1: Off-season goal setting, Aubameyang break-in & defining success!

Sports and Psychology Podcast

In today's first episode of the Sports & Psychology Podcast coming to you every Saturday morning, we're diving into the off-season, and how we can set ourselves up for a successful training camp, season, and into the playoffs or end-of-season tournaments. We're talking off-season goal setting. This is valid for coaches, trainers, athletes of any age, and all of you casual sports fans out there looking to get a one-up on your buddies in that next YMCA run. Ya, you know who you are. This is for you too. If you're looking to take ownership over your growth, and your goals, and set yourself up for success in your season, then you're right where you want to be.

We're at that point when school is starting and a lot of my athletes are returning from their summer vacation, or already have, and are back in the gym preparing for the season. A perfect time to deep dive into setting internal goals and expectations for the upcoming season. Teams that lack a sports psychologist, and good communicators usually whiff or miss hugely on this point and it is part of the large reason why they don't end up having success. If we're talking about winning, or success, then I would offer my equation:

Success is the convergence of preparation, growth, determination, confidence, leadership, and communication.

The topic of off-season planning theoretically covers all six of these determining factors.

1. What is off-season planning? Goal setting and expectation setting for myself before the season starts.

2. Why? In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes an athlete can make at any age is not taking an active role in their development. What does that mean? Not taking ownership. This activity makes the athlete the sole owner of their development and their goals. It's not the coach's responsibility, mommy's or daddy's responsibility, and not the manager's responsibility. If we take the time to plan and set goals before the season starts, then we take responsibility for achieving those goals.

3. Which areas? I challenge my athletes, to off-season plan in a multitude of areas. Let's start with growth: Let's set a technical growth goal, a physical growth goal, and a social/emotional growth goal. A technical or skills goal might be improving my handling or dribbling skills, developing an adult shot, or refining or adding certain techniques I've been averse to in the past. Physical goals can be speed, strength, or weight. And social or emotional goals can be considered any change or work with communication meaning talking or listening more, and emotions meaning work with anger, stress, fear, etc.

Something to remember, a goal has to be measurable!

Next, we can move over to confidence or an internal feeling. What is a goal for a value or personality trait we want to represent throughout the season? Some examples might be drive, motivation, internal feelings I want to have, and/or representing my values. (If you want to know more about values, don't forget to check out my blog post on values)!

Again, we want this to be measurable, and the athlete can measure each practice and competition if they've shown up in the way that they expect from themselves. Lastly, I would look at a goal in terms of leadership. This may have been covered in the social/emotional growth, but it may not have.

Have a great week everyone, and talk to you next Saturday.

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