Nowadays, there are many variables that make an athlete evolve within his or her discipline. We could talk about concentration, motivation, perseverance, dedication or commitment.
In this case, we are going to focus on a way to progress quickly and efficiently by setting goals. In our Campus Experience programmes, setting short, medium and long term objectives is totally effective in improving the children’s abilities, as well as maintaining motivation.
The importance of setting targets
The use of systematic goal setting in children’s training has been implemented recently, and with excellent results. At Campus Experience we support the effectiveness of goal setting as a motivational technique and strategy that optimally improves performance.
Classification of the targets
Objectives or targets can be divided according to different aspects. However, they are usually divided according to the period in which they are achieved:
- Short-term goals: these are set to be achieved within one week of training.
- Medium-term goals: these are planned to be achieved in one or two months.
- Long-term goals: are those set for an annual season.
The importance of collective goals
There are objectives or goals referring to the athlete himself/herself within a group or team. In our programmes, when we talk about goals or objectives referring to the team, each boy or girl puts all his or her abilities to improve individually and collectively. Therefore, the improvement in individual performance will lead to an improvement in the performance of the team. For example, we work with the striker so that he or she aims to score a certain number of goals in each training session or match, but also the team’s attacking or defensive mechanism so that everyone is perfectly coordinated.
Characteristics of the objectives or goals
In order for goal or objective setting to achieve desirable results, the following must be respected:
- The objectives to be achieved should have a certain threshold of difficulty, taking into account the capabilities of the athlete in a realistic way.
- They must be concrete.
- They should be tangible, measurable characteristics.
- Focus on objectives in positive terms.
In short, we have seen in our Campus Experience Real Madrid Foundation programmes that setting objectives or goals within the training of any child helps in an important way to improve their own skills and, therefore, their progress, overcoming limits that not even the child himself or herself was aware of beating.
