tests are sufficient. For example, improving in the infamous yard dash is a guarantee that overall explosiveness and speed will improve as well.

In many cases this training is a means and not an end, which means that certain activities should simply gauge progress and don't have to be concretely related to the sport. Certain sports, especially those related to quantitative performance such as track or cross-country have already set tests that relate percent to the athlete.

Body composition should be the last thing on one's mind, but it should be considered, after all who wants to play against someone who looks like Ronnie Coleman?! Positive body composition change can improve performance and looks, after all there is more to life than athletic performance.

A grave mistake that many make in setting goals is setting them generally too high or too low, and a failure to adapt to changes. Like I mentioned before, goals should be set to be as accurate as possible, if they are not, problems can arise. Low Goals: The clear problem with goals that are too easy to achieve is that the positive effect of motivation from goals is lost.

If one achieves their 4-month goal after a month, they may be satisfied. What happens then? A potential waste of 3 months! An athlete should aim to increase squat the 1 rep max by pounds per off-season. Overambitious Goals: Saying you are going to run a sub second meter dash may be impressive, but the probability of that happening is close to 0.

Absurd goals will end up causing a loss of motivation as they end up being impossible, spinning the athlete into a depressed state. Goals that aren't sensitive to situations can also be too high by nature. Lots of things can come up.

Many of them will change situations, and goals should adapt too. This can be anything from a change in position, weight class, track event or even sport altogether! Unfortunate injuries can also hurt the progress necessary to achieve certain goals.

If the athlete does not adapt, their now useless goals can cloud their judgment and ruin their performance. Being a defensive lineman in the sport of American football, I am forced to set goals constantly. Some may say I am a bit obsessive compulsive with my goal setting, but I feel that I need strict goals to keep me on track.

I find it helpful to look at my idols for my position, this can give me more focus on my goals and help me decide what is important. I set goals for:. Weight, body fat percentage, bench press 1 rep max, bench press reps with pounds, pounds, and pounds, squat 1 rep max, power clean 1 rep max, substantial improvements in lifts such as Romanian deadlifts, curls, push-ups, glute hamstring raises, military press, incline press, etc.

All along with improvements in the yard dash, pro agility, vertical jump, etc. In general I strive to become "bigger, stronger and faster" which will improve my on-field performance, while also practicing true football skills, which is a bit challenging because of the nature of the sport.

Obviously there are goals, strength is one good example, that I always strive to improve. But it is just reality that certain situations will lead to better progress in certain areas. I have come to accept that.

For example, I want to bench and run a 4. The goals will serve their purpose either way. Good luck to all with goal setting!

When done properly it can take your performance to a whole new level, plus reaching goal is the BEST FEELING ON EARTH! In sports, there are two different types of athletes - those who set goals and carry them out and those who set goals and do nothing about them. Those who set goals and carry them out are the athletes who are the most successful in their respective sports while those who don't carry out their goals are those who are often underachievers.

Setting goals will tell you what you want to achieve and will help you narrow down your efforts to specific areas. You will also be able to get rid of distractions that would otherwise hamper your progress. First of all, an athlete should separate their goals into long term and short term goals.

Short term goals include: increase my bench press by 30 pounds in the next 6 weeks, jump 3 inches higher in the next 3 months, and other measurable goals achieved in a relatively short period of time.

Long-term goals might span an entire year and would encompass things like: dunk a basketball consistently by the end of the year, bench press pounds by the end of the year, and make the varsity basketball team. The most important goals for an athlete to set are sport-specific goals.

For example, a basketball player would not have to set a goal of running a yard dash in under 4. Instead, the football player could set a goal to gain 25 pounds of muscle in a year and the basketball player could set a goal to shoot 90 percent from the free-throw line by the end of the year.

In other words, do not spend time trying to reach a goal that you do not even need to achieve for success in your particular sport. Sometimes setting such goals can actually be detrimental to success in your given sport so make sure that all your goals are sport specific or strength oriented toward your sport.

Visualization is the process of "daydreaming" about what you want to achieve. It can be performed for approximately minutes each day, preferably about different qualities each time around. For example, thinking of yourself performing certain moves and succeeding is often quite effective.

However, what you visualize needs to be plausible, for example, visualizing a yard touchdown pass will not do you any good if you can't throw a football 50 yards. However, visualizing a dunk when you are close to doing it in reality helps a lot and may actually help you to dunk much sooner that if you just waited and trained until you were physically able to do it.

