What would football look like without goals? Bunch of people roaming around an empty field looking to kick the ball as hard as possible?
While that oddly does sound like it could be fun, not having goals robs the game of its structure. And one can assume it’s only a matter of time before players start kicking the ball at each other’s heads…
Coincidentally, if your plans to improve as a football player aren’t centered around goals, the outcomes tend to be similarly chaotic.
What Is Goal Setting and How Can It Benefit Footballers’ Development?
Goal setting is a powerful practice because it creates structure and gives you a clear sense of direction. It’s also usually followed by awesome side effects like boosted motivation, increased confidence, and reduced anxiety.
It’s very intuitive, but it does require we’re not taking full advantage of the process. For that, you’ll need to plan and strategize. How?
You know how when Bugs Bunny travels somewhere, they’ll show it using a map and some dots? That’s actually a good way to think about your development too!
The goals are the little dots connecting the place you’re currently at with where you want to go.
You can’t choose the map, but YOU are the one setting the dots.
Best Goal Setting Practices for Creating a Development Plan
Here we’ll dive into the key principles for setting goals that will maximize your gains and development.
I somehow managed to cram it all into one ridiculously long sentence:
“Create a lengthy series of realistic, challenging, specific, measurable, short-term, performance and process-oriented goals.”
Yikes! Let’s break this monstrosity down, shall we?
1 – A Lengthy Series of Short-Term Goals
The phrasing is a little odd, but I think it does add value to the whole “long-term vs. short-term” goal discussion.
Long-term goals help you see the bigger picture, while short-term goals are much easier to manage.
Of course, you need both. But positioning it like this takes the best out of both while highlighting the main function of setting goals – bridging the gap.
When you look at it like that, even a long-term goal can be a short-term goal for someone who managed to get just one step away.
Scoring 15 goals in a Premier League season may seem light-years away to a kid still in the academy. But to a striker who broke into the first team of a Top-4 squad, it could very well be the next step.
2 – Realistic and Challenging
The goals you set should be structured so the next one in the series seems attainable. Wherever you’re at, the goal in front of you should be something you honestly believe you can achieve.
If that’s not the case, you will never try your hardest. Furthermore, unattainable goals can demolish your confidence, and only offer frustration.
That being said, you ALSO have to make sure they are not too easy.
Goals that require absolutely no effort are unfulfilling. Not only do they have minimal value for your development, but they can also have a negative effect by making the process mind-numbingly boring.
How do you hit the right balance? By making assessments!
OK, I know it sounds a lot like “guessing”… But there’s a little bit more to it.
For starters, it means being honest with yourself about your capabilities. Then, you must try to gather relevant information first. Maybe a bit of research, checking in with coaches, or teammates for insights…
The point is to do the best you can and review your process so you can make adjustments. Over time, your assessments will get more and more on point.
3 – Specific and Measurable
You should also be able to track your progress. You have the map, you have the dots… How do you tell where you’re at?
Keeping your goals specific and measurable makes it easy to assess your current level, as well as allows you to monitor if you’re moving towards, stagnating, or drifting away from your goals.
“Improving my passing skills” is too broad but it’s a good starting point. From there you can ask yourself “what would be a clear sign that I’ve improved?” Answering this question will give you a range of specific things you could leverage when setting goals.
There are various ways for you to make your specific goals measurable. Some of the things on the list will have obvious metrics attached, like scoring more goals or keeping more clean sheets. Others you might need to redefine so they become measurable (instead of, “becoming a first-team player” you can use “starting over 75% of games this season.”)
Lastly, you can learn to quantify your assessment. Use scales from 1 to 10, or 1 to 100, to grade your current skill level, and to reassess periodically.
4 – Performance and Process-Oriented
Whether a result goes your way will depend on a number of factors. This brings us to an important question – should your goal-setting include things such as wins or trophies?
These are also known as outcome goals. And since you can’t control the outcome, they have a tendency to backfire.
Focusing on the outcome is a major cause of anxiety. However…
Striving for wins, records, and trophies can be a powerful motivator. But instead of making them a part of your development plan, you just flip the cushion over by asking “which performance and process goals are going to lead me to my desired outcome?”
Create Your Own Development Plan
How many goals you should set or how far ahead you’d like to go is totally up to you.
Whatever you do, it’s important not to get overwhelmed. This is supposed to help you clearly visualize your progress. If it’s causing you more stress, you’re doing it wrong.
Tracking shouldn’t really take a lot of time. No need for more than 5-10 minutes per day or an hour during the week.
Creating a development plan using goal setting has three key steps:
- Select a time frame that you’d like to cover (eg. month, season, 3 years, career…)
- Start at the end, and work your way back
- Review and adjust
Don’t forget to set practice goals as well as competition goals. Competition goals are harder and carry more weight, but accomplishing practice goals can skyrocket your progress because of how much time and control you have in training.
Why Evaluating Your Goals Is So Important
If you’re looking at your map and something doesn’t make sense, you need to act. When a goal no longer seems realistic, or it’s too easy, or it’s causing you to lose confidence – change it!
Sometimes you may even need to adjust an entire series. Maybe you’ll end up taking a long way around or even move your starting place back a couple of steps.
That’s part of the process and you shouldn’t get discouraged.
Goal setting is there to help you stay hungry, motivated, and confident, and go where you want to go. If that’s not the case…
You can’t change the map, but YOU set the dots. And you can always move things around when you need to.
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