Photo by Micaela Parente on Unsplash
New York, NY (September 2022) — Setting goals can be tricky.
Shoot for things that are out of your reach and you could end up being frustrated. Setting simple goals you can accomplish in a flash will make you feel better, but you’ll never make any overall progress.
Like the tale of Goldilocks (“too hard, too soft, just right”), the way to succeed in goal-setting is to find the “just right” balance that will keep you working, but won’t wipe you out completely.
I work from a menu of different goals. I guarantee there are going to be some that fit the situation of any fencer or anyone who wants to get better at what they do.
Level 1 Goals: Base Camp
Deep Joy and Passion Goals: If you love and have passion about what you are doing then you will always be a winner. Enjoying what you do is critical. Loving the sport and enjoying the process of working hard is a must-have, whether you’re winning, losing, successful or frustrated.
Learning Goals: There are small victories in learning and gaining experience that are essential at the outset of any fencer's competitive career. Learning something, even through a difficult experience, is always a victory!
Hard Work Goals: How much you are training, that you are training consistently, how many practices you are attending are all hard work goals. These goals should align with your competitive and results goals.
Participation Goals: Being at tournaments is a victory that requires bravery. Putting yourself out there is necessary to get the experience you need to be successful.
Planning and Knowledge Goals: This looks different also depending on where you are in the process, but is critical for a successful season. Learning how things work, what tournaments you attend, what events you want to qualify for are all examples.
Level 2 Goals: Competition Success
Commitment Goals: Committing yourself to compete in a certain number of tournaments or to attend a certain number of practices, no matter the outcome. One of the worst mistakes people make is stopping after a bad tournament or experience. Everyone has runs of bad tournaments in the same way you can go through a run of good results. Keep working. In every experience, there is data to be looked at and evaluated.
Results Goals: Choose a goal based on the level you’re competing at today and where you want to be. Maybe it’s as simple as fencing up a level or perhaps it’s specific, like wanting to finish in the top-8 of all tournaments in your age-category.
Measuring Progress Goals: Set time to reflect on your progress. Sit down with your data and your coach and discuss your progress at least twice each season. If you have fenced multiple seasons, you can measure your progress against where you finished in prior seasons. Taking the time to reflect on progress and make adjustments when they are necessary is a winning move.
Qualification Goals: Qualifying for things such as the Summer Nationals, Junior Olympics, traveling to international tournaments or making a national or Olympic team.
Level 3 Goals: Pathways to Long-Term Success
Ranking Goals: Wanting to be ranked at a certain level in various age/level categories.
Long-Term Goals: Fencing For a college team, competing internationally, making a national team
Long-Term Progress Goals: Tracking progress over a longer range.
“Extra Work” Goals: If the only time you are working to improve is during a lesson or class, you won’t be able to achieve your best. Extra work goals can include things like doing 20 minutes of footwork on your own 3-4x per week, doing 20 minutes of target work at home or the club 2-3 times per week. Working out x # of hours per week. Etc. These are goals you should also discuss with your coaches. Watching fencing videos, doing video analysis etc. are all things that you can do to put yourself over the top.
The “Make It Work” at Every Practice Goal: The key to an effective practice starts with the fencer’s attitude and mindset. Make the most out of every practice. There is no such thing as a “perfect practice.” There are only effective and ineffective practices. If a fencer is thinking about what is missing from a practice, they aren’t thinking about how they can better. Put your head down and do the work — you can make any practice a perfect practice for you.
Gold Medal Goals: Dreaming and thinking as big as you want about your future. Don’t put any limits. Envision it, feel it and think about it.
Personal Goals: Personal goals can come in all shapes and sizes from wanting to beat a certain fencer, to executing a different move successfully to anything that matters to you.