Lesson video

Hello, everybody.

Delighted you've joined me here today for this lesson called "Goal Setting and the SMART Principle" from the units of work on sport psychology, goal setting, guidance and feedback.

My name's Mr. Brim.

As I said, great to have you here with me today.

We're going to learn some really important skills today in how to set goals, and this is something that you can apply to life itself, not only your GCSE PE.

So a really valuable lesson coming up.

Let's begin.

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

And here are our keywords for today.

They are specific, measurable, achievable, recorded, and timed, five words you'll know a lot more about by the end of today's lesson, but if you'd like to pause here and have have a look at the definitions, then feel free.

As you can see, our lesson is divided into four sections and the first of those sections is titled "Understanding the Effectiveness of Goal Setting." Now, goals are something which lots of people set for themselves, but why do they do that? Let's have a little look.

So lots of people use goal setting to improve or optimise their performance.

And just to avoid confusion, this can also be referred to as target setting and I don't want you to get confused with those.

Sometimes you'll see the goal setting phrase.

Sometimes you'll see it referred to as target setting, but they essentially mean the same thing, so don't be confused if you see that.

Now, there are lots of benefits to setting yourself a goal and some of those include increased motivation, increased exercise or training adherence, and improved performance as a result of the goal.

Here's an example of a goal.

Here we have an athlete, and this athlete wants to improve their 1,500 metre time by three seconds.

The impact of having this goal rather than not having a goal at all is that the athlete is motivated to see their times getting faster.

The athlete will focus their efforts in training on improving the speed.

They'll be thinking in their training sessions, "Right, what do I need to do to achieve this three second improvement? How am I going to improve my speed around the track over 1,500 metres?" And it also means that the athlete can assess how close they are getting towards achieving their goal and how much progress they're making.

A quick check for understanding.

Hope you were listening.

Goal setting is also referred to as A, focus setting, B, motivation setting, C, progress setting, or D, target setting? Well done if you remembered that.

Occasionally, we will see it referred to as target setting instead of goal setting, but they'd essentially mean the same thing.

Second, check for understanding then.

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

And well done again if you said that that statement is true.

And why is that? Well, knowing what you're trying to achieve means you can assess how much progress you've made towards it.

So having a goal and knowing what you're trying to achieve is a great way of being able to assess how much progress you're making.

Well done if you said true.

Now, here's Jacob and Jacob says, "I don't see the point in setting a goal.

I will get better without one." And this is part of your practise task.

I would like you to give three possible impacts of Jacob's attitude towards goal setting on his improvement.

How might his attitude impact on his chances of making improvements? Please pause the video here and write down your three answers and then press play and I'll be back with some answers shortly.

Okay, here we have Jacob again.

So let's remember, he didn't see the point in goal setting, so you were asked to give us three possible impacts of that attitude towards goal setting on his chance of improvement.

So here's some things you might have said.

Hopefully your answers are similar to mine.

So Jacob will lack or lose motivation if he doesn't have something to aim for and he might even give up whatever activity it is that he's doing.

Jacob will not have something to focus his efforts towards achieving, so he might lack focus.

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

He has nothing to aim for.

So he doesn't really have the opportunity to assess how much progress he's making.

So clearly, Jacob's attitude is not going to improve his chances of improving in whatever activity it is that he's doing.

Well done if you chose three statements which were similar to mine, which talked about perhaps the lack of motivation or the lack of focus, or the lack of ability to assess progress.

That brings us onto our second part of today's lesson titled "Making Targets Specific and Measurable," and this is our SMART acronym.

Now, if you understand what an acronym is, you'll know that each letter stands for a different word, and as you can tell perhaps by the title of this section of the lesson, the S in SMART stands for specific.

Specific meaning that a goal should be relevant to the sport or the activity or the component of fitness aiming to be improved, whichever it is that you are trying to improve and the impact of having a specific target or goal is that it increases focus if you're really honed in on what it is that you want to achieve.

Quick check for your understanding on what I've just said then.

Which of these is specific? Is it A, I want to get better at football, B, I want to improve my swimming times, or C, I want to improve my personal best in long jump by 10%? They're all goals of sorts, but which one is specific? Well done if you said C.

So A is a very vague target.

I want to get better at football doesn't give us any detail or any specifics about exactly what's going to improve.

It's very vague.

B, I want to improve my swimming times is also quite a vague target.

Slightly more specific in the fact that it's talking about times but we don't know what swimming stroke or what the time is that they're going to improve or by how much.

There's a real lack of detail there as well.

Whereas C, I want to improve my personal best in long jump by 10 centimetres has a lot of detail there.

I think it's a lot clearer about what specifically that person is going to achieve or trying to achieve and so well done if you noted that C was the specific of the three targets.

