3 Reasons Why Individual Goal Setting is Important
Goal setting plays a critical role among teams and individual players in softball. It’s important for teams to come together before they set foot on the field to set goals. Setting team goals are critical to a team’s success on and off the field for several reasons. First, it builds trust among the group by holding everyone accountable. Second, teams have to work together on, and off the field and by setting goals, this gets everyone on the same page. Third, goals give teams something to shoot for by the end of the season. When teams have their eyes and focus on the prize, they will put in the work as a collective unit, and if all of the work pays off, they will achieve the goal together as a team. There is no better feeling than standing on the field with your teammates at the end of the season, with a championship medal around your neck.
While team goal setting is essential in softball, encouraging players to set individual goals is equally important. It’s easy for a player to show up every day for team practice and games. The team should always come first. However, when individual players set additional goals they wish to accomplish for themselves, they are more likely to put in extra practice and work on their own. Personal goals can be short and sweet. For example, maintain a .300 batting average or above the whole season, have less than two walks a game, get ahead of every batter, throw out X amount of base runners on the season, maintain a 1.000 fielding percentage.
Individual goal setting is important in softball for the following reasons.
Individual Accountability: You win and lose as a team in softball. We mentioned above that setting team goals before the season will help unify the team as well as hold all players to the same accountability standards. It’s also important for players to set individual goals that they will work towards throughout the season. Players who set goals for themselves are likely to put in extra work outside of team practices. This also benefits the team because if players strive to improve their own game and apply it to team practices and games, this will challenge and push everyone on the field and the entire team will benefit because of it.
Put in Extra Work: When softball players set individual goals for themselves, they are likely to put in extra work. They have to, otherwise, how will they ever get better? They won’t. The same thing can be said for other areas of an athlete’s life. Take school, for example, if a student sets a goal to get an A in their most challenging class, they are going to have to study and put more effort and attention into the workload for that class. If they don’t, they won’t achieve their A. The same can be said when setting an individual softball goal. If the extra work is put in throughout the season, the player will not only see improvement, but they are setting themselves and the team up for success.
Improvement: Whenever players and teams set goals, they are setting themselves and the team up for growth and success. Goals should be revisited several times throughout the season. It’s also acceptable for individuals and teams to adjust goals to make them more attainable. If goals remain attainable, this will continue to motivate and push the players on and off the field to improve. If players stay driven, they will be more likely to succeed. Watching athletes develop their game and grow as individuals on and off the field is what coaches care about the most.
