Why are you playing tennis? What do you want to accomplish on the court? Whether your plan is to be a casual player who just enjoys the sport and camaraderie that comes with it, or you’re determined to be a highly competitive player, these questions need to be answered.
Success in sports – or just about anything in life – starts with setting appropriate goals. Depending on what you’d like to accomplish as a tennis player, it’s essential to have goals that make sense for your specific situation.
Goals are important because it’s the best way to get the most out of your performance. It’s hard to know whether you’re successful or not if you don’t know where you want to go or what you’d like to achieve in any kind of endeavor. Maintaining the motivation necessary to reach these goals will remain deep inside you as long as you’re seeing legitimate progress on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.
Mental preparation such as this is a vital piece to the puzzle for any tennis player. At our adidas tennis camps, we help players tackle both the physical and the mental side of the game each summer. We know that to reach whatever goals you have for yourself, you need to have both a sound body and mind.
Why Goals Matter
If you need more concrete reasons as to why goals are necessary for success, here are five that will probably help:
Goals help provide perspective for what’s important to you. If you make a goal to improve your serve over a specific period of time, it’ll be important for you to work at it and actually get better.
Goals also help sustain the motivation necessary to get to the desired result. If you’re not seeing the kind of growth in your serve that you hoped for, having that goal will motivate you to find different ways to make it a reality.
Goals allow you to truly be the best you can be. Nobody is perfect, and that’s especially true on the tennis court – everyone makes mistakes. Working toward something will ensure that your effort level stays up.
There’s a lot of physical work that goes into reaching athletic goals, but it also forces you to think in different ways and employ different strategies. If your pre-serve routine isn’t yielding the results you’ve been looking for, you’ll be motivated to try and tweak it or do something completely different to achieve your desired outcome.
Finally, goals allow you to direct your attention and action – you have a purpose when you step on the court for practice. You can’t just say, “I want to get better today” and expect to do that. The questions you should be asking yourself include, “What do I want to get better at today?” and “How am I going to get better at it?”
Different Kinds of Goals
Of course, there are a number of different kinds of goals a tennis player can set depending on what they want to accomplish. Here’s how to think about the different types:
Performance Goals
You know how we hear certain people say “Trust the Process” all the time? Well, that’s pretty much what this is. If you adequately prepare yourself for something – whether it’s a tournament, match, or even just a particular point within a match – the results can usually take care of themselves.
These goals are where players engage in process-oriented standards that are emphasized in order to achieve a particular outcome.
Outcome Goals
These kinds of goals are also just what they sound like – at the end of the day, it’s the outcome, or result, that really matters the most. Whereas players have a lot of control over performance goals, players and coaches have much less control over outcome goals because there are more outside variables that are involved here.
Effort-Based Goals
Did you give something everything you’ve got? Then you’ve probably achieved your effort-based goal, whatever it may be. These goals aren’t specific to any kind of standards or outcome, as the main mission is to just leave everything out on the court.
Simple Guideline to Follow
At the end of the day, goals are set because you’d like to achieve an improved performance. But how should you be setting these goals? Are there certain general guidelines that you can follow? The answer to that question is yes!
Use the SMARTER method, which is explained below:
Specific: Make sure you know what you’re trying to accomplish.
Measurable: You should know how you can achieve your goal.
Accepted: Can you attain this goal? Is it worth your time? The answers should be yes.
Recorded: Make a contract with yourself by writing the goals down.
Time-constrained: Put a time limit on when you’d like to achieve your goal.
Exciting: Check in on your progress.
Recorded: This is the same as before, but different – make sure to document your progress so you know how everything is going.
All athletes – tennis players included – are motivated by something. Whether it’s to find a new passion, play the game at the next level, improve one aspect of their game, or something else, it’s always there. There’s nothing wrong with setting very specific goals if that helps you focus on what you’d like to achieve. It can be tough to stay focused on some long-term goals on a day-to-day basis, so it may also be a good idea to physically write out your goals and put it in an area where you’ll see it every day and be reminded exactly why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Ready to take your tennis game to the next level this summer? Find an adidas Tennis Camp near you and register today!
