Training Week 1 (Week Beginning 24th March 2014)

Training Week 1 (Week Beginning 24th March 2014)

*AIM: To enhance Athlete Z’s goal setting skills which will enable him to increase motivation, self-confidence and reduce his anxiety which can help him to perform to the best of his capabilities and help his team win the league which is highly achievable.

I’m back! I hope my first blog which I recently posted was useful. Last week was all about the Athlete Z’s assessment stage, this week is the first of our six week training programme for the athlete to help improve him psychologically so he can perform to the best of his capabilities during matches as we know he has the talent!

The first week of training is all about Goal Setting. Below is the Goal Setting Programme which I have created for Athlete Z to work on for the rest of the week, and you guys can follow the progression throughout the week and see if it works and if it improves his Goal Setting.

Introduction to Goal Setting

Every successful person whether that is an artist, sports person or leader has a set goal which has driven and directed their efforts in their quest to be the best they can be. Goal setting is an extremely powerful technique for enhancing performance so it is one of the most important strategies you can implement for success in any environment. Goal setting is a common feature within many peoples day to day lives; everybody has an individual aim they want to achieve in a certain period of time.  Goal setting is also the outcome they desire from their actions, and so I strongly believe that Athlete Z can set goals to help him increase his motivation and self-confidence as well as reduce the levels of anxiety. Goal setting gives our daily actions a framework to work within and gives us direction in whatever we want to achieve. This will help Athlete Z vastly improve in areas he lacks ad this will work to direct his energy and efforts.

Use of Goal Setting

1.       Goals direct attention to tasks at hand and highlights what needs to be completed. It allows you to implement strategies to develop specific elements of the business that need to be utilise to complete the goal. This will work well for the Athlete Z as then he can work towards the goal he has set by creating strategies on how he is going to get there, this is a great way for him to achieve his goal as he will make his own plan and he will be obliged to follow it to enable him to achieve his goal.

2.       Goals mobilise your efforts. You will put your efforts into moving towards the goal as you are provided with the incentive of completing the goal. This will motivate Athlete Z in to working harder than ever on the pitch which will help him achieve his goals and achieving goals leads to boosting of confidence which is essential for the player. When confidence rises the anxiety levels reduce as then the player plays with confidence and works twice as hard having a major effective on the football pitch. This is what we want from the goal setting programme.

This is what we want to get out from this Goal Setting programme as it all depends on the direction and the effort one puts in to achieve the goal. Working towards goals like mentioned above can enable the player to hit all the objectives we put down. That means the motivation and self-confidence will increase and anxiety will reduce through achieving goals.

Types of Goals

There are three types of goals Athlete Z can set: Outcome, Performance and Process.

-          Outcome– This is the end result. For example getting the order ready for dispatch by designated time.

-          Process – This is the actions needed to execute the goal correctly.

-          Performance – These are the standards independent of other variables.

Process + Performance = Outcome

 If Athlete Z follows these key principles it can give him a powerful tool to use to drive success.

It is important for Athlete Z to really focus his attention and make his goals specific. Specific to his and specific to the goal and avoid vague and broad goals like ‘I want the team to be the best’. Being specific will make the goal objective and will give him something to aim for and aspire to. Athlete Z must give himself a completion date, a deadline to complete the goal by which will enable him to play well and help his team to win the league or because the highest assist maker in the league.

Realistic and Challenging – Goals should be difficult enough to challenge but not so difficult they become unrealistic. This provides the athlete with a challenge.

Long Term and Short Term– Athlete Z must see long term goal as the top of the mountain to get to the top he needs to set and achieve smaller goals to reach the top. Achieving these smaller goals maintains motivation and attention.

I have chosen goal setting as an activity for Athlete Z to use because I strongly feel by using Process, Performance and Outcome– We have seen the different types of goal and how they fit together. If the athlete sets primarily process and performance goals then he has done all he can within his control to achieve the outcome goal. Doing this more times than not the outcome takes care of itself. Using this equation also harbours the right environment.

Conclusion Looking back at the goal setting for Athlete Z I think it has been a huge success. Athlete Z has made sure that he has kept his goal setting clear and reachable, wasn’t being optimistic and it was real. Athlete Z then worked hard in training to make sure he can achieve his goals and so he did. The hard work had paid off and now he is off and running as the season comes to a close he can keep setting minuet goals which will enable him to work towards them and finish strongly by the end. I feel this week has been a huge success both on and off the field. Cannot wait to see what next week has in store !