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Creating Goals for Athletes

Every athlete wants to excel, but the will to excel is insignificant without the will to prepare to excel. Preparation is where many athletes fail. Most are willing to put in hours on top of hours of training, but almost no time is devoted to planning or record keeping. This planning (and tracking) is essential, because planning is the first step to achieving any goal - including those accomplished in athletics. Your vision of where you want to be – your goal – is your greatest asset. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Not knowing how and understanding why past training and peaking has influenced your performances (record keeping) makes attaining these goals tougher than it needs to be.

Goals should be as objective as possible (measurable an performance-oriented), as specific as possible (performance and time-sensitive), and above all realistic to your level of athletic and competitive abilities. Keeping your season goals to two or possibly three major goals will help streamline your focus and simplify your training and regenerative efforts. The following goal is a specific example of what a season goal might look like:

-Achieve a top 100 World ranking in the 200m dash by August 1.-
-Three previous season’s average of 20.45 seconds.-

Write your goals in this manual and in another conspicuous place so that you’ll see them often. This will be a frequent reminder of your precise competitive desires, and as you’ll see below, of the how and why you planned on achieving them.

The methods and training objectives needed to attain your season goals are listed next. These again should be as objective, specific and realistic as possible. Methods listed can be complex or simple, just be sure to match your methods to your season goals. Daily training methods and objectives can vary greatly, but should also fall on a continuum of your season goals. The following are examples of two training methods and a training objective that might support the previous goal.

-Include max speed work in June practices at a volume of 600m per week.-

-Include extra mobility work for 30 min., 3x per week for the entire season.-

-Run 200m in practice in less than 21 seconds by July 15.-

Motivations are the why you are doing the training and striving toward your goals. Again, this could be as simple as “to be the best in the State,” or a complex, layered, psychological explanation. It is most important that your motivation has meaning for YOU. Use your motivations to keep your training and regeneration efforts inspired.

Space is provided at the bottom of your goal sheet for your ultimate goal. Perhaps this is the same as your season goal, perhaps two or three years down the road – whichever, it will help you keep an eye toward the future and what you ultimately envision for yourself in your sport.

Weekly and daily training goals head each log page under “Training.” Use these goals to help plan the incremental steps in your training leading to your season and ultimate goals. These smaller goals will keep you on track towards your larger goals and keep your intent at the forefront of your training.

• by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer and coordinator of the Faster Swimming Weekly Dryland Workouts