Year 10 HPE: Goal Setting

• Why is Goal Setting importing for athletics?

Goals are defined as your ambition, the thing you strive for with effort.

1. Goals – having a set of goals gives you a clear idea of what you want to achieve. Break goals into smaller and more achievable sub-goals and keep them realistic.
2. Imagery – visualize yourself in your mind’s eye performing at your peak. Incorporate all of your senses for better clarity in your visualizations.
3. Feelings – Developing mental skills goes beyond your brain. Incorporate your emotions. Visualize! Feel the adrenaline rushing through your body, the triumph, and put yourself into the in-the-zone feeling of peak performance.
4. Thoughts – Say positive affirmations to yourself and keep them in the present moment. Avoid negative self-talk that may cast doubts on your ability.
5. Support – support your mental training with physical actions that take you closer to your goals. Mental training supplements your physical exercise, but it is not a replacement.

• Mental skills training in sport

• Mental skills for achieving top performance

  For goal setting to work, the athlete must set goals properly. The following are 10 principles for goal setting accumulated from years of practical experience and scientific study:
  
  Set goals for mental as well as physical skills
  Set goals that are specific and measurable
  Set a target date for completion
  Set goals that are difficult but realistic
  Set short-term, intermediate and long-term goals
  Set goals for practice as well as for matches
  Set goals that are positive (like “improving first-serve percentage”) as opposed to negative (like “allowing fewer aces”)
  Remain flexible enough to adjust goals as needed
  Write the goals down on paper
  Emphasize performance goals over outcome goals (such as winning)

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  The importance of goal setting

  Use SMART

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  Principle of effective goal setting

  See the example above:

When you have a mastery goal, you are focusing on improving your own skills, learning new things, and developing in your sport. You are more likely to enjoy your sport and want to participate. You will feel happy, proud of your efforts, and satisfied with your performance. These feelings make you to want to keep going.

However, when you have a performance goal, you may be worried about the competition because you do not know if you will be the best or win at your sport. As the group of people that you compare yourself with often changes (because better players join your team, you move up in age group, or other players simply improve faster than you), you can never be sure that you will be among the best. Consequently, you will be less likely to satisfy your goals and more likely to drop out.

This is where goal setting can help!

• Motivation

• Motivation or goal setting

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• What is the best motivation for athletics

• What Motivates Young Athletes to Play Sport?