Goal Setting (SMART Goals)

In season and off-season goals  (SMART goals) With the early end of the season and a lot of people looking for things to do, I thought this would be a good time to go over goal setting for the season and off-season. Setting goals is one of the most important off-ice habits.  The goals need to be clear, specific, measurable, and time sensitive.  Goals change over time for everyone so write your goals down before the season starts.  Reassess your goals at the quarter point of the season, again at the half way point, again at three quarters, and then at the end of the season.  This will allow you to see how well you are progressing toward your goals and change them if you need to focus on something new!  If you hit your goals congrats set higher goals next time!  If you missed them or at least a couple, GOOD!  Think about why you missed your goals and set goals for the off-season so you will not miss them next season (set summer goals whether you hit your season goals or not).    Personally I like setting goals in every aspect of my life, for example ice hockey, school, work, working out, reading, nutrition, and more. 

Never Get Down Once your goals are set write them down and put that paper somewhere you can see them every day.  Share them with your parents and coaches.  Aim high and never get down if you miss your goals.  I set a goal to play D1 ice hockey.  The most important years when trying to reach that goal is 16 – 19.   In those 4 years I was cut or told by high level coaches I wasn’t good enough close to 20 times.  In the end, I ended up playing D1 hockey because I refused to get down.  I used every failure as a learning experience and pushed forward harder every single time. 

As goalies we fail all the time, every goal against is a failure, so don’t get mad it isn’t worth the energy and you definitely don’t want the other team to know you are frustrated.  It is best to keep your chin up and move forward learning from the failure.

How to set measurable goals My biggest mistake in setting goals when I was 12 – 19 was not setting measurable goals.  My goals were, make a AAA team, make a jr A team, and then make a D1 hockey team.  Those are not specific or measurable.  Some good examples of goals are as follows: Get faster Get stronger Get quicker Become a better skater Get better hand eye coordination Get better at stick handling/shooting the puck Etc.

Next, set the measuring bar for those goals 1. Get faster – to get faster I am going to work on my leg strength 2 times a week. Then track yourself and make sure you are doing your 2 leg workouts a week.  Get a note book, write down how you did, and keep tracking your improvements over time. 2. Get stronger – to get stronger I am going to workout 4 – 5 times a week.  Again tracker yourself and make sure you are hitting the 4 – 5 times a week and your improvement over time.  (Note.  The 2 leg workouts count as 2 of the 4 – 5 workouts during the week.) 3. Get quicker – to get quicker I am going to do ladder drills, mini hurdles, run hills, run sprints, etc. 3 times a week.  Then track! And so on.

You can have as many goals as you want but I would recommend only having 3 – 5.  If you have more it becomes hard to focus on your goals and you will probably fail to reach them. Now that your goals are set, get out there and get after it!

Remember SMART goals stands for Specific Measurable Achievable (Do not set the bar low on this one.  In sports the bar needs to be set high and missing that bar is fine as long as you get back up and get after it again!) Relevant Time-Bound

If you are a coach reading this I think you should have all your players do the above!