That brings us to M, the second letter in our acronym, and M stands for measurable.

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

And the impact of that is that it allows us to assess the progress over time.

Now, going back to quantitative, from the definition there, well, here's some examples of measures used in SMART targets.

It might be time is used as the measure.

For example, improve your marathon time by five minutes.

It might be that points or goals are used in your target.

For example, to score three more points per game.

And it might be that a distance or a height measurement is used as part of your target.

If you remember, in our check for understanding, the person, they wanted to improve their long jump by 10 centimetres.

That's a distance, isn't it? Here's a an example of where somebody might want to improve the height of something, in this case their vertical jump by five centimetres.

By having a number that you can put on your target that makes it really measurable, this is what we mean when we talk of a quantitative measure, something we can really specifically measure in numbers.

True or false? The impact of measurable targets is that it allows us to check how well we are progressing.

That was true.

Well done if you noted that it was true.

And why is that a true statement? Well, being measurable is important because it allows us to check how much we progressed and measures should be quantitative.

Well done if you said true.

Here's a practise task for you to round up this section of the lesson.

I'd like you to write targets that are specific and measurable for the following, and we have somebody who's skateboarding for the very first time.

And we have a marathon runner, someone a little more experienced in their sport there of marathon running.

Write down a target which you think is a good one and specific and measurable for the skateboarder and the marathon runner.

Pause the video here, write down your targets and we'll have a look at those in a moment.

Okay, let's begin with the skateboarder.

So they're skateboarding for the first time, which is important context.

So the target that I gave them, and I wonder if you got something similar, was that I think they should aim to be able to balance on a moving board for five seconds.

Is it specific? Yes, it's quite clear that they're going to balance, and the board will not be still, it will be moving, and that the measurable aspect of that target is that it should be for five seconds or more.

Any less than five seconds and they haven't yet achieved their target.

For the marathon runner, as I said earlier, the context is different in this case, but the target that I gave the marathon runner was to improve their personal best time by 20 seconds.

Again, is it specific? Well, yes, because it's a personal best, which is incredibly specific to that person.

And is it measurable? Yes, because they will know that they need to do 20 seconds faster or even faster to achieve the goal.

Looking at your targets, just assess whether your targets are specific, as in they have lots of detail, and it's very clear about what is to be achieved, and that there is a quantitative measurement in there as well.

Well done if you included both.

That brings us onto our third section of the lesson and this one's titled "Making targets achievable, recorded and timed." So the A, as you may have gathered, stands for achievable.

Achievable means that the goal should be challenging, yet possible, and the impact of that is that it increases persistence of the athlete.

With that in mind, let's have a look at three targets.

Laura, Sam and Andeep have all set targets.

My question to you is whose target is unlikely to be achievable? Laura says, "I want to increase my netball passing accuracy to 100% in every game." So every pass she ever makes will be accurate and reach her teammate.

Sam's target is that "I'm going to go for a 20-minute run three times per week.

And Andeep's target is that I'm going to try to walk 8,000 steps every day.

Have a look at those three targets and decide which one you think is unlikely to be achievable.

Okay, it was Laura, wasn't it? Hopefully you noticed that Laura's target isn't likely to be achievable for the reason that 100%, that means perfection in every single game that she plays.

That means she can't misplace a pass or have one intercepted, otherwise she'll never get to achieve her target.

That's an incredibly ambitious target and also quite unlikely to be achievable.

Sam's target, well, their target was to go for a run for 20 minutes three times per week.

That feels like it's probably achievable for almost anybody who wants to try and achieve that target.

Going for a 20-minute run isn't particularly difficult, is it? Most of us can step out onto the street and go for a run and three times per week isn't asking an awful lot.

And so their target is probably achievable.

Andeep's target of trying to walk 8,000 steps every day, again, if you've ever counted your steps, reaching 8,000 in most days is quite achievable anyway, and so it's very likely that Andeep will be able to achieve 8,000 steps every day, especially if he's really putting his mind to it.

So well done if you said Laura.

She perhaps needs to bring that percentage down a little bit, doesn't she? So the R in SMART stands for recorded.

What do we mean by recorded? That means that you ensure that the goal is written down and progress is logged.

We have a written record of the target, and what's that going to do? Well, having it written down and perhaps even therefore shared with other people means that it should increase the motivation, and the persistence to achieve the goal.

So a target should be recorded, and now there's a few ways of doing that.

Some athletes will keep a a written training log or a diary to record their progress as they go along and particularly these days with the advancement of technology, there are several apps on phones which you can use to help track your goals.

So you can keep a digital record rather than a written one.

That brings us to the last of the five letters in SMART and that's T for timed.

