Goal Setting

UWH Goal Setting

We, unfortunately, live in an age where we have given out gold medals to our kids like candy and many players are convinced that wishes and goals are the same thing. I will run a team exercise in the next couple of days that will help you make some more objective decisions.

The danger of an unrealistic goal is that it is difficult for the team to reach "common purpose" (which we will talk about a lot also). What happens if we fail in a goal on a regular basis?. It becomes excusable (it was the refs, it was the coach, it was anyone but me!). Once a goal is excused or excusable players start to accept that the goal is not achievable and it becomes an acceptable failure ( Oh well, we gave a good try.... oh well maybe next time). The last part of unrealistic goals is we then expect failure and the goal is now damaging our progress.

While I would encourage every player to dream their own goals (however big) it is important to add specifics to how you will achieve those goals, In underwater hockey we will continually revert to a conversation about time and space so your goals should all contain measurable ways to improve your ability to create or take time and space away from your opponents.

As you spend time with goal setting make sure you include how it will fit the rest of your life although for most people being strong, fit and healthy is often a boost for all the other parts of your lives. We are embarking on a long arduous journey and while the rewards are huge we will only achieve them through common purpose. I will run a quick exercise and then ask that everyone start thinking about what they want.