Lesson video

Hello there and welcome to this lesson on goal setting.

It's great to have you with me.

My name is Mr. Broome and I think you are going to really enjoy this lesson because there's something here that you can apply to your own life or your own sporting career.

This is part of the unit of work on sports psychology: goal setting, guidance and feedback.

I hope you enjoy it.

By the end of today's lesson, you should be able to set and evaluate effective goals using the SMART target method.

Let's have a look at some of our keywords for today's lesson.

Okay, so we have smart, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound, words you'll become very familiar with during today's lesson.

Now our lesson has four sections today, starting, as you can see, with understanding the effectiveness of goal setting.

Okay, let's have a look.

Many people use goal setting to improve or optimise their performance.

I'm sure you might have set a goal or two in the past yourself.

Now please don't be confused because sometimes you may see it referred to as target setting and not goal setting, but they mean the same thing.

Now, why do people do this? You may have benefited from goal setting yourself.

Well, there's a few reasons why goal setting is a great idea.

It can increase motivation, can increase focus, and it can help you to assess how well you are progressing towards the things that you would like to be able to do or achieve.

Here's an example goal for you.

This athlete wants to improve their 1,500 metre time by three seconds.

What's the impact of having that goal? Well, that athlete is going to be motivated to see their times getting faster.

Every time they perform a 1,500 metre race or practise session, they'll be able to see how close they're getting to achieving that goal.

Their effort in training therefore, can really be focused on improving their speed over that distance because that's what's significant to them at that time.

Now, by understanding that they want to get there to the finish line, three seconds faster, the athlete can assess how close they're getting to that desired time.

Quick check then.

So I said earlier that goal setting is sometimes referred to as something else, so you shouldn't worry about it, but they mean the same thing, but what was it? Was it A, focus setting, B, motivation setting, C, progress setting, or D, target setting? Well done if you said D, it is target setting.

So if you see target setting or goal setting used, don't worry, they mean the same thing.

Another quick check.

True or false? Goal setting helps us to check how well we are progressing.

That statement is true and why is that? Well, when you know what you're trying to achieve because you have a goal in mind, you can assess how much progress you've made towards it.

We said that, didn't we, with the 1,500 metre athlete.

They can check how close they are to achieving that goal of being three seconds faster.

Quick task for you then, here's Jacob and Jacob says, "I don't see the point in setting a goal, I will get better without one." I'd like you to give me three possible impacts of Jacob's attitude towards goal setting on his chances of improving.

Pause the video here and I'll be back in a few moments with some suggested answers.

Okay, so Jacob's attitude towards goal setting, what impact is that going to have? He doesn't see the point in goal setting.

Is he right not to see any point in goal setting? What might happen? Well, Jacob might lose or even lack motivation if he doesn't have something to aim for.

he might even give up whatever it is that he's doing.

He won't have something to focus his efforts towards achieving.

And he won't be able to assess how well he's progressing.

Well done if you said something along those lines.

As we can see, perhaps Jacob should set a goal because there's lots of benefits to doing so.

Next part of our lesson, we're going to look at how we make those goals or targets specific and measurable.

And to help us, we're going to use an acronym which you are going to become very familiar with and that acronym is SMART.

I wonder if you've come across this in other walks of life already.

So each letter in SMART, that's how acronyms work, isn't it? Each letter stands for a different word and the S in SMART stands for specific.

I wonder if you can think what the word specific means.

In our SMART target terms, the word specific means that your goal should be relevant to the sport or activity or the component of fitness that you are aiming to be improved, okay? Now by having a specific target that's going to really help you to increase your focus on what you are trying to achieve.

Which of these do you think is specific? Is it A, I want to get better at football? Is it B, I want to improve my swimming times, or is it C, I want to improve my personal best in long jump by 10 centimetres? Okay, well done if you said answer C because that is the most specific of all those targets.

The other two, I want to get better at football, that has no detail in it at all.

We don't know exactly what getting better at football would look like.

I want to improve my swimming times, is a bit more specific, but still we don't know what stroke, by how much, et cetera.

Whereas target C, I want to improve my personal best in the long jump by 10 centimetres.

There's a lot of detail there.

We know exactly or specifically what that person is trying to improve.

Now the M in SMART stands for measurable.

Measurable means that you are being clear about what is going to be achieved with a quantitative measure.

Quantitative means numbers are involved and you can actually measure it with some specific sort of, you know, metres or seconds or something like that.

