Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Over the last 35 years there have been more than 600 studies on goal setting in sports. In addition, out of all these studies more than 90% show that goal setting is an effective mental skill for improving an athlete’s performance. Because goal setting is so common, this may be slightly obvious. However, because it’s so obvious parents, coaches, and athletes tend to take goals for granted.

The fact is that all goals are not created equal. Specifically, the research shows all goals do not work to improve an athlete’s performance. As a matter of fact, some goals may even lead to a decrease in performance. This is why it’s important to understand why goals work and reverse engineer this “why” into a way to measure if a goal is effective.

With that being said, there are two main reasons why goal setting in sports work.

First and foremost, the goal must provide motivation. For a goal to provide motivation it must be a short term goal. This does not mean you shouldn’t set long term goals to provide direction for short term goals. This only means that long term goals do not fuel increases in performance. Generally speaking, a short term goal that provides motivation is a goal that is attainable within a single season or shorter.

Secondly, the goal must provide athletes with guard rails to help them self-regulate their behavior. For a goal to do this it must be specific and have a specific action plan for reaching the goal. When a goal meets this criteria it’s easy for an athlete to evaluate progress and lack there-off. In turn, the ability to evaluate progress then leads to the awareness an athlete needs to self-regulate their behavior.

In conclusion, if a goal setting process does not provide an athlete these two benefits then it’s not going to fuel an increase in an athlete’s performance. Ultimately, increasing an athlete’s performance is the main reason for setting goals in sports. Therefore, it’s important that every goal an athlete creates provides these two benefits.