Timed means that you are date achieved by and that's a really important aspect.

Why do we do that? It will increase your motivation and persistence.

I want you to think of the calendar on the wall with the circle around the date that you're going to achieve your target by and you see it every day and that really gives you the motivation to think, "Right, I'm going to persist towards this goal." Or when times are getting tough and you don't want to go training and you're tired, that might be the motivation you need knowing that that goal has got to be completed by a certain day.

Quick check for your understanding on this aspect of SMART targets.

Which of the following does not have a timed target? Let's see what Jun's saying.

"By the end of April, I want to have improved my 50 metre butterfly time by one second." Sofia says, "I'm going to be able to hold a handstand for one minute in six weeks' time." And Izzy's goal is, "I want to improve my average goals per game by won." Which of those three targets is not timed? It was Izzy, wasn't it? Did you get that? I hope so.

The reason Izzy's is not timed, is because it's really not clear when she's going to achieve that by.

If we compare that to Jun, well, Jun's target starts with, "By the end of April," and so we know that in that last day of April, that's when we're going to check whether he's achieved his goal or not.

Likewise, Sofia's target says that in six weeks' time, she's going to be able to hold the handstand for one minute.

And so we know that if we count six weeks' time from today, that's when we can check whether she achieved her target or not.

Whereas Izzy's just doesn't tell us when she wants to achieve it by.

She might want to improve her average goals per game by one next week, next month, maybe in five years' time.

We just don't know and so we'll never know when we can actually check whether she achieved it or not.

Izzy needs to add some sort of timed aspect to her goal.

Here's your practise task for this third section of our lesson today.

I'd like to complete the table now that we've completed our look at the five SMART criteria.

So in the left-hand column, please complete the five criteria.

I've given you achievable.

In the middle column, please write down the definition of each of those criteria.

And on the right-hand side, please add the impact that you will have if you achieve that criteria when you're writing your SMART target.

Okay, so pause the video here and I'll reveal the answers.

Here is what you should have said on your table.

So we hopefully are really familiar now with that left-hand column: specific, measurable, achievable, recorded and timed.

And as the lesson has progressed, all these definitions and impacts have been shared.

So specific, that definition there is to state exactly what is to be done and the impact is it increases focus.

Measurable is to be clear about what is going to be achieved and I gave you that the impact of that is that you can assess progress over time.

Achievable criteria means that the goal is challenging, yet possible and that increases persistence.

The recorded part of it is that a goal should be written down, and that progress can be logged, and that will increase your motivation and persistence.

And finally, timed, stating when the target will be achieved by increases motivation and persistence.

Hopefully your table is complete and you got all of those.

Well done if you did.

That brings us onto our fourth and final section of today's lesson.

It's titled "Evaluating the Effectiveness of SMART Targets." And essentially now that we know what SMART targets are, we need to be able to evaluate whether somebody's SMART target is a good one or not, and be able to state why that is the case.

So analysing SMART targets is an important skill in GCSE PE.

Now, what might we need to consider when assessing a SMART target? Let's have a look.

Well, first of all, we're going to consider how well does the target meet the criteria? Has it achieved all five criteria of SMART? And secondly, we will then judge how effective the target will be.

Quick check for understanding.

This is true or false.

A target will be effective as long as it includes of the SMART target criteria.

Well done if you said false.

Why is that? Well, the most effective targets will include all five of the SMART target criteria.

We need to be aiming to include all five criteria every time we write a target with the SMART target method.

Not including some or all of them might lead to poor motivation or lack of persistence or a lack of accountability.

And so we need to make sure we're achieving all five.

Right, I'm going to give you an example here with Lucas and we're going to work together to evaluate how effective Lucas's SMART target is.

So he says that "my target is to score 90% of my free throw attempts in the next season of school basketball games.

I will keep a log after each game to track my progress." At first look, it seems like quite a good target perhaps.

So then we'll think how well does it meet the SMART criteria? And I'll model an answer for you because you're going to have a go in a moment with a different target.

So Lucas's target is specific.

There's lots of detail in there, isn't there? I really understand what he's trying to achieve.

It's very much measurable.

He's got a percentage there.

It's quantitative measure.

I will know if he's achieved it because if he gets 90% or more, he's achieved it.

If it's below 90%, then he hasn't achieved it.

It's recorded.

He said he's going to keep a log.

And it's timed because we know that it's going to cover the whole season of basketball games.

And once the last game has been played, we know his time is up.

However, and this might take a little bit of basketball knowledge here, 90% of free throw attempts is a very high percentage for somebody of his age.

In fact, the very best NBA players, professionals who dedicate their life to playing basketball, achieve around 90%.

