Shared Goal Board

[coach52]

Hey guys! We are about two weeks into our off-season training for my high school softball team, and it's going great. I am having a fantastic time with all the girls, and even though we are young (not one senior on the squad) I'm really looking forward to what our talented freshman and sophomores can do.

Anyways, I was talking to my assistant coach and I mentioned to him about how I want to create a shared goal pyramid/board. I want to list several goals so that the team has something to shoot for. My plan is to sit all the girls down one practice and have them list their individual goals and team goals.

However, I'm struggling as to what types of shared team goals I should come up with. On previous high school softball teams I have been a part of, the HC would be very specific. One goal was to only commit two errors in a game, another only strikeout 8 times a game, etc. Then there were more broader based goals, such as winning 15 games, winning conference, winning sectionals, etc.

In your opinion, how should I approach this? Should I focus on game by game goals (breaking the season up into sections, and saying we want to be 5-2 after 7 games, etc.)? And should I be specific (the 2 errors per game suggestion)? Should I push them on setting exceptionally high individual goals?

Any help would be great! Thanks!

 

[doublesteal]

We did this with our girls fro nationals last year. We made them set realistic goals (although some set unrealistic ones) Each girl had to set 3-5 personal goals and 3-5 team goals. We tried to make thier goals ones that couldnt be ruined right away (or example one girl had a goal of not dropping her hands while she batted - she had struggled with this through the season .. we had her chage it to not drop my hands ore than x amount of times). At first they all thought it was stupid but when our first girl reached her goal (throwing a girl out at home from the outfield) they all rushed her and congratualted her after the inning. It made it nice to show the girls that even if they lost they still accomplished something.

Some examples of personal goals - making a diving catcg, pick 2 runers off of 3rd, not hit more than 3 flyballs, turn a double play, have 9 strike outs, hit atleast 2 extra base hits, steal 4 bases
examples of Team goals were - have a shut out, run rule a team, commit less than 2 errors in a game, have more than 10 extra base hits as a team, less than 8 stike outs as a team