I’m sure we’ve all written down our goals at one time or another fully meaning to accomplish them and yet somehow never managing to. Is it the fault of the goal?
Are we just ninnies and too weak to stay the course, or could it be that there’s a better approach? Players have goals too and just like us, they aren’t too sure how to make those goals actually happen. That’s where the Goal Map comes in.
The Goal Map is something I’ve come up with in trying to help players break their larger goal down into more attainable chunks. And it really seems to work. In working with lots of players of all ages and skill levels each week I’ve realized that almost every single player wants to get better. Well, get better at what? If they’re working so hard wouldn’t it help them to know exactly what they need to do to get the thing’s they want the most instead of leaving it up to someone else or luck?
Well the Goal Map can help them do just that, and here’s how it works:
- What’s Your Goal – The player gets a sheet of paper and on the left hand side writes down their goal. Let’s take a pitcher as our example. Ask any pitcher what’s her goal, or in better kid-terms, what do you want more than anything with your pitching? And they’ll say “to throw the ball faster!”. OK, so Pitch Faster goes down under the Goal section on the left side of the page.
- Make it Smaller – But Pitch Faster isn’t small enough to really make that happen. That’s more of a wish than a goal. So to make that more likely to happen we need to Make Our Goal Smaller. How can we make Pitch Faster smaller? By this I mean how can we break it down into smaller chunks? Well, we might not be throwing our fastest because we’re afraid of throwing it away and possibly hitting a car (practice) or hitting a batter (games). So to help with that fear we need to Get Braver. We also need to be stronger as we’re releasing the ball too slow and too weak.
- How Will You Do It? – The final column on the right simply states the ways this player is going to accomplish her smaller chunks. So suddenly her goal of pitching faster is much more specific.
This same Goal Map works for all of your players, not just pitchers, but can also help your players learn how to accomplish goals in the classroom as well.
For more ways to help your players reach their goals, improve their competitiveness, increase their focus and more check out A Coaches Guide to Creating Team Chemistry.
