The Goal of Practice
Is the goal of practice the ability to tell others that you practiced? Obviously not. But for most young athletes this is the outcome.
How about coaches? Is the goal of practice to practice for two hours or do a specific number of reps? I hope not, because those aren’t good goals for practice either.
There can be many different goals for practice, but showing up, checking the box on time, or doing a specific number of reps should never be one of those goals if you want practice to be effective. As stated in the textbook Applied Sport Psychology:
For practice to be effective, the athletes must be motivated to learn. The old adage “practice makes perfect” is not necessarily true; athletes must practice with the intent to improve…. Without the goal to constantly improve the level of performance, practice can lead to a mediocre level of proficiency or, worse, a deterioration of skill.
With this in mind, two of the goals for practice must always focus on the what and the how.
- What needs to be practiced to facilitate improvement?
- How is practice facilitating self-motivation?
So, this is the bottom line. If you haven’t put a significant amount of time thinking about the what and how goals of practice, you are probably wasting a lot of time not facilitating improvement or self-motivation.