Why would we make a target measurable? Well, it means that we can assess the progress that you are making over the time.

Here's some measures that are used in SMART targets.

You might use time.

For example, you might want to improve your marathon time by five minutes.

You might use points or goals.

For example, score three more points in each game.

Or you might use some sort of distance or height.

It really does depend on what your goal is.

For example, you might want to improve your vertical jump by five centimetres, but what hopefully you can see here is they're all numbers which are measurable and are therefore quantitative measures.

Now the impact of measurable targets is that it allows us to check how well we are progressing and I'm checking how well you are progressing right now.

So is that a true or false statement? It's true, well done if you said true.

Why is that? Well being measurable is important because it allows us to check how much we progressed.

Measures be quantitative.

Okay, you want to have a number on that target that you.

Here's a practise task.

I'd like you to make some targets that are specific and measurable for the following.

Somebody who's skateboarding for the first time and a marathon runner.

Okay, so for each write a target that you believe fulfils both specific and measurable.

Pause the video here, write down your answers and I'll see you with some of my own suggested specific and measurable targets for these two.

Okay, let's begin with the skateboarder.

They're just beginning to learn how to skateboard and so they're not going to be setting some goal to be able to do some crazy tricks.

For my example, I chose to say that they'll be able to balance on the moving board for five seconds.

Is that specific? Yes, it is because we know that the aim is just to be able to balance on a board that's moving.

Is it measurable? Yes, it is because if they can achieve that for five seconds or more than they've hit their target.

How about the marathon runner? Well, I wonder what you put.

Did you put something like mine, which was to improve their personal best time by 20 seconds? So it's very specific if you talk about personal bests because that's something very personal to that person.

So they know their best time so far and they know that they want to beat that by 20 seconds sometime in the future and so there we have the measure, also.

It's very easy to measure whether their personal best has improved by 20 seconds, so both specific and measurable again.

I hope that yours have something similar where there was a measurement in there and a very specific target to be achieved.

Onto our third section today, making targets achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

So you've just seen three words there, which complete our acronym for SMART.

Let's take them one at a time, A.

A in our acronym stands for achievable.

I'm sure you've come across this word perhaps before.

We want to ensure that a goal is challenging yet possible and by doing so we're going to increase the persistence that somebody has towards achieving it, okay? So let's take a look at three targets.

We've got Laura, Sam, and Andeep here.

They're each going to tell you a target and I'd like you to tell which of those is unlikely to be achievable.

Laura says, "I want to increase my netball passing accuracy to 100% in every game." That means she will never misplace a pass or have it intercepted.

Sam says, "I'm going to run for 20 minutes, three times per week." and Andeeps's target is to walk 8,000 steps every day.

Which of those three is unlikely to achieve their target? Well done, if you recognise that Laura's target isn't very achievable.

It's very, very unlikely that she will get 100% accuracy in every single game.

I'm sure one of her passes might go to the opposition or be intercepted and therefore her target will not have been achieved.

Whereas the other two targets, a 20 minute run three times a week.

That's quite achievable, isn't it? Most people can find 20 minutes to go for a run.

And Andeep walking 8,000 steps every day.

8,000 is certainly an achievable target.

Most people have the opportunity during their day to achieve 8,000 steps.

Now the fourth letter in our acronym is R for realistic and that means we ensure that a goal is within the person's capabilities.

What impact is it going to have, making sure that your target is realistic? Well, it's going to increase your persistence, of how much you persist in trying to achieve it.

Let's think if you had a really unrealistic target, something that's wildly never going to happen, very unrealistic.

The chances are that you would give up on that goal quite quickly once you realise that you are never going to be able to realistically achieve it.

Now a target might be achievable but at the same time not realistic.

Now that might sound a little confusing because those two words are very similar.

Let's think for example.

What if the time you needed to achieve it wasn't realistic with the time you actually have available? Or what if the goal is achievable if you had access to facilities and equipment, but realistically you won't be able to use those facilities as much as you need.

Let's have a little check on that.

So here's Aisha and Aisha's target is to be able to surf on a surfboard for more than three seconds within the next two months.

Now, Aisha does not live by the sea.

So which of these might Aisha's target struggle to meet? Is it being achievable? Is it being realistic? Or is it being specific? Which of those do you think Aisha's target will struggle to meet? Okay, it's quite an unrealistic target, mainly because Aisha doesn't live by the sea.

So it might be that the target she set is very achievable if she had access to the sea.

