Set S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals for the 2023-24 Ski Race Season

Goal setting is a simple and practical mental tool to motivate you in your ski racing.  People fundamentally respond to goals in a profound and personal way. The experience of setting a goal, working toward a goal, and achieving a goal has a powerful emotional impact that keeps us striving toward higher goals we set for ourselves. 

Goals offer two essential things that fuel your motivation. First, they provide the destination of where you want to go in your ski racing. This endpoint is necessary because if you don’t know where you’re going, you will stay where you are. Second, having a place you want to go doesn’t have much value if you don’t know how to get there. Goals provide the roadmap for getting to your destination

Set S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals

The acronym S.M.A.R.T.E.R. represents five criteria that you can use to get the most out of your goal setting:

Specific.

Your goals should be specific to what you want to accomplish. For example, a goal that is too general might be: “I want to ski faster.” Instead, you want to identify what aspects of your skiing need to improve to ski faster. A more appropriate goal might be: “I will work on skiing more aggressively in my training.” The more specific you can get, the more you can focus on what you need to do in your training to improve that area.

Measurable.

“Do your best” goals aren’t very effective because they don’t offer an adequate benchmark to strive for. Instead, you want to set goals that are measurable and objective. For example, a measurable goal might be: “I want to reduce my FIS points by 50 by the end of the season.”

Accepted.

Taking ownership of your ski racing is essential for your success in the sport. Ownership is no less critical in the goals you set. Goals set by your parents or coaches will not fully inspire or motivate you because they come from outside yourself. You won’t feel real investment because they aren’t yours. When you set goals that you believe deeply in, they will be woven into the fabric of your motivation, and following them comes naturally and isn’t a choice. . 

Realistic.

You want to set goals that are both realistic and challenging. Realistic means that you can achieve them but they are challenging because you can only achieve them through hard work. Setting your goals too low will have little motivational value because you know you’ll reach them without much effort. On the other hand, you don’t want to set your goals too high if you know you can’t achieve them, so you’ll have little incentive to put out any effort. 

Time limited.

The best goals are those that have a time limit for their achievement. You will feel highly motivated to put in the time and energy necessary to reach them when you have set a deadline to achieve them. For example, a goal might be: “To improve my strength and power, I’m going to increase the weight on my power cleans by 20 pounds by doing five sets of power cleans three times a week for the next six weeks.”

Exciting.

Your motivation to strive toward your goals is driven by the emotions you associate with those goals. These emotions can decide whether you achieve your goals when faced with setbacks, failures, disappointment, fatigue, pain, tedium, and the desire to do other, more interesting things. So it’s important to set goals that inspire and excite you.

Recorded.

You are more likely to stay committed to pursuing your ski racing goals when you write them down (and not just type them into your phone or computer) rather than just thinking about them. The physical act of writing your goals down helps imprint them more deeply in your psyche. Writing them down also makes the goals more tangible and real. Physically writing down your goals will give you a greater sense of ownership and compel you to strive for your goals.  

S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Guidelines

Several other guidelines can help you set goals that will give you the maximum benefit.

Focus on the degree of attainment. Goal setting is still an inexact process because it is impossible to set goals that you can be sure you can achieve. Because of this uncertainty in the goal-setting process, your focus when you set and strive for goals should be their degree of attainment rather than absolute achievement. 

Absolute attainment means accomplishing the goal in its entirety. For example, returning to the power clean example above, you must increase your lifts by 20 pounds to achieve the goal. Adhering to absolute attainment is a recipe for failure because it leaves only a small window for accomplishing the goal and a massive window for not. 

In contrast, the degree of attainment emphasizes improvement toward the goal. Again using the power clean example, if, after six weeks, you have increased your weight by 15 pounds, though your absolute goal wasn’t attained, your improvement would be deemed a success.  A degree of attainment shows you are making progress toward a goal.  

Review your goals regularly.  Try to make it a habit of reviewing your ski racing goals monthly and comparing them to your actual progress. It can also be helpful to review them with your coaches, who can provide valuable feedback you can use to make adjustments that will further motivate you to pursue your goals. You should view goal setting as a dynamic and ever-evolving process of review, adjustment, and recommitment.

Types of Goals to Set

Goal setting involves establishing goals that start big picture and get increasingly specific and actionable. 

• Long-term goals: What you ultimately want to achieve in your sport (e.g., skiing in college, making the U.S. Ski Team, winning an Olympic gold medal).
• Yearly goals: What you want to achieve this year (e.g., qualifying for a new level of races such as Regionals or Nationals, lowering your points to a certain level).
• Performance goals: What results do you need to achieve your yearly goals (e.g., finish in the top 10 to qualify for the next race series)?
• Preparation goals: How you need to train and what you need to improve to reach your higher goals (e.g., physical, technical, mental).
• Lifestyle goals: What you need to do in your daily lifestyle to reach the above goals (e.g., sleep, eating habits, study habits).

Decide what you think are reasonable goals using the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. guidelines and the other criteria I described.  If you are unsure of the goals to set, I recommend you sit down with your coaches and prepare your goals collaboratively. They often have objective experience and perspective on your development that can help you set the best goals to motivate you to ski your fastest next season.