25 personal goals for football players, for every position and the offseason

Personal goals for football players

Personal goals belong to one player and do not move with the depth chart. A player in a spring sport writes them the same way, as these softball goals show.

• Learn every play for your position before the first game.
• Write 3 lines in a football notebook after every practice this season.
• Do 10 minutes of mobility work before every practice for 12 weeks.
• Rep tackling form with a coach at walking speed before every full speed drill of camp.
• Tell a coach, a parent and the athletic trainer every time you think you or a teammate may have a concussion.

Offseason speed and strength goals for football players

Offseason numbers are the ones the NFL Combine tests: the 40-yard dash, bench press reps at 225 pounds, two jumps and two cone drills. They are results, and the reps below are what move them. For a shorter block of training, pick one of these fitness challenge ideas.

• Lift with the team 4 days a week through the summer.
• Run 10 starts of 10 yards, twice a week, for 8 weeks.
• Run the 5-10-5 shuttle 5 times a session, twice a week, and log the best time.
• Add 3 reps at your test weight on the bench press by the start of camp.
• Take 0.1 seconds off your 40-yard dash before the first game.

Football position goals: quarterbacks, receivers, linemen and more

Position goals count the rep your coach grades on film. Linemen win with their hands and feet, the same hand fighting and falling that BJJ goals train on the mat.

• Quarterbacks: take 100 dropbacks with a throw at the end, 3 days a week.
• Running backs: go 5 practices in a row without a fumble in team drills.
• Receivers: catch 100 balls a day with your hands, away from your chest, for 4 weeks.
• Linemen: fire out of your stance 50 times a day and check your first step on film once a week.
• Defensive backs: do 20 backpedal and break reps at every practice of the season.

Film study and football IQ goals

Film study goals count hours and notes, and they are how a player learns the game without taking a single hit.

• Watch 2 hours of film a week through the season.
• Write down 3 things the next opponent does on third down before every game.
• Watch every one of your own snaps from the last game before the next practice.
• Learn 20 plays well enough to draw them from memory.
• Quiz yourself on the game plan for 10 minutes a day in game week.

Team and leadership goals for football players

Team goals are habits the whole roster can share, from the huddle to the sideline, where the cheer goals of the squad beside you run on the same game days.

• Be early to every meeting, lift and practice this season.
• Help a younger player learn 10 plays before the first game.
• Commit 3 penalties or fewer as a team in 6 games out of 10.
• Stand and cheer on the sideline for every snap your unit is off the field.
• Do community service with the team 3 times this year.

What are good goals for football players?

Good goals for football players are about what you do on each rep. A review of 27 studies of goal setting in sport found that process goals, the ones about how you carry out a skill, had the largest effect on performance (1.36). Performance goals, like a 40 time, came next (0.44). Outcome goals, like winning, had almost none (0.09).

Few sports measure as much. At the NFL Combine, players run the 40-yard dash with times taken at 10, 20 and 40 yards, bench press 225 pounds as many times as they can, jump for height and for distance, and run the 3-cone drill and the 5-10-5 shuttle. Those numbers are outcomes. Breaking a goal into smaller ones turns "run a faster 40" into 10 starts twice a week.

Make the reps good ones, and safe ones. A review of sports studies found that deliberate practice explained 18 percent of the differences in performance. Learn tackling from a coach, slow first. If you think you or a teammate may have a concussion, the CDC says to tell a coach, a parent and the athletic trainer, and not to return to play that day. Only a health care provider can say when it is OK to play again.

How to track football goals

Log your reps the day you do them. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that the effect was larger when progress was written down or shared.

Catches, throws and film hours are amounts that add up. Lifting days, practices and game weeks are day counts. An offseason is a long stretch with no score on it, which is exactly when a count helps.

A hundred catches a day for 4 weeks is 2,800 catches. A picture that fills with every rep you log shows the offseason that no stat sheet records.

Frequently asked questions

What are good personal goals for football players?

Counts you control: 100 catches a day, 2 hours of film a week, 50 first steps out of your stance, every lift of the summer. Add one goal for your position, one for speed or strength and one for the team.

What are SMART goals for football players?

Goals with a number, a date and a plan. For example: add 3 reps at my test weight on the bench press by the first day of camp, lifting 4 days a week. It says what, how much, by when and how.

What drills are at the NFL Combine?

The 40-yard dash, timed at 10, 20 and 40 yards. The bench press at 225 pounds, for as many reps as possible. The vertical jump, the broad jump, the 3-cone drill and the 5-10-5 shuttle. They test the work, which is why most goals on this list are about the work.