Setting PRocess Goals

We are in the final weeks before we start a new training year which is the best time to think about next season’s goals. Having clear goals for the future can help keep us motivated and focused throughout the summer, but more importantly these goals should guide our training on a daily basis. Knowing exactly how the training we are doing TODAY is helping us get closer to our winter racing goals is invaluable. 

This is achieved by having clear Outcome goals (Result based ski racing goals such as qualifying for a team, championships, or finishing on the podium.) 

But more importantly writing down several Process goals (specific benchmarks and specific improvements you can make in your training to help you reach your outcome goals) 

Hopefully you have been able to take some time to reflect on the previous season and write down what went well and what did not. Learning from last season and writing down the things you would like to improve on is a great start to identifying process goals but it is far from the same thing. 

For example, it would be common for a junior skier to have the following rationale: 

“My outcome goal for the season is to qualify for Junior Nationals. My process goals to get there are to improve my skate technique, increase my strength, and stay healthy during the season” 

This is a great place to start but in my opinion these don’t quite qualify as process goals. These are more Performance goals. In order for an athlete to know exactly what they can do TODAY to get better we need to break things down even further and identify several more layers of goal setting. 

Below I have taken our imaginary Junior skier's goals and built a process goal flow chart. We want to strike a balance between listing specific processes but not listing so many that it becomes overwhelming. 

Sverre Caldwell used to have us list similar information in a pyramid style, both techniques work great at identifying 4-5 process goals for each performance based goal. 

For more information on setting team goals check out the Creating Common Goals entry and for our weekly goal sheet check out the Weekly Goal Sheet entry.