What are examples of goals for athletes?

Do the full warm up before every practice. Take 0.2 seconds off a 30 m sprint by 1 May. Attend 100 practices this year. Write 3 lines in a training journal after each session. The first and last are process goals, the second is a performance goal, the third is a count.

What is the difference between process, performance and outcome goals?

An outcome goal is about a result against others, like winning. A performance goal is about your own number, like a time. A process goal is about how you do the skill, like keeping your head still. In a review of 27 studies, process goals had the largest effect on performance.

What are good goals for a student athlete?

One sport goal, one school goal and one sleep goal. The CDC recommends 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night for teens aged 13 to 17, and it is easy to lose in a busy season. Write all three on the same sheet.

How many goals should an athlete have?

Three to five for a season: one outcome to aim at, one or two performance numbers, and two process goals to work on every week. More than that and none of them gets attention at practice.

30 goals for athletes: process, performance, short term and long term examples

Updated October 1, 2026

Dot grid filling in as practices are ticked off across an athlete's season

Athletes set three kinds of goal: outcome goals about winning, performance goals about their own numbers, and process goals about how they train and play. Research on sport found that process goals move performance the most. Here are 30 examples of athletic goals for any sport, sorted by kind, with one count to track each week.

Process goals for athletes

Process goals are about what you do in practice, and they are the ones fully in your hands.

Do your full warm up before every practice for a season.
Pick one technical cue for each practice and note afterwards if you held it.
Watch video of yourself once a week.
Arrive 10 minutes early to every practice for a month.
Ask your coach for one correction every week.

Performance goals for athletes

Performance goals are your own numbers, measured against your last test and not against other people. In track and field goals they are times and distances.

Set a personal best in one test this season.
Improve one measured skill by 5 percent in 12 weeks.
Raise your accuracy on one skill by 10 points out of 100.
Beat your pre-season test results at mid-season.
Finish the team fitness test above the standard.

Short term goals for athletes

Short term goals fit inside a week or a month, so you can tell quickly if they are working.

Train 4 times this week.
Sleep 8 hours on 5 nights this week.
Do 15 minutes of extra skill work after 3 practices this week.
Stretch for 10 minutes after every practice this month.
Eat a full meal within 2 hours of every practice this week.

Long term goals for athletes

Long term goals cover a season or a year. Each sport has its own, like these goals for soccer players and goals for basketball players.

Make the team, or the starting line up.
Compete in every event of the season.
Attend 100 practices this year.
Do your strength and injury prevention routine twice a week all season.
Move up one level next year.

Strength and conditioning goals

Strength and conditioning goals are built in the off season and kept up during it.

Lift 2 times a week through the off season.
Add 10 kg to your squat in 12 weeks.
Do 10 pull-ups in a row.
Run 5 km in under 25 minutes.
Finish the whole off season programme without missing a week.

Mental and team goals

Mental goals are habits of attention, and they can be counted like any other.

Write 3 lines in a training journal after every practice for a month.
Use the same routine before every match of the season.
Picture your event in detail for 5 minutes a day for 30 days.
After every game, write one thing you did well and one to fix.
Say one useful thing to a teammate at every practice.

What kind of goal works best for athletes?

Process goals. A review of 27 studies of goal setting in sport measured the effect of each kind of goal on performance. Process goals, about how you carry out a skill, had the largest effect (1.36). Performance goals, about your own results, came next (0.44). Outcome goals, about winning or placing, had almost none (0.09).

That does not mean you should stop wanting to win. It means the win is the direction, and the goals you write down are the things that lead to it. "Win the league" sits at the top of the page. "Full warm up before every practice" is what you tick off.

More hours are only part of it. A review of sports studies found that deliberate practice explained 18 percent of the differences in performance, and 1 percent among elite athletes. So set goals about what you do in a session, not only about how many sessions you do.

A SMART goal for an athlete, written out

A SMART goal names the thing, the number and the date. "Get faster" becomes "Take 0.2 seconds off my 30 m sprint by 1 May, with two speed sessions a week." The full method is in our guide to SMART goals.

A review of 35 years of goal research found that specific, hard goals lead to higher performance than being told to do your best. "Do your best" is easy to say. A number and a date is better.

How to track goals as an athlete

Write it down after every practice. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often. The effect was larger when progress was physically recorded, and larger again when it was reported to someone. A coach or a teammate will do.

Practices are a day count. Reps, shots and kilometres are amounts. The research behind goal tracking covers both.

A season is long, and most of it is training nobody sees. A picture that fills up one practice at a time shows the work behind the result.

Frequently asked questions

What are examples of goals for athletes?: Do the full warm up before every practice. Take 0.2 seconds off a 30 m sprint by 1 May. Attend 100 practices this year. Write 3 lines in a training journal after each session. The first and last are process goals, the second is a performance goal, the third is a count.
What is the difference between process, performance and outcome goals?: An outcome goal is about a result against others, like winning. A performance goal is about your own number, like a time. A process goal is about how you do the skill, like keeping your head still. In a review of 27 studies, process goals had the largest effect on performance.
What are good goals for a student athlete?: One sport goal, one school goal and one sleep goal. The CDC recommends 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night for teens aged 13 to 17, and it is easy to lose in a busy season. Write all three on the same sheet.
How many goals should an athlete have?: Three to five for a season: one outcome to aim at, one or two performance numbers, and two process goals to work on every week. More than that and none of them gets attention at practice.