As a softball team leader, it's your responsibility to ensure that your team is continually progressing in its game play, from playing together as a team to calling the right plays at the right time. To continually progress and improve, goal-setting is a vital part of the coaching or leadership process. Through goals, you help motivate your team members to become better through hard work and extra motivation. Setting the right type of goals could mean the difference between a winning or losing season.
Teamwork
Teamwork is the basis for any successful softball team, which is why it should be the top of the list when you set goals together. With softball, there truly is no "i" in team, because it's a game of collectives: even a star player can't be successful without the backing of a team. Since teamwork can be an illusive and fluid goal, it's important to take set steps to create better teamwork, including drills and practices but also spending time together off the field for better unity.
Strategy
Softball requires strategy for winning. When the bases are loaded, a coach must work with his players to decide how best to approach winning and which plays should be called. Strategy often happens not on the field but in the practice room, where players and coaching staff can review tapes of the latest games, size up their competition and talk about the best way to approach each individual game. Setting a goal to improve strategy through better practices and working together ensures a more successful team.
Process
Goals have two categories: process-based and outcome-based. When setting goals based on the process, you need to define how those goals will be accomplished. Process-based goals for softball that help improve your team include having better practices, spending more time together as a team and encouraging team attendance to ensure that all of the team members become more proficient in the sport. As a coach or team leader, it's up to you to define manageable, achievable process-based goals and then providing ways to stay on track, such as sending out extra reminders for practices to achieve those team goals.
Outcome
All of the softball teams in a league want to win a championship, but only one will. Because of this, outcome-based goals can be difficult to achieve when they're too lofty. If you want to make outcome-based goals, base them on benchmarks you know your team can achieve. Instead of "winning the championship," try "show improved standings" or "beat a longtime rival." Setting these types of goals keeps your team motivated to improve without creating unrealistic expectations. That way, you can work on specific skills instead of "winning" as a whole.
Member Comments