The Practice Habit Coaches Must Not Let Young Athletes Overlook
There are many practice habits young athletes must develop as they progress from youth sports to high school to college sports. Unquestionably, practice habits are the foundation for progress. Furthermore, practicing athletic skills is the undisputed #1 priority for coaches. However, I would argue that while practicing athletic skills is important, it’s also putting the cart before the horse.
Why? Because skill development without setting specific goals is a bad habit that far too many athletes develop through practice. Without doubt, athletes get a lot of practice setting goals. Yet, they don’t get much practice with the process of clarifying the specific steps they must take to make progress towards their goals while in practice.
This process of clarifying the specific steps to reach a goal is a mental skill that coaches would be remiss to ignore. Therefore, when an athlete goes to practice and just does exactly what they are being told without understanding how doing what their told is making them better, they are missing an opportunity to develop their mental skills.
In addition, most athletes only practice ego goal setting. Ego goals are goals athletes don’t control and can’t achieve during practice. These ego goals deal with winning, titles, rankings, and fame. While ego goals may feel good, they don’t provide a practice structure. Instead, the goal setting habit athletes need most is prioritizing task goals over those ego goals. Goals like sets and reps, routine streaks, personal best, and mastery of technique. Task goals provide a path to an ego goal and represent an objective method of measuring improvement during a season.
Finally, athletes must practice the habit of aligning their effort and behavior with their task goals each day. This includes following a strategy for making daily progress with short-term goals that lead to longer-term goals as well as setting target dates for progress.
Indeed, these are habits that go far beyond the field, court, gym, track, course, or mat. When a coach makes an investment in developing their athletes like this, they are truly developing the whole athlete.