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SETTING
GOALS TO
IMPROVE
PERFORMANCE
FEATURED ARTICLE:
Often people state "I'm
just lazy" or "I'm unmotivated" when they are unsuccessful. Yet, most of
the time, the problem isn't laziness, but lack of understanding about how to
achieve goals. For instance, I believe that much of the problem the
American people have with weight control is related to inability to set goals.
Oh, we can set goals alright! We can set them until the cows come home.
But if we don't set goals properly we are unlikely to be successful. For
instance, I hear people all the time "I'm going to lose 10 pounds in the next
two weeks" or "I'm going to exercise an hour a day" or "I'm going to limit
myself to 1200 calories a day" or some combination of these statements in
attempts to manage weight. However, even though they might achieve these
goals over the short-term, any long-term change is unlikely. They will
revert to old habits with resignation sighing, "I'm unmotivated. I'll
never be able to lose weight."
The same problem
can occur in the work setting: "If only I could get organized, I would be more
successful at work." Or in sports: "I just don't stick with things.
I give up too easily." Again, the problem is likely to be problems with
setting goals. We tend to set goals that are unreasonable, perfectionistic,
and unachievable. You may question this statement, "What do you mean
unachievable? I see people achieving these goals all the time."
Which is true. However, most likely they achieved their goals by following
some of the principles I discuss below.
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to continue)
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Training “smart” is more important than the amount of daily practice.
Too often an athlete believes that the more he or she practices, the more
proficient he/she will become. However, this plan is not
only ineffective, but it can also be detrimental to achieving the desired
outcome. An athlete who practices frequently and hard
without an overall plan will be more likely to suffer the effects of
overtraining such as burn-out, exhaustion, and increased injuries rather than
actually improving performance. By developing a set of
specific goals and a plan for reaching those goals, athletes can more
effectively use their practice time and even reduce the time required in
practice to attain their goals. Obviously, this does not
mean that the martial artist can achieve rank or win tournaments with little
practice; it means that the athlete does not need to waste time through
ineffective practice and through the harmful effects of overtraining.
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to continue)
Some people may be curious as to
why this website is dedicated to the "pursuit of excellence" when I am
constantly warning about the dangers of perfectionism. To address
this question we must differentiate between the pursuit of excellence
and the need to be perfect. These concepts are not only different
but can be considered antagonistic to one another. In fact these
concepts are so opposed to one another that excellence can best be
attained by giving up the demands of perfection.
(Click to
continue.)
"...Pursuing excellence
may require tremendous effort and focus as well as other resources. But it
does not demand a sacrifice of self-esteem as it tends to focus on the process
of achievement rather than the outcome." |
A young soccer
player accompanied by his father reluctantly walked into my office because he
had problems with "motivation" according to his father. The boy sat
quietly while his father explained, "He just doesn't seem to care. He's
good enough to get a scholarship to college but he's not making the effort.
I tell him all the time how he can improve his game but I never see any effort."
When I asked about the coach's involvement the father responded, "He's just
useless. He thinks the most important thing is for the kids to have fun.
He encourages them but he never tells them specifics about how to improve.
I think I need to switch him to another team where the coach focuses more on
winning games." When I talked to the boy alone I found out that he really
enjoyed soccer but felt that he couldn't meet his father's demands. He
also felt that he didn't get much direction from his coach. As a result,
he didn't have clear ideas about how to improve his skills.
The above
situation describes three different sets of goals that were developed without
any communication among the people involved. His father's goals were
outcome or success-oriented goals focused on winning games or "winning" a
scholarship. The coach's goals weren't focused on the skills at all but on
the emotional aspect of enjoying the sport. The boy wanted to improve
specific skills but needed assistance to develop performance-oriented goals.
However, due to his father's expectations he tended to be fearful of failure;
this failure-orientation in his goals tended to decrease motivation and
persistence.
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to continue)
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Although sports psychology is still in its infancy, a tremendous amount
of interest has been generated by the potential of psychological principles to
enhance athletic performance. In
particular, the dedication to empirical examination of the tenets of
cognitive-behavioral theory has led to more effective clinical techniques which
have been intuitively appealing to sport psychology consultants.
As a result, psychological methods were implemented to enhance
performance prior to solid research support.
However, recent reviews of studies conducted in the last approximately
fifteen years have shown the psychological methods to be useful in the area of
sports performance enhancement (Greenspan & Feltz, 1989; Weinberg and Comar,
1994).
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to continue)
"...sports
psychology can assist martial artists with achieving peak perfor-mance in both katas and sparring."
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Developing Focus
Although martial arts derive from the eastern
philosophical thinking which focuses on the importance of the combined
interaction of the mind and body, many western martial artists tend to ignore
the mental aspects of the art and only focus on the physical aspects.
Interestingly, other sports that were not so
grounded in the metaphysical traditions seem to have more easily accepted the
precepts of sport psychology and embraced the development of mental skills. It
seems that more and more frequently, whenever a sporting event is on television,
references are made to sport psychologists assisting the athletes. Top athletes
in most sports are turning to sport psychologists to enhance their performance
because the development of the mental skills has been shown to give an edge to
those athletes.
It is true
that elite martial artists do develop the necessary mental skills required to be
competitive; they achieve these skills mainly through trial and error. However,
this is a very inefficient way to develop a skill. (Click
to continue)
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Articles on Issues in
Sport Psychology:
Sport Psychology Links:
More
Sport & Exercise
Links
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Embracing Your Potential
By Terry Orlick
Psyching for Sport Mental Training for Athletes
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