Goal Setting for Athletes
by Bobbie Williams
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals" - Sydney Smith
Establishing goals for training and racing is an important component in the planning of your competitive season. As Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you get there"?Most people with goals tend to outperform those who do not have goals. Successful athletes KNOW what they want to accomplish and where they are going. They have a clear set of goals and have developed a plan focused on achieving them. Having a goal is motivational. When you set a goal you are encouraged to take the actions necessary to move to a higher level. The goals you set will guide your behavior and thus affect your performance. Goals help you measure your achievement by setting training and competitive objectives. The famous heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee said, "It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret". A goal that you set for yourself will motivate you more than a goal set for you by someone else. The more important a goal is to you and the more you believe you can actually achieve it, the greater your commitment will be. You must have a clear reason for setting your goals; otherwise, like New Year's resolutions your zest for pursuing them will wane with each passing day. You should have an emotional investment in your goal. Make sure it is something you really want not just something that sounds good or that someone else is doing. A goal should be realistic and doable. You know in your heart if your goal is within your capabilities. A wish or a dream is not a goal. I wish I could ride a bike like Natasha Badman, run as fast as Lori Bowden, and swim like Dara Torres. But realistically those are dreams and wishes and are not likely to happen. A goal that is too lofty may cause an athlete to give up, believing that she is not going to make it anyway. Your goal should, however, challenge you but not be beyond your ability. When setting your goals, challenging and difficult goals are better than easy ones. Difficult goals encourage you to put forth your best effort and will give you the most satisfaction. Conversely, if your goals are too easy you tend to not take them seriously. Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "Have you built your castles in the air? Good. That is where they should be. Now, go to work and build foundations under them." Reach for the moon! Karen Smyers, the women's champion of the 1995 Hawaiian Ironman says. "Good performances don't come out of the blue. I have to work hard for each one." As in creating positive affirmations (The Power of Self-Talk), goals should be stated in the specific and be concrete. Athletes who state general goals such as, "I'll just do the best I can", or "I want to break X number of hours in the Ironman" don't do as well as athletes that state their goals in more precise terms. If a goal does not define exactly what the athlete is supposed to do, the athlete won't know when the goal has been reached. If you want to maintain a certain pace in your runs or you want to average a certain time in your 100 yard swim repeats, your goal should state exactly the time you want to maintain and the exact day you want to do it. For example the stated goal "I intend to run the 10K in the Lone Star Triathlon in March, 2008 in 65 minutes or better", is explicit and states a deadline. That way you can measure your progress and know when you have achieved your goal. Athletes should set long, medium and short-term goals. Long-term goals are usually more difficult and take a longer time to achieve. However they will seem more attainable if you set short-term goals along the way to your target. Long-term goals are frequently too far off to affect an athlete's day-to-day motivation, whereas several short-term goals help in accomplishing the longer objective by making the athlete feel she is making progress. If your long-term goal is to compete in an Ironman distance triathlon then some examples of short-term goals might be participating in a few half-Ironman races to prepare your body and mind for the rigors of the distance and perhaps learning how to master the sighting skills necessary in open-water swims. You won't be committed to a goal if you can't see it leading you to where you want to go. Feedback shows you if you are making progress toward your goal. Keep a journal to record your progress. To be effective as a motivator, goals need to be reviewed frequently. Read and review your goals every morning and every night. The more difficult the goal the more beneficial the feedback. Don't be afraid to revise your plan if necessary. Setting goals for athletic success is very important. Your goals should be challenging but doable, stated in the positive, and be specific. Be sure to establish short term goals to keep you motivated towards your long range target. Keeping a journal of your progress will give you important feedback. But goal setting without the necessary hard training in swimming, cycling and running is according to Paula Newby-Fraser, like "willing your car to run without putting in the gas". Setting goals gives an athlete form and purpose. Goals are necessary in order to achieve success in sport and all areas of life. Now let's get started and enter a race! Bobbie Williams is a multi-time Ironman Hawaii World Championship Finisher and Life Time Endurance Coach.
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