Goal setting is a strategy that helps to control important psychological aspects that affect an athlete’s performance such as attention span, self-confidence or motivation. Setting realistic but ambitious goals is one of the basic methodological keys in sports psychology.

To do so, and taking into account the season, training sessions or matches, the coach must decide which objectives the athletes will have to achieve , individually and collectively. If the objectives are realistic, specific, measurable, achievable and achieved in a given time, they will bring many benefits to the athletes and to the team.

Setting clear objectives

The objectives point out the direction to follow in the work of the coach and the sportsmen . When no clear objectives are set or the goal is too high, both motivation and self-confidence are affected. Therefore, a good goal setting helps to enhance many psychological aspects and marks the direction towards which efforts should be directed.

Moreover, setting goals also allows to evaluate the sport progress and allows to make changes when the expectations are not met.

Types of objectives: outcome objectives and performance objectives

In order to establish the objectives for the season or for the matches, the coach (or, better still, the sports psychologist) must differentiate between performance objectives and result objectives .

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Outcome targets

Outcome targets refer to the collective and individual results that are intended to be achieved, such as winning the league, getting more points, etc.

Performance objectives

On the other hand, the realization objectives refer to the individual and collective behaviours that sportsmen and women must carry out in order to achieve the desired results. For example, improving the counter-attack, mastering one-touch passes or shooting more shots from different positions.

Outcome targets are more useful in increasing the interest of athletes, but performance targets are more effective in enabling athletes to perceive that they are in control of the situation they face. Both types of objectives help to define the direction in which the coach and the athletes should go.

Benefits of performance targets

The performance targets have certain benefits. The most important of these are shown below:

  • They allow athletes to establish beneficial contingencies between their own behavior and results.
  • They accentuate and reinforce the behaviour of athletes rather than the consequences of what they do, which are not so dependent on them.
  • They allow for a more realistic assessment of the feasibility of the objectives.
  • They encourage athletes to pay attention to their own behavior, adopting a more productive and rewarding style of operation.
  • They allow performance evaluation in a simple and effective way.
  • They promote self-confidence, alertness and motivation of athletes.

Characteristics of effective targets

For the objectives to be effective they need to meet certain requirements , as they could be harmful if they do not meet certain criteria.

For example, if the coach sets overly ambitious and unattainable goals, it will negatively affect the athletes’ self-confidence. To avoid this, the following is a set of characteristics that make effective goals :

  • Final and intermediate objectives must be defined and a deadline set for achieving them
  • The objectives must be specific and well defined
  • Objectives must be attractive, but also realistic
  • The objectives should be challenging, but at the same time require a proportionate cost
  • In team sports, collective and individual goals should be established