TRAINING PSYCHOLOGY
Introduction to Sports Psychology –Goal Setting
by Scott Gayton BHSc, Dip ExSc. ADF PTI
Unfortunately, many people do not appreciate the importance of the power of the mind when they train. It is a holistic approach- that is, we must consider the whole body when training and this includes the brain. Many people don’t know that they don’t know, inasmuch as they know that training the body does involve the mind but they do not appreciate the power and advantage of using the mind to enhance their training. This article is only an introduction into the psychological issues that are associated with sport and training.
Your body is a mass of muscles and nerves linked together into the central processing unit that is your brain. This series of articles on sports psychology seeks to show you how to use that central processing unit to its greatest effect in controlling your body to give optimum sporting and training performance.
Goal Setting
Goal setting is a hugely powerful technique that can yield strong returns in all areas of your life.
At its simplest level the process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life. By knowing what you want to achieve, you know what you have to concentrate on and improve, and what is merely a distraction. Goal setting gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind.
By setting goals you can:
Achieve more
Improve performance
Improve the quality of your training
Increase your motivation to achieve
Increases your pride and satisfaction in your performance
Improve your self-confidence
Research (Damon Burton, 1983) has shown that people who use goal-setting effectively:
suffer less from stress and anxiety
concentrate better
show more self-confidence
perform better
are happier with their performances
Goal Setting Helps Self-Confidence
By setting goals, and measuring their achievement, you are able to see what you have done and what you are capable of. The process of achieving goals and seeing their achievement gives you the confidence and self-belief that you need that you will be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals.
Providing that you have the self-discipline to carry it through, goal setting is also relatively easy. The following section on goal setting will give you effective guidelines to help you to use this technique effectively.
Deciding Your Goals
Your Commitment to the Sport
The first step in setting sporting goals is to decide your level of commitment to your sport. If you want nothing more than a bit of fun every now and again, then you should have different goals from someone who has decided to dedicate his or her life to achieving excellence in the sport.
This decision about commitment will allow you to assess whether you 'own' the goals towards which you are currently working - do you want to achieve at this level, or are you being pushed by your parents or coach into a daily grind which you are not enjoying?
Skills to be Mastered
Once you have decided your level of commitment to the sport, the next stage is to analyse either the sport, or the position you play in a team sport. Work out the skills that you will need to have mastered to attain the level you want to reach within the sport. Understand what lies behind the performances exhibited by people operating at that level in the sport.
Your Goals in Life
Before you actually set any sporting goals, it is worth considering what your life goals are, so that you can further assess your commitment to the sport in the context of your career, relationships, ongoing education, and other facets of your life.
Setting Goals Effectively
The way in which you set goal strongly affects their effectiveness.
Before you start to set goals, you should have set the background of goal setting by:
understanding your commitment to the sport
understanding the level you want to reach within the sport
knowing the skills that will have to be acquired and the levels of performance that will be needed
know where this will fit into your overall life goals
These were discussed in the previous section.
General Guidelines
The following broad guidelines apply to setting effective goals:
Positive Statement: express your goals positively: 'To execute this technique perfectly' is a much better goal than 'don't make this stupid mistake'
Be Precise: if you set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that achievement can be measured, then you know the exact goal to be achieved, and can take complete satisfaction from having completely achieved it.
Set Priorities: where you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
Write goals down to avoid confusion and give them more force.
Keep Operational Goals Small: Keep the goals you are working towards immediately (i.e. in this session) small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Today's goals should be derived from larger goals.
Important Points
A number of general principles should be noted about goal setting:
Set Performance, not Outcome Goals
This is very important. You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible - there is nothing as dispiriting as failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control such as poor judging, bad weather, injury, excellence in other athletes, or just plain bad luck. Goals based on outcomes are extremely vulnerable to things beyond your control.
If you base your goals on personal performance targets or skills to be acquired, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them. For example, you might achieve a personal best time, but still be disqualified as a result of a poor judging decision. If you set an outcome goal of being in the top three, then this will be a defeat. If you set a performance goal of achieving a particular time, then you will have achieved the goal and can draw satisfaction and self-confidence from its achievement.
Another flaw is where outcome goals are based on the rewards of winning, whether these are financial or are based on the recognition of being a winner. In early stages these will be highly motivating factors, however as they are achieved, the benefit of winning another prize or championship at the same level reduces. You will become progressively less motivated.
