Goal Setting For Soccer, Part 4 - Making a Schedule

You've got your SMART goals and you are well on your way. You've done more than 95% of soccer players (or athletes) have done. Yet there still are things you must do to help insure your success. The most important one is to monitor how you are doing. There are two ways to do this.

Making A Calendar

A calendar is the easiest and most important step. Let's say you have decided that you are going to run 10 x 100 sprints every day of the week for one month. You have set this goal so that you can be faster and in better condition for the upcoming season. You also decided that every night you would do 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups.

You would make a chart, that would have eight columns across and three rows down. The first column would be for your goals. The top row is for the days of the week.

In the first column write your exercises.

It would look like this:

Exercises Mon Tue Wed Thr Fri Sat Sun

Run
Pushups
Situps

You would need four more calendars, one for each week of the month.

Keep this schedule where you can see it and it's easy to get to. On the refrigerator works as does in a place in your room where you can see it.

Each time you workout, you put an X in one of the boxes. You could also record the number of exercises done.

Grading Your Progress

Just recording how you are doing is great. I have found that kids (and adults too) tend to overestimate what they are capable of and willing to do.

In this case, there are 21 opportunities to workout. That might not be possible. Life has a way of getting in the way sometimes. So the next step is to decide how many would be worth an A, B, or C. I believe in being an easy grader, so let's say

A = 16
B = 14
C = 12

Of course, you can choose any percentage you want. I don't believe in going lower than a C. If you're not doing at least a C level, then it's time to reevaluate your goals and motivations.

Making a schedule like this is crucial to keeping you on track for achieving your goals. Try it for one week or one month and see how you do. I guarantee you'll see positive results.

Be sure to read the next chapter on setting soccer goals.