Visualizing something is very similar, in terms of neurological impulses, to actually doing it. Often, your brain will be "used to" performing the action because you have visualized it so much.

Here is a fantastic article about visualization. Hard work and determination are two qualities that all successful athletes have. These are attributes that can't be taught, but are ingrained qualities that help athletes overcome genetic shortcomings.

However, hard work can be learned to an extent. It usually takes an excellent coach or mentor to teach an athlete work habits. Sometimes, learning how to work hard can even start in the classroom and this eventually transfers to sports.

If you have a difficult time being motivated to work hard, just look around at the athletes around you and the pros playing your sport.

You will see that they all worked extremely hard to get to their current level and work even harder to maintain that level and get better over time. Kobe Bryant once said that no matter how good you are at basketball, you must work extremely hard in order to be successful.

Setting goals will not be effective at all if you are not able to actually workout or practice your sport. You can set all the goals in the world but if you don't do anything to achieve them, the entire process in pointless. You need to be consistent in your training and sport-specific practice in order to achieve your goals.

Making a workout log can go a long way into determining how much consistency you will have in your training. Being consistent will translate to success in your given sport because it is the one thing that separates the great players from the average ones. Other factors such as nutrition, rest, and time spent on training will all be important in determining whether an athlete will be successful in reaching their goals.

If you want to gain muscle, you must have a caloric surplus, that is, you must consume more calories than you expend. As a general rule of thumb, eating more calories than you expend will help you gain approximately 1 pound of bodyweight per week.

If those calories are mostly clean, i. not junk food, and you lift weights regularly and lead an active lifestyle, then almost all of that weight gain will be muscle.

Another key to building muscle is having a sufficient amount of carbohydrates for energy and for growth.

Complex carbs such as rice, pasta, whole wheat bread, muesli, granola and oatmeal should be ingested for maximum effect. The often forgotten variable to a balanced diet is healthy fat. Many people eat greasy foods such as hamburgers. However, they should concentrate on eating enough flax seed oil , fish oils and nuts such as almonds.

Additionally, fish oil supplements can be taken so you make sure you eat enough healthy fat. Building Muscle:. If you want to build muscle, a good investment would be a multivitamin to ensure that get all the nutrients and vitamins you need.

Many people would be surprised how well a multivitamin can assist muscle growth. Basically, if you hit a plateau, eat about calories of healthy foods more per day and you will be amazed and what it can do for recovery and growth.

Make sure you rest enough so you can recover for your next workout as well. Too many athletes can be seen lifting weights five times per week, doing some sort of high volume plyometrics program and in addition playing their sport every day of the week.

Realistically, no body can handle such strain. Athletes would be better off working out times per week with a well-planned plyometrics program if necessary, and playing their sport times per week for about an hour working on fundamentals. This way, the body will be able to recover and therefore gain muscle much faster and goals will be reached all the time.

Constant motivation certainly doesn't hurt as well. An athlete would know what kind of goals to set based on their own analysis of what they are physically able to do. For example, someone who bench presses pounds shouldn't make a goal to bench press pounds in 2 months because that is impossible - no matter what kind of genes they have.

Goals should be set that are somewhat difficult to reach but are not impossible, i. goals that need hard work and determination to reach but are not completely out of the realm of possibility. For example, an athlete could break down their goals into different categories such as 5-year goals, 1-year goals, 6-month goals and 1-month goals.

Then the athlete would be able to assess themselves monthly, biannually, annually and once every five years. These goals could be changed at any time in order to adapt to unforeseen changes or amazing progress. A daily workout log would go a long way to help you to know what kind of goals to set.

I usually set goals at the beginning of a training mesocycle and then reevaluate the goals every months to ensure that I am making constant progress. I usually set a few sport specific goals for basketball such as vertical jump and a few goals for progress in the three major lifts: Bench Press, Squat, and Deadlift.

That way, I can monitor my progress in a basketball-specific manner and in one that deals only with strength. I break the goals up into two categories - sport specific and strength.

I have an entire chart that deals with goals in: Bench Press, Full Squat, Deadlift, and Power Clean maxes and Vertical Jump, Yard Dash, and Bodyweight.

This enables me to maintain a high level of performance throughout a training year and improve performance consistently because I know how much I need to gain per week in order to reach the long-term goals.