There's no reason why Aisha wouldn't be able to learn how to surf on a surfboard for more than three seconds within the space of two months, but because she hasn't got access to the sea where surfing takes place, it makes it an unrealistic target.

So it's achievable but not realistic at the same time.

Onto our fifth and final letter in our SMART acronym and it's T, and you may have already seen that that stands for time-bound.

That means the really important factor of stating when a goal will be achieved by.

And the impact of having a time-bound goal is that it increases motivation and persistence.

Let's check for understanding on time-bound.

Which of the following does not have a time-bound target and we have Jun, Sofia and Izzy.

Jun says that, "By the end of April, I want to have a improved my 50 metre butterfly time by one second." And Sofia says, "I'm going to be able to hold a handstand for one minute in six weeks' time." And Izzy's target, "I want to improve my average goals per game by one." One of those is not time-bound, which one? Okay, I wonder if you could see which one was not time-bound.

The answer was C, Izzy's target.

Jun, let's have a very quick look at Jun's target.

He says that, "By the end of April".

There you go, we know when this goal is going to be achieved by, by the end of April.

Sofia's Target said that she wants to be able to hold the handstand in six weeks time.

So she knows exactly how long she has to achieve the target, whereas Izzy's target says that she wants to improve her average goals per game by one, but we don't know when that's going to be achieved by, could be next week, could be next year, it could be in 10 years time.

We don't know when we're going to assess whether she's actually achieved the goal or not because it's not time-bound.

Here's a practise task for you then.

On the left hand side we have the criteria of the SMART target, that's S-M-A-R-T, and I filled in achievable for you.

Then we have a definition and then we have a column for impact.

As you can see, I'm asking you to complete the table with all the definitions and impacts and criteria.

Once you've done that, I'll see you on the other side for some answers.

Pause the video here and give that table a try.

Okay, here are your answers.

Hopefully you got the criteria quite easily, I hope, because we've looked at these keywords throughout the lesson, but we needed to say that criteria are specific, measurable, I gave you achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Now the definition of specific is stating exactly what is to be done and the impact is that it increases focus.

For measurable, the definition is being clear about what is going to be achieved, and I'd already given you the impact, assess progress over time.

For achievable, the definition was ensuring that the goal is challenging yet possible and the impact of that is that it increases persistence.

With realistic, it's that the target is within the person's capabilities.

And again, that will increase persistence.

For time-bound, I gave you the definition when the target will be achieved by, but you need to say that the impact of that is that it will increase motivation and persistence.

You'll see those words coming up time and again, particularly persistence because when you have a goal that you're working towards, the last thing you want is to have a goal where you're just going to give up.

You want to be able to persist towards it even when the going gets tough and you want to be motivated that you will achieve that goal in the timeframe that you have set.

Finally, let's evaluate the effectiveness of SMART targets.

So an important skill in GCSE PE is being able to analyse SMART targets.

So what might we need to consider if we're analysing or assessing a SMART target? Well first of all, we need to be able to look at a target and say how well it meets the SMART criteria.

Has it hit all five of those S-M-A-R-T criteria? And then we need to consider how effective the target will be.

So a quick check, true or false? A target will be effective as long as it includes some of the SMART target criteria.

Is that true or false? It's false.

Now why is it false? Let's have a look.

Well, the most effective targets should include all five of the SMART target criteria.

It shouldn't include some, it should include all.

And if that doesn't happen, it might lead to poor motivation or a lack of persistence towards achieving the target.

So well done if you said false.

Okay, let's take a look at an example of the SMART target and let's start to evaluate the effectiveness.

So here's Lucas and Lucas's target is to score 90% of his free throw attempts in the next season of school basketball games.

Okay, have a look at that and just have a think about whether it meets all the SMART criteria.

I'm going to feed back to you in a moment, but you might like to pause the video here and just analyse or evaluate just whether Lucas's target has hit those five criteria.

Okay, so Lucas's target is specific.

It's very specific, isn't it? We know exactly what he's trying to achieve.

It is measurable because he said 90%.

So we can measure the success of all his different free throw attempts and we can find out quite quickly whether he achieved 90%.

And it is time-bound because it's during the season.

So when the season's finished, that's when we're going to assess whether Lucas achieved his target or not.

However, and this might take a little bit of knowledge of basketball, it's very challenging for somebody his age.

So the very best NBA players generally score around 90% and they practise every day and they've been playing for years and years and years.

