Goal Setting

Setting goals can increase your motivation, provide you with a sense of challenge and help you determine what you can and can't control — leading to greater confidence. Combine long-term and short-term goals related to your personal best or the actions you must take to meet your objectives. Keep the goals realistic and manageable.

For example, if you'd like to complete a marathon, start with a series of shorter races. If you'd like to shave one stroke off your golf game every week, commit to more time on the putting green or driving range. If you tend to get angry or upset on the playing field, maybe your goal is to simply let go and have fun.

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Break it Down

What Are Goals?

Goals are plans for the future. They are your direction for the year. They state what your group wishes to accomplish. Goals should be evaluated and changed from year to year.

Why Set Goals?

To give direction and provide a course of action for the group.
To motivate members
To clarify and communicate what your group is striving for
To define the group
To provide a basis to measure success and accomplishments
To save time by allowing the group to plan and prepare for the future
To make every member feel important by giving them something to do
To give each member a chance to state his or her expectations for the group.

Steps For Setting Goals

Brainstorm as a group:

Evaluate past group successes and failures.

Address new things the group wants to accomplish

List those goals you want to focus on for the coming year.

Break each goal into the steps necessary to reach it.

Move Into Action and begin working on goals--decide:

What is to be done?
How will it be accomplished?
What resources are available?
Who will do it?
When should it be finished?
What results are expected and how will they be measured?

Setting goals with the athlete will raise their feelings of value, give them joint ownership of the goals and therefore become more committed to achieving them. All goals should be SMARTER.

S - goals must be Specific
M - training targets should be Measurable
A - goals should be Adjustable
R - goals must be Realistic
T - training targets should be Time based
E - goals should be challenging and Exciting
R - goals should be Recorded

Continually Evaluate your progress.

Be Flexible--allow your goals to change to meet new circumstances.

Follow Through--many groups that fail to reach their goals do so because they didn't make your goals visible! The more often people are reminded of their goals, the more likely it is that they will work toward achieving them!

Post them in a conspicuous place. Give a copy to every member. Discuss the goals at every meeting-put them on the agenda. Put the goals in newsletters and materials you distribute. Make a creative bulletin board: *make the bulletin board into a football field and put each goal on a paper football that moves closer to the goal line each time you accomplish a step.

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Mission and Vision

Your mission statement should be your team's reason for being or why you are involved in your sport in the first place. Your vision statement is a descriptive paragraph about what the future looks like as you start to accomplish your mission.

Coaches, don't just right up a mission and vision statement and hand it to your players. It should be a joint activity. A collaborative process of creating it will increase buy-in and meaning. It should be something that the entire team creates together.

Here are some examples from my football team.

Mission: To win the 2010 State Championship while also:

Develop growth of our athletes mentally and physically.
Foster the ideals of perserverance, commitment, selflessness, hard work, and fun.
Build confidence, self-esteem, and a feeling of contribution within each player
Give every player a feeling of importance and unifed purpose.
Encourage open and honest communication between staff and players and among players.
Keep the environment positive and productive.
Highlight and develop the importance of the mental game of football
Develop leaders
Develop a sustainable winning program
Develop the overall coordination and affinity of league representatives and teams
Teach life-long lessons
Focus not only on the end goal, but the journey\
Be gracious to our competitors, fellow players, coaching staff, and referees.

Vision

Our vision is to earn the respect for the Victoria football program as the best football program in the country....that our success in 2010 is just the start of a winning legacy that will be dominant in the next decade...that players learn lifelong lessons that will be useful on and off the playing field...that both coaches and players learn and see the benefits from positive, productive coaching strategies...that players learn mental fitness lessons...that all feel the pride and awe of being a part of a team and goal that is bigger than they are...that this experience brings all the Victorian clubs closer together for a stronger league.

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Football Example

Here are just a few examples from a football team.

Finish in the league’s Top 10 in scoring offense
Lead the division in rushing yards
Team Rushes for more than 1,600 yards
Complete 60% or greater passes
Convert greater than 30% of 3^rd downs
>20% conversion on 3^rd & 7+ yds
>45% conversion on 3^rd & 2 – 6 yds
>80% conversion on 3^rd & 1 yds
Less than 4 offensive turnovers for the tournament

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Goal Setting

Break it Down

Mission and Vision

Football Example

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