More on goal-setting: strive during training and competition.

Goal-setting research in sport began in the mid-1980s, and a goal is defined as ‘what an individual is trying to achieve; it is the object or aim of an action’ (Locke et al., Citation1981).

Setting goals is critical to your success as athletes but it is a more complex process than just determining an aim. So, let’s review what goal setting really is and how it can help you.

Three types of goals: outcome, performance and process.

1/ Outcome goals usually refer to winning or losing, straightforward.

2/ Performance goals refer to your actual performance in relation to your own standard of excellence. For example, you decide to increase your running distance from 5 to 7.5miles.

3/ Process goals are concerned with how an athlete perform a particular skill, display a certain technique or carries out a specific strategy. For instance, for a boxer it could mean learning how to “sit on punches thrown to the body”, or “incorporate a defensive move after each attack”.

Those three types of goals are effective, but research shows that athletes who use performance and process goals rather than outcome goals have less anxiety, greater level of self-confidence and satisfaction, enhance concentration and overall improve their performance.

How to set up goals?

Here are a few established guidelines.

Goals should be realistic and challenging. But when goals are too difficult, individual gets discouraged, lose motivation and give up. Conversely, if goals are too easy, athletes can lose their interest, become complacent and train below maximum effort.

A rule of thumb is to set up goal no more than 5% above your current performance. And tailor those goals to yourself and your abilities.

Short-term and long-term goals are both crucial and indivisible.

Long term goals are very important because they provide athletes with a sense of direction and can even act as an aspiring dream goal. Then, LT goals can be broken down in several steps, thus making the aspiration look within your reach.

Short term goals are important as well because it helps you focus on a series of concrete, manageable steps.

Don’t forget “ink it, don’t think it”: write down your goals and place them where they can be seen so it’s a reminder of what your aspirations are, and the progress you make toward reaching them.

Now, setting goals is not enough. You also must think about a strategy to achieve them.

Surprisingly, this step is oftentimes neglected. For instance, if you want to move to a heavier weight class, you can’t just concentrate on lifting more weight. You’ll also need to adapt your diet. The new nutrition plan becomes part of your strategy.

Strategy is everything you need to do to reach your goal; think comprehensively, be curious and creative!

Although Long-term term competition goals are important, it is your daily practice which encompass much more time commitment than competition.

Therefore, practice goals are essential to keep up with consistency and motivation – here, process and performance are to be privileged. For example, practice goals could be concentrated on achieving a specific skill or displaying leadership traits during camp.

Process goals in practice should help you make the skills you want to gain, second nature.

And for competition goals, remember your aim isn’t simply to win, but to develop the skills and attitude needed to win.

Goals are only a starting point, objectives should be re-evaluated regularly and adjusted depending on your progress or difficulties reaching them. Too often athletes set up ambitious goals but do not reassess them, or, worse, quickly forget about them.

So, we recommend you identify achievement strategies and barriers to attainment. Those barriers can internal (impostor syndrome) or external (lack of time for practice). Regularly revisit your goals, in a non-judgmental way, and course-correct if needed.

Although there isn’t a standard framework when it comes to goal settings, this acronym used as a mnemonic device is a good place to start: S.M.A.R.T. first proposed by George T. Doran in 1981:

·       Specific: Targeting a particular area for improvement.

·       Measurable: Quantifying, or at least suggesting, an indicator of progress.

·       Assignable: Defining responsibility clearly.

·       Realistic: Outlining attainable results with available resources.

·       Time-related: Including a timeline for expected results.

If you want to discover more goal setting techniques, please read our previous post “Unlocking the Power of Eight Effective Goal Setting Techniques”.

Goal setting is a complex effort as fighters’ motives, individual preferences, and coach influences, may impact the effectiveness of frameworks such as SMART. So, do not underestimate the importance of identifying personality factors such as for instance perfectionism or fear of failure / success, susceptible to challenge how you relate to your objectives.

Remember it is important for athletes to determine their goals and clarify why they decided to strive toward it. A one-size-fits-all process is not necessarily desirable nor practical in the context of goal setting.

Finally, positively focused goals seem to have a better impact that negative such as “I do not want to fail the next competition”, which can trigger negative self-talk and could be detrimental to your performance.

Write them down, keep on going, one step at the time!