So therefore it's probably an unrealistic target and not achievable for Lucas.

The next part of evaluating Lucas's target is questioning how effective it will be.

Now we've just evaluated whether it hit the five criteria of SMART and we know that it's unrealistic and unachievable for Lucas.

And because of that it's likely he will lose motivation and maybe give up on the target altogether.

You should probably change it to a more achievable percentage to help him persist towards it.

So something perhaps a lower, maybe a 70% is a more achievable and realistic target for somebody of Lucas's age.

Let's check for a moment.

What might we consider when deciding if a goal is achievable for an athlete? Have a look at these possible answers.

A, the level the athlete currently performs at, B, the athlete's favourite training method, C, what similar athletes have achieved, and D, how long the athlete has to achieve the goal.

Which of those might we consider? Well done if you recognised that actually three of these answers could be things we consider when we are evaluating a target and deciding if a goal is achievable or not for that athlete.

So we might want to check the athlete's current performance level.

If they're a beginner and they're saying they want to score 90% of their basketball free throws, then really there's not much chance that's gonna happen.

But if it was an NBA performer saying that was their goal for next season, then yes, it probably is a lot more achievable.

The athlete's favourite training method really isn't something that comes into whether it is achievable or not.

What similar athletes have achieved.

Again, so we might compare NBA players with NBA players.

We might compare beginners with beginners or people who are in school teams with other people who are in school teams. And if they've achieved something it might be possible for the somebody of the same age or the same experience to be able to achieve it.

And D was also a correct answer, how long the athlete has to achieve the goal.

Lucas's goal said that he wanted to achieve 90% next season.

Now that's at school boy level and therefore perhaps is too soon.

But if he had said by the time he's 30 years old and that was the time-bound part of his SMART goal, we might say actually that could be achievable if you are going to really dedicate the next 10 years of your life to becoming a great free throw taker.

So how long the athlete has to achieve the goal is certainly something that affects whether it's achievable or not.

Here's a practise task for you.

I'm going to begin by sharing with you Sofia's target, which is that she wants to run the 400 metres in two seconds faster by the end of this season.

So I'm going to just on the left hand side, go through a couple of evaluations with you.

Is Sofia's target specific? Yes, I know exactly what Sofia wants to do there.

She has a time that she currently achieves and she wants to be able to do it two seconds faster and the distance is 400 metres and she's running.

It's very specific.

I know exactly what she's trying to achieve.

Is it measurable? Absolutely it's measurable.

We can use 400 metre race times or practise times and check whether she's achieved it.

Now it's your turn.

And say yes or no as I did and then state why you believe that's the case.

I wonder if you can guess what's coming up here.

Is Sofia's target achievable? Is Sofia's target realistic? And no surprises here, is Sofia's target time-bound? Briefly summarise how impactful think Sofia's target is going to be.

Pause the video here, write down your three answers and I'll see you in a moment for some of my answers.

Okay, so let's evaluate the A, R, T parts of Sofia's target.

That's is Sofia's target achievable? I'm gonna say yes, Sofia's target is achievable.

Improving by two seconds in the 400 metres is a challenge, but we want achievable targets to be challenging, don't we? That's gonna help us to be motivated by them, but it can be achieved through training.

Is Sofia's target realistic? Will she have access to the facility she needs to be able to run faster and train to be a faster runner? I'm gonna say yes here as well because running is actually a very accessible activity, isn't it? Most people can find a place to run, so if that's her target, she'll be able to go and find somewhere where she can train and that means she should be able to practise often.

Is it time-bound? Yes, it certainly was because Sofia said that she wanted to do it by the end of the season, so we know that's how long she has to achieve her goal.

So in summary, Sofia's target is really well written and it meets all five criteria of SMART.

It's challenging and that will ensure she remains motivated and persistent with her training.

She can also regularly assess how well she's doing and how close she's getting to achieving her goal.

It's a really good SMART target, a great example.

So that brings us to the summary for today's lesson.

Well done for your participation in today's lesson.

It was great to have you with me.

Let's just have a quick look at the summary.

So goal setting is an effective way for athletes to improve or optimise their performance.

The SMART target setting method is an effective way to set goals which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Well written SMART targets help to increase focus, motivation, and persistence, and they also provide a timeframe with which to assess progress towards the target.

Once again, well done, I hope to see you in more lessons in the future.

Hope you enjoyed today's lesson and you learned a lot about goal setting.

See you next time.