I have approximately five checkpoints throughout the year to ensure that I am making constant progress and that my gains are not diminishing. Athletic training, of the week, getting bigger, stronger, faster, library of info, pro training secrets, football, baseball, migual cabrara. Training How Should An Athlete Set Goals For Their Sport?

Goals must be set according to the individual's age, stage of development, confidence, ability and motivation. Beginners require short-term, easily achieved goals to boost their self-confidence, whereas individual professional needs more challenging yet realistic goals.

Goal Setting Goal setting is a mental training technique that can increase an individual's commitment to achieving a personal goal. Goal setting is a technique pioneered by Locke [1] , and effects performance in four ways: focuses attention mobilises effort in proportion to the demands of the task enhances persistence encourages the individual to develop strategies for achieving their goals Outcome Goals Outcome goals are to do with winning or performing better than someone else.

Process Goals Process goals, over which the individual has complete control, deal with the technique or strategy necessary to perform well. Examples of process goals are: maintain controlled rhythm in the long jump run up run at a 5-minute mile pace engage legs before arms when throwing the discus use a pre-event routine before each high jump Process goals help focus attention and are very effective in helping to control anxiety.

Performance Goals Performance goals specify a specific standard to be achieved. SMARTER Outcome Goals, Process Goals and Performance Goals all need to be SMARTER: S pecific - make them as precise and detailed as possible M easurable - a method by which you can quantify or rate your current position and then determine the amount of improvement required A ccepted - goals need to be shared and negotiated with all others involved R ealistic - the goal is real yet challenging T ime-phased - the date is set for when the goal is to be achieved by E xciting - goal motivates the individual R ecorded - the goal and progress towards it are recorded GROW Model As a coach or mentor, you may help others solve problems, make better decisions, learn new skills or otherwise progress in their role or career.

This means asking questions that raise awareness and promote self-reflection and thinking. O for option - encourage them to generate as many options as possible without judging them.

This is the time to help them think outside the box to find more creative solutions. Yet goals also need to be grounded in reality.

Goals should keep you motivated. They should challenge you to step up to that next level of performance. The most motivating goals challenge you without defeating you. Specific goals, rather than vague ones, will provide precision to your training program. Devising goals that are specific goes hand in hand with devising goals that are measurable.

If you want to qualify for the Boston Marathon, for example, that can be measured—namely, you can compare your race times to qualifying times. Measurable goals often involve time targets, e. As much as possible, set goals that you have control over. Observable goals are those that can be measured and are specific.

Thus, identifying what comprises a general goal can help develop specific criteria that are observable and measurable, especially if the terms of a specific date or number of trials.

Clearly identify the time constraints — Asking players to improve their shooting percentage will be ineffective unless you have a specified date or event to work towards. Is this goal to be accomplished by the end of practice?

The end of the week? By playoffs? Well stated goals should be timely. Use moderately difficult goals — Moderate goals are better than easy or very difficult goals because it pushes athletes to work hard and extend themselves in order to meet the goals.

They are also more satisfying when attained. Write goals down and regularly monitor progress — Goals are ineffective if forgotten. Write them down being as specific as possible. Keeping a journal or a publicly posted goal monitoring chart can help athletes and coaches with the monitoring process.

Use short-range goals to achieve long range plans - As shown in the above diagram, goal setting is much like climbing a mountain. The long range goal of reaching your main goal requires strategic short-term goals setting.

Set practice as well as competition goals — It is important for the team and the coach to recognize the critical importance of effective practices to prepare for competition.

Practice goals should match competition performance goals as often as possible. Goals related to work ethic and attitude during practice are essential. Showing up on time ready to practice, entering warm-up with enthusiasm and paying attention to the coach and team captain are examples.

Additionally, complementing one another on good effort can promote team cohesion and a supportive environment that is fun to be involved with. Practice goals should also involve using mental skills such as imagery which can help with skill learning, strategies, presentation and working through competitive anxiety.

Make sure goals are internalized by the athlete — It is important that athletes feel in control self-determined of their goals.

Ensuring that athletes accept and internalize goals is one of the most important features of goal setting. If athletes set their own goals, they will most likely internalize them. Whether or not a player is ego oriented compares their performance to that of others or task oriented compares her performance to herself could determine the extent to which they will be able to internalize goals.

When athletes define success as beating others, they have little control over the outcome.