Somebody who's still playing school basketball is very unlikely to get close to 90%.

Not even all NBA players come close to 90%.

That means that Lucas's target is probably, well, is almost certainly not achievable.

So what will be the impact and how effective will the target be? Now, this won't be an effective target because Lucas will lose motivation from it being unachievable, and he'll probably give up on it all together.

Let's think about Lucas after the second or third game of the season, and he's on about 50 or 60% free throws.

And that's not a bad percentage for somebody playing school basketball.

His target is 90% and he'll realise he's way off his target.

It will be incredibly difficult for him to get up to 90% in the future games.

And so very likely to give up on that goal all together.

What Lucas should do is change it to a more achievable percentage.

That'll help him persist towards it and make something a lot more realistic.

Lucas's target came very close to being a good SMART target.

It was just that the measurement he chose was too challenging and unachievable.

Nice try, Lucas.

What might we consider when evaluating if a goal is achievable for an athlete? Think about that.

So we're trying to decide whether the.

Well, we just did it with Lucas, didn't we? Whether the goal is going to be achievable for an athlete.

Would we look at the level the athlete currently performs at? Would we look at the athlete's favourite training method? Would we perhaps look at what similar athletes have achieved or would we look at how long the athlete has to achieve the goal? Which of those would we consider? Well done if you recognised that actually three of those would be really suitable criteria to look at when we want to evaluate if a goal is suitable or achievable.

So we want to know what level they're currently performing at.

As we just had with Lucas, school basketball player.

Perhaps saying 60% as a goal would be very achievable.

NBA player, professional, saying 60% would be too easy.

And so a goal for them to make it more achievable would perhaps be to aim for something like 85 or 90%.

What similar athletes have achieved with their experience and their age is also something that makes for a good comparison to say what is actually going to be achievable.

And how long the athlete has to achieve the goal.

If Lucas had said he wanted to achieve 90% in the next 20 years' time, we might have said that was actually achievable or particularly, or at least it was more achievable than saying he wanted to achieve it in a season of school basketball because he has 20 years to go away and dedicate himself to improving his free throw percentage.

And so perhaps if he'd said 20 years, we might have actually had a different judgement as to whether it was achievable or not.

Here's a target that I'd like you to think about evaluating here, and it's Sofia's target of "I want to run the 400 metres in two seconds faster by the end of this season.

I'll write my results in a diary." So I'll start it off for you.

Is Sofia's target specific? Yes.

She's very clear in what she wants to achieve.

I'm sure you and I are very clear in what she wants to achieve in her goal.

Is it measurable? Absolutely, of course, because it's all about times, isn't it, this target.

She wants to improve her time by two seconds and so we'll record all the 400 metre times that she achieves maybe in training or in competition, and we'll be able to then compare to how well she's getting or how close she's getting to her target.

I'd like you to answer yes or no and then state why, just as I did there on the left-hand side.

Is Sofia's target achievable? Is Sofia's target recorded? And is Sofia's target timed? Briefly you've done that task of saying yes or no and then stating why.

Just make a brief summary of how impactful you think Sofia's target is going to be, as I did earlier with Jacob's.

Pause the video here, write down your answers, and then come and join me for my answers.

Okay, so here we have Sofia again, and let's evaluate how effective her target was.

So was it an achievable target? I'm going to say yes here because improving by two seconds in the 400 metres is quite challenging, but it can be achieved through training.

It's not, you know, wildly unachievable.

It's challenging, but can be achieved.

Is Sofia's target recorded? Yes, she said she's going to keep her results written in her diary.

And is Sofia's target timed? Yes, we know that Sofia has until the end of the season to achieve her goal.

That's what she said, wasn't it? That she wanted to achieve it this season.

So in summary, how effective is this SMART target of Sofia's? Well, I wonder what your summary said, but mine say is that "Sofia's target is well written and meets all five criteria of SMART," as we would hope.

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

She can regularly assess how well she's doing and how close she is to achieving her goal." I think that's a really good example of a SMART target there by Sofia and I wish her all the best in achieving it.

I hope your answer said something similar about how good Sofia's target is because it really does meet all the criteria.

That brings us to the end of today's lesson on goal setting and the SMART principle.

Read the summary along with me.

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, recorded, and timed.

And well written SMART targets, like Sofia's, help to increase focus, motivation, and persistence.

They also provide a timeframe with which to assess progress towards a target.

Now, I love this lesson because it's a really useful skill being able to set yourself effective goals.

It's something that you can apply in your own life, be it in your sporting career, or perhaps in your academics or in any aspect of your life.

And so why don't you give it a try if you've never done that before? And good luck.

I hope you achieve it.

Nice to have you with me today.

I'll see you next time.