SMART Goals

This past Monday the youth coaches at Project Coach were asked to set SMART goals that needed to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. Andy Wood, Project Coach director, opened the session by giving an example of the impact of goal setting within his own life. When he was studying at Durham he played on the university's rugby team. Two rugby enthusiasts who were unable to play due to injuries would make detailed spreadsheets of each player's performance after each game. The rugby players ignored the spreadsheets until a new coach came to the team, who asked each player to tell him what they had learned about their performance on the field from these spreadsheets. Based on this information each player made goals that aimed at improving their game. Andy realized that he needed to be making more tackles. He also became aware, by looking at the spreadsheets, that he made the majority of his tackles during the first half of each game. As a result he set SMART goals to become more fit and make more tackles during each game and the rugby team improved as each player strived to fulfill their goals.

After this introduction the youth coaches were given an exercise; each group had to set SMART goals that would hypothetically prepare them to run a marathon. Goals like "staying in shape" were deemed not specific enough, and met with the question: how will you stay in shape? Some youth coaches suggested keeping a food journal of having a coaching partner to help them stay in shape. Each youth coach was then asked to set their own SMART goals that they would be able to complete within a week so that during the next Project Coach session they would be able to reflect and discuss on whether they had achieved their individual short-term goals. One coach set the goal to finish all of his History work which he is behind in by completing a specific number of assignments a day and setting aside a specific time each night to complete the assignments.