As we continue our series on goal setting, it’s important for us to address SMART goals. With any goal that you set whether short term or long term, making sure your goals fit the SMART criteria is key. It helps to provide direction to your goals and gives you a clear path towards achieving them. In this blog, we will be going over what each aspect of SMART goals might look like in sports.
Specific:
Specific goals are clearly defined. Knowing exactly what you are trying to achieve is what’s going to help you find success in your goals. The more specific your goals are, the better you will be at working towards them. In sports, you can’t make your goal of being better at your sport. If your goal is to be better at soccer for instance, then your goal is too broad and you won’t have a clear idea as to how you will achieve it. Instead, your goal can be to improve in shooting, passing, defending or whatever it is you want to improve at.
Measurable:
Your goals need to be measurable or you won’t have any idea as to whether or not you were able to achieve them. When goals are able to be measured, you are able to keep track of your progress. For instance, if your goal is to improve your conditioning, you need to figure out how you can measure it. Maybe now you are able to run a kilometre in 3 minutes. If you are able to cut that time and be able to run a kilometre within 2:30 minutes then you’ll know you’ve made progress.
Achievable:
Your goals must always be achievable. If you set goals that are unrealistic or unachievable for you at the time then you will be discouraged when you don’t meet them. You should set goals that are achievable within the time span you’ve allotted.
Relevant:
When it comes to sports, your goals have to be relevant to the sports that you’re playing. It has to be something that will help you improve in your sport. For example, a basketball player might make it their goal to be able to jump higher. This would be relevant to their sport as basketball requires a lot of jumping. Being able to jump high provides an advantage when finishing at the rim, rebounding, blocking shots (etc).
Time-Based
The last thing is making sure your goals are time-based. You have to figure out what time you’d be able to achieve your goal by. You have to then determine whether or not the goal you have in mind can be achieved by the time you have allotted. If it’s a goal that might take too long for you to achieve based on the time you have allotted you may need to adjust. It’s also useful to have mini goals within a goal and determine when you would like mini goals to be achieved. For instance, a goal might take a year but you need to determine what you want to achieve in the first month, third month, sixth month (etc).
Register For TAC Sports
If you want a sports education that teaches you life skills such as SMART goal setting, then TAC Sports’ programs are right for you. We will not only teach you how to set goals, but give you the training and confidence to be able to achieve your goals. To register for our upcoming camps, lessons and other programming, click on the button below.
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