One difficulty you will face is that people who are ignorant of sports psychology, such as many poor coaches, parents, media, fans, etc. base their assessment of success on winning. This completely ignores the effect of raw luck on high quality performance. As with many things, stick with what you know is right rather than what uninformed people think.
Set Specific Goals
Set specific measurable goals. If you achieve all conditions of a measurable goal, then you can be confident and comfortable in its achievement. If you consistently fail to meet a measurable goal, then you can adjust it or analyse the reason for failure and take appropriate action to improve skills.
Set Realistic Goals
Goals may be set unrealistically high for the following reasons:
Other people: Other people (fans, parents, media) can set unrealistic goals for you, based on what they want. Often this will be done in ignorance of your goals and training programs.
Insufficient information: If you do not have a clear, realistic understanding of your sport and of the techniques and performance to be mastered, it is difficult to set effective and realistic goals.
Always expecting your best performance: Many people base their goals on their best performance, however long ago that was. This ignores the inevitable backsliding that can occur for good reasons, and ignores the factors that led to that best performance. It is better to set goals that raise your average performance and make it more consistent.
Lack of respect for self: If you do not respect your right to rest, relaxation and pleasure in life then you risk burnout.
Setting Goals Too Low
Alternatively goals can be set too low because of:
Fear of failure: If you are frightened of failure you will not take the risks needed for optimum performance. As you apply goal setting and see the achievement of goals, your self- confidence should increase, helping you to take bigger risks. Know that failure is a positive thing: it shows you areas where you can improve your skills and performance.
Taking it too easy: It is easy to take the reasons for not setting goals unrealistically high as an excuse to set them too low. If you're not prepared to stretch yourself and work hard, then you are extremely unlikely to achieve anything of any real worth.
Setting Goals at the Right Level
Setting goals at the correct level is a skill that is acquired by practice.
You should set goals so that they are slightly out of your immediate grasp, but not so far that there is no hope of achieving them: no-one will put serious effort into achieving a goal that they believe is unrealistic. However, remember that the belief that a goal is unrealistic may be incorrect. Such a belief can be changed by effective use of imagery.
Personal factors such as tiredness, injury, stage in the season, etc. should be taken into account when goals are set.
Now try setting some goals, and then measure them against the points above. Adjust them to meet the recommendations and then review them. You should now be able to see the importance of setting goals effectively.
Where Goal Setting Can Go Wrong
Goal setting can go wrong for a number of reasons:
Outcome goals can be set instead of performance goals: Where an athlete using outcome goals fails to achieve the goal for reasons outside his or her control, this can be very dispiriting and can lead to loss of enthusiasm and feelings of failure. Always set performance goals.
Goals can be set unrealistically high: When a goal is perceived to be unreachable, no effort will be made to achieve it. Set realistic goals.
Conversely goals can be set so low: that the athlete feels no challenge of benefit in achieving the goal. Setting goals has been a waste of time. Always set goals that are challenging.
Goals can be so vague that they are useless: it is difficult to know whether vague goals have been achieved. If achievement cannot be measured, then your self-confidence will not benefit from goal setting, nor can you observe progress towards a greater goal. Set precise, quantitative goals. Goal setting can be unsystematic, sporadic and disorganised. Here goals will be forgotten, achievement of goals will not be measured, and feedback will not occur into new goals. The major benefits of goal setting have been lost. Be organised and regular in the way that you use goal setting. Too many goals may be set, leading to a feeling of overload. Remember that you deserve time to relax and enjoy being human.
Where goal setting does go wrong, not only are the benefits of goal setting lost, but the whole process of goal setting can fall into disrepute.
By avoiding these problems, and setting goals effectively as described in the previous article, you can achieve and maintain strong forward momentum.
Finally, gaols are magnets, which pull you towards your dreams. Where are you being pulled at the moment? Remember the clearer you define them, the better you describe them, the more powerful they are and they also pull you through when the time are tough or when all seems too much. Many people do not set them because they are scared that they may fail and not reach them so they end up not doing anything.
Ensure that your goals are realistic, tangible and worthwhile. Remember not to sell out. I know some people that sold out in their training and opted to take the easy road, for example taking steroids. There are no shortcuts when it come to reaching your training gaols, it is the discipline which gets you there which come from fixing your mind on what you want. At the end of the day you must ask the question, “”what will I become if I achieve this gaol?” This will sort out if it is a worthy goal or not. Do not ask “ what am I getting?” Ask instead “What will I become?’’ This will soon let yourself truly know that the gaol that you have chosen will be worthwhile and will lead to your own personal development.