How does goal setting in youth sports differ from professional team sports?

I think goals as specific and intelligent the process is (ex. Short term and long term goal statements) can be confusing and potentially sabotaging on a young athletes. What direction do you go when you don’t reach your goal(s). I have our athletes write a vision statement (usually related to a seasonal aspiration) connected to real ‘actions/behaviors’. The actions can be checked off in their swimmers journal as they are accomplished. One’s vision for self can also be internalized whereas goals are usually externalized.

A defini??o de metas nos esportes juvenis geralmente enfatiza o desenvolvimento pessoal, o aprendizado de habilidades e valores, e a divers?o. As metas podem incluir o aprimoramento técnico, o fortalecimento do trabalho em equipe e o desenvolvimento de lideran?a. Já nos esportes coletivos profissionais, as metas frequentemente se concentram em resultados competitivos, como vitórias em campeonatos, classifica??es e desempenho financeiro, além do desenvolvimento contínuo de habilidades e estratégias para competir em alto nível.

To me, the biggest difference is that professional sports will be driven by performance outcomes. There are championships to win and competitive goals to achieve. The purpose of these organizations is to win. In every case, the focus is on how can our actions help us win. In contrast, the purpose of youth sports is to help athletes learn and grow. In every case, the goals are focused on the experience and improvement.

A professional team is fine-tuned to win, and although in any sport you always want your team to win, a youth team needs to be fine-tuned to develop and nurture its athletes.

The goal in pro sports is clear from the start of the season: to win a championship. At the highest level, this is what the best teams are competing to do. Individually, pro athletes may have other goals, like make an All-Star team or become the best they can become. The team, however, is often most focused on winning it all, and the wins they need to have along the way to get there. Individually, pro athletes have goals that ladder up into the team goals and that promote their own long-term success. These might be things like earning a second contract, making a select team, or scoring a set amount. In theory, each of these goals should move the players in ways that also help the team goals. In practice, it’s not always so clean.

As a coach, especially at the high school level, I often had to correspond with parents. We would always emphasize to the parents to make sure that their children had fun and an enjoyable experience. Simply put, if young people are not having fun while playing sports, it will show in their performance. In Canada, one of the stages in the Long Term Athlete Development model is called 'FUNdamentals'. The first three letters of the stage name are deliberately capitalised to emphasise that the focus during this stage must be on teaching young people basic movement skills AND having fun. Otherwise, young people can become disengaged with their sport right away and this can affect their attitude to active living for the rest of their lives.

As a young athlete my mom used to have us write our goals down on a piece of paper and put them in our wallets. We wouldn't look at them, and most time forget they were there. This worked in two ways: 1. Writing it down : putting pen to paper boosts connectivity between different areas of the brain 2. Subconsciously we were carrying around that goal, and intention every we went. 9/10 when I found that paper months later, I'd accomplished what I set out to do.