The Importance of setting goals and owning your goals. Make them real, and measure.

Goals. Everyone has them. But, they're usually an idea. There are a thousand sayings out there.

"A dream that is written down with a date becomes a goal."

"A goal that is not written down is a dream or a wish." 

Now, goal setting is different depending on ages and what we're trying to achieve. You'd be surprised at the number of kids that we ask that want to play lacrosse at a high level OR,  they want to attend an amazing University, OR they want to win a state championship, OR getting a starting role on their football team. 

We then ask the question, are you giving the effort to get the grades to attend that University today? Are you putting in the effort to play at Michigan TODAY? Are you doing the reps needed to be the best version of yourself? 

Most often, the answer is, "well, not really."

Young men especially struggle with time management and planning. We start our goal setting process with all of our student athletes with a few questions.

"What does success mean to you?"

"What does being a leader mean to you?"

"How do you build confidence?"

At the end of the day, this is about building confidence with our student athletes. That confidence boils over to every facet of life. How do we build confidence? With reps. You can't be the best version of yourself without confidence. So, time to start repping it out.

Reps in studying, reps in being a good sibling, wall ball reps. 

We help our student athletes set goals that range anywhere from 6 months to 3 years depending on age. We then take the qualitative side of it, and we make it quantitative. We break down the longer goal to weekly tasks. Mom and dad don't write these down. Our student athlete does. After all, if ownership falls on our kids they're more likely to do it through independence than being instructed to do something! 

Now, does this work out perfectly? Of course not. Weeks are missed. Weekly plans aren skipped. We missed a workout or two.

No person got anywhere without a little help. A little help from their coaches, a little help or nudge from their parents.

As your son is on this journey, I believe in freedom of choice. I also believe that these kids are 8 -13 years old. They're babies! They're young. They need guidance, and yes, a little tough love here and there.

We look forward to going on this journey with your son. With the proper tools, and the proper support, they'll achieve whatever they set their minds to. There will be bumps along the way. They also might not achieve their exact goal, but another great saying is,

"the journey is more important than the destination"

-Coach Gervat