One process goal before training
Transcript
Pick one thing to do in training, not a score to chase. Here's the routine. You need a pen and card, or your phone. Arrive early, and choose one goal you control, like check my shoulder before every pass. Write it down and say it. After training, rate it out of ten. Watch. The pass comes, you check your shoulder, turn and shoot. First, make it something you do, not score twice. Then, do it on every pass. In one review, goals about how you play helped performance far more than goals about results. Our target is two minutes before every session. Then take the free test at footballreach.com.
What it trains
A 2-minute routine before every session: pick one process goal (something you do and control, like checking your shoulder before every pass), write it down, then rate it after training. In one review, process goals helped performance far more than outcome goals.
Set up
- A pen and a card
- Or a note on a phone
How it works
- Arrive a few minutes early. Before the warm-up, take 2 minutes on your own.
- Pick ONE process goal: one thing you will do that you control, for example "check my shoulder before every pass I receive". Not an outcome, such as "score twice".
- Write it on a card or in a phone note, then say it out loud once (or tell your coach or a parent).
- In training, do it every time the chance comes.
- After training, rate it out of 10 (how often did I do it?). Note one thing for next time, then keep the goal or pick a new one.
Coaching points
- Something you do. Make your goal a how, an action you control, like checking your shoulder before you receive. In a review of 27 sport studies (Williamson et al. 2024), process goals had a large effect on performance (d = 1.36), performance goals a smaller one (0.44) and outcome goals almost none (0.09).
- Do it every pass. Keep the same one goal for the whole session and do it every time the chance comes (every pass you receive), not only at the start.
Not this
Setting a result as your goal, such as "score twice" or "win". You cannot fully control it, and in the review, goals about results helped far less than process goals (outcome goals such as winning, almost not at all).
Dose
- Our target: 2 minutes
- Before every session
Our target: 2 minutes before every session, and a rating out of 10 after it (the Football Reach target, not an FA rule).
Harder / Easier
Harder
When you rate the same goal 8 or more three sessions in a row, pick a new one (our rule of thumb). Or ask a coach or teammate to rate it too and compare.
Easier
Make it smaller: one goal for one part of the session only, such as the passing drill, and say it instead of writing it.
Safety
- The routine comes before your warm-up, never instead of it.
- Phones stay off the pitch: write the goal before training and rate it after.
- Goals are there to help you improve, not to judge yourself. If training or a goal leaves you anxious or low for a while, talk to a parent, a coach or someone you trust.
Sources
Not sure which skill to work on first? The free Football Reach test gives you a Player Development Score and shows which of the four corners of your game to work on next, in about two minutes.
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