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How to Set Goals with Youth Athletes

By TrueSport, 08/22/17, 2:00PM PDT

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Coaches and parents focus heavily on helping their athletes learn the skills for their sport. But often overlooked is teaching athletes just how they can reinforce and steadily improve these skills by setting smart goals.

Setting goals with your youth athlete is not only important in improving your athlete’s sport performance, but is a life skill that will benefit them greatly off the court or field.

Goal-setting helps athletes to understand their current level of skill, achievements, and ability to progress. Establishing goals may seem simple, but to do so effectively requires an understanding of the different types and how to set, monitor, and accomplish them.

Goal-Setting Meetings

Prior to setting personal goals, have your athletes list their personal strengths and weaknesses.

Next, have one-on-one meetings to discuss this list and then set goals that will help convert the weaknesses into strengths. Try having these meetings after the initial few weeks of practice or the season, which will allow players to better establish their roles and become familiar with their abilities, the system, and expectations.

A good set of goals contain several short-term ones that support larger long-term ones. An example for a basketball player could look like:

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About TrueSport

TrueSport® is a grassroots movement born and powered by the experience and values of USADA–the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The TrueSport® mission is simple and bold: to change the culture of youth sport by providing powerful educational tools to equip young athletes with the resources to build the life skills and core values for lasting success on and off the field.