Goal setting for sport: 4 secrets to success

How to get better at sport

Goal setting can be a very effective exercise , or it can be a time wasting procedure. Here are 4 secrets that will help you achieve your goals.

Lots of the athletes I work with have done a goal setting for sport exercise with their various coaches in the summer. This can quickly become consigned to the dustbin of history once the first three matches of the season have been played.

“Plans are the beginning of action. But competitive advantage is gained only by effective execution.” Sun Tzu

Secret 1: Hold yourself accountable and put a review time for each goal you set into your diary.

Other recreational athletes stumble from one week to another hoping for things to change, but never taking time to plan how. Getting sucked into the “back to school” vortex usually impedes any progress on anything apart from survival.

“Quality does not just happen. People who believe so, are people who trust in miracles to make their way through life.  Quality excellence is an outcome of preparation and relentless practice. It is surely a given then, that there is time set aside routinely for this.” Frank Dick

Secret 2: Set time aside for 5 minutes each week to plan on how you are going to reach your goal.

Rather than wait until the New Year, I try and get our athletes to think about how to get better now. One unfortunate truth I share with athletes is that to get better at anything takes hard work.

“Mastery often involves working and working and showing little improvement, perhaps with a few moments of flow pulling you along, then making a little progress, and then working and working on that new, slightly higher plateau again.”  Daniel Pink: Drive

This can be daunting at first, but setting small achievable goals and working on them until they are finished is the way forward. There is something immensely satisfying about finishing a task, no matter how small.

“When a task is once begun,

Never leave it until it’s done.

If the labour’s great or small,

Do it well, or not at all.”

Archie Moore (light heavyweight champion of the world).

Secret 3: Small achievable goals are the foundation of bigger ones; start and finish small goals each week.

Unfortunately this thing called life has a habit of throwing unexpected obstacles in our path. Very few people live in an ivory tower of just being able to do their sport with no outside responsibilities.  The rest of us have to juggle work, studying, travel, family, and financial responsibilities.

“Something’s bound to happen to you in a tough fight, cut eye, broken nose, or broken hand or something like that. So you could make excuses out of anything, you know, but you got to keep on going if you’re a champ or a contender. This is what makes champs, I think the guys that keep fighting when they have things going against them.”

Jake LaMotta (Middleweight champion of the world)

Secret 4: Persevere, persevere, persevere. If you really want to get better, then you will have to learn how to keep going.

Read our 3 part series on how to make effective changes