Setting Goals

It has been a while since I have posted.  I have been working on this post for a few months.  Now that High School Season is over and we are getting through Championship Season I should have a few more to post soon.  If you have ideas on things I should post please comment.  Also if you like what you read I would appreciate you sharing my posts.  

Swimming is a sport of delayed rewards.  What this means is that you put in a lot of work and do not see the results for weeks, months and sometimes even years.  This can be extremely frustrating and difficult to deal with.  One way I have helped my swimmers deal with this is through goal setting. 

Of course when I ask a swimmer what are their goals and they tell me, “Make the Olympics” or “Swim at (insert College name)” I cringe.  These are great long term goals that require a lot of hard work and perseverance to achieve, and when I am looking for goals I am also looking for ones that are more short term. Obviously these long term goals are what we are working towards, but to even hope to achieve them a swimmer needs to strive towards short term and intermediate goals.   I also do not like the long term goal that is so concrete.  The reason is a lot of the swimmers who say this to me are 13 or 14 years old.  In 4 years they may not even want to go to whichever school they picked.  I would much prefer “Swim in College,” or “Get a scholarship to swim.”  These are goals that are achievable and do not box you in.

Short term goals are goals that require a lot of work and I normally base them on the immediate swim seasons.  These goals can be to achieve certain cut times or break a certain time barrier.  I do not like to hyper focus on getting a certain time in one event but something broad like achieving a certain amount of cuts for a meet.  Every season I sit down with my swimmers and discuss these short term goals and what we need to do to achieve them. 

As we work towards our short term goals we will focus on more intermediate goals.  These are goals that you focus on day-to-day.  Every day you are at practice the swimmer should be focusing on the intermediate goals we set.  These goals normally include improving under waters, kick strength, technique flaws, etc.  These are what we spend hours focusing on during practice and they have a direct correlation to achieving our short term goals. 

This is a challenge because sometimes you get so focused on trying to achieve your short term goal you forget all about the intermediate goals you are supposed to be working and focusing on.  You always want that instant gratification and unfortunately with swimming you do not get that very often.  When you are younger instant gratification comes more easily because we are more likely to see time drops at more meets, but as the swimmer gets older those time drops come fewer and farther between.  I have seen some swimmers go years between time drops in some events.

Why are time drops more difficult to achieve as you get older? Let’s just say there are many factors, and I will probably not name them all.  The most common reason is everyone eventually reaches a point where they stop growing.  You see time drops all the time when you are younger because you are constantly getting taller and stronger.  You do not have any control on when you stop growing, so that is why focusing on the aspects you can control like the intermediate goals is so vital. 

I read an article earlier on Swimswam ( http://swimswam.com/swimming-sysiphus/) that gave a great explanation on swimming and some of the trials of trying to achieve your goals.  Just because you do not achieve them right when you are hoping does not mean it cannot be done.   Please take a moment and read the article.  I could not agree more with what it says.

Disclaimer:  These are my opinions and are not to be a reflection on anyone other than myself.