Setting Goals

I have to say, coaching baseball is a blast. It's not something I'd thought seriously of doing before, but now that I'm actually doing it, I'm really enjoying it. I'm coaching a bunch of 11-13-year-olds, and while we lost another game tonight (we're 0-3 on the season), there was some definite improvement throughout the team.

One of the things I started doing right off the bat is asking each kid to set a goal for each game. At the last practice, I'll ask everyone what their goal is for the game. Each kid is different; some will set a goal to get on base, some to strike out batters as a pitcher, some to record an out. And on the first day (two games), seven of the twelve kids met their goals. It was pretty exciting. Tonight, we had our third game, and once again, several kids reached their goals. My starting pitcher wanted to strike out three batters; he got six. I set a team goal as well, to get through two innings with three outs instead of the other team scoring four runs (which ends the inning). Tonight, we got three innings like that, including a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. It was fantastic.

I think that setting goals helps the kids get through the games even when they are losing. Tonight, the score was 11-4, but the kids played hard right to the end, and there was no quit in them. I was proud of them, and I told them so.

So, goals. It's important to set reasonable goals at the beginning, goals that are achievable based on the current level of ability. For the kids, some of them have the goal of just getting good contact on the ball; others set their goal to get extra-base hits. As long as it's not something crazy, like 'strike out the side on nine pitches', or 'hit for the cycle', I'm going to encourage them to keep working at it. It's a great motivator, and something that we can keep improving during the season.

But of course, this isn't just a baseball thing; it's for everything. The most successful people will always say that they are constantly striving to meet the next goal they've set. It's a very important habit to get into, one I want to instill in these kids now while they're young, so they get into the habit of doing it later in life.

Not only that, but achieving these goals shows them that they can improve, and once they've achieved the small goals, then they can set bigger ones. And by the end of the season, there will be some tallies in the win column, which is the best goal of all for a team.

One of my goals last year was to publish twenty original books. I didn't achieve it, but I got halfway there, publishing ten books on Amazon. One of them is my first mystery novel, Final Exam, the first book I published last year. It's available in ebook format right now, for the low price of $0.99 US. Check it out, and support indie publishing!