How To Set And Reach Your Wrestling Goals
Every wrestler has dreams of standing on top of the podium at some point in their career. Some may wish to win their county tournament, while others may have the dream of being a state champion or even a national champion. If you want to reach your goal, you must have a plan in place to do so; a wrestler doesn’t accidentally become a state champ. It takes hard work, dedication, and planning. So here are some tips to help you set and reach your goals.
Determine Your Goals
The first step is to determine what YOUR goals really are. Often times, people set goals for themselves that are not actually their goals, they are the goals of a coach or parent or they are just setting goals they think sound good to other people. You need to be totally honest with yourself about what you want to achieve during your wrestling career. Your coach or parents might want you to earn a college scholarship for wrestling, but is that what you really want? Chasing someone else’s goals for your life will lead to a lot of frustration on and off the mat.
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The next part about determining your goals is to figure out both short and long term goals. Let’s say you are a freshman in high school and you want to be a 2026 NCAA champ, that is great but you should also set up some short term goals as well, like maybe a goal of being a 2020 state champ. A great way to do it would be to set up a six month goal, a one year goal, a three year goal, a five year goal, and a ten year goal. Making short term goals and accomplishing them is a great way to keep yourself motivated to accomplish your long term goals.
Make Your Goals Realistic
When setting goals they need to be realistic. If it is your first year wrestling, instead of having a goal of being state champ this season, your short term goal should be to make varsity and have a winning record and your long term goal should be to be a state champ your senior year as an example. Making unattainable goals can lead to frustration and may even cause you to give up on wrestling all together.
Write Your Goals Down
Another important part of setting goals is writing them down. Studies have shown that people who write their goals down are more likely to achieve them than those who don’t. Be sure to write them down somewhere you won’t forget. Don’t write them on a napkin that will get wadded up and thrown away. Buy a journal or notebook and write your goals down that way you won’t forget or lose them.
Also, be sure to read the goals you have set for yourself as often as possible. Whatever you write your goals down in, keep it accessible. You should also make copies of your goal list and tape one to your bathroom mirror and in your locker so you are reading it multiple times a day. Keeping your goals at the forefront of your mind is very important, it will help keep you focused. Check out this video from Ricky Lundell talking about his 1% method.
Make Action Steps
After you have determined what your goals are, under each, write down the action steps you need to do to achieve the goal. If you goal is to be a state champ this season, one of your action steps may be to write down a list of techniques you need to work on during the season. You could write down how many you need to hit each day after practice. The more action steps you write down and the more specific you are the better. If you feel like you need help doing this, ask a coach or a training partner for help.
Find Someone To Help You
When you are on a journey to achieve something big, it is helpful to have people around to you encourage you and keep you accountable. If you are serious about being a state champ or earning a college scholarship, share these goals with your coach and training partners so they can help you. They are people who are with you almost everyday and can give you a different perspective of what you may need to change in your training. Use the experiences of others to your benefit.
Reassess Your Goals
One of the reasons it is important to set short term goals and write down action steps, is because once the time has passed, whether you accomplished it or not, go back and reevaluate the process and the result. If you succeeded, are there things you did that were a waste of time or things you still need to work on? If you failed, figure out why. Do you need to spend more time on the mat? Do you need to spend more time in the weight room? Should you enter more off season tournaments? Be honest with yourself and take what you have learned and use it to alter your action steps for the goals you are still trying to reach.
Hopefully these steps help you to set a plan for you to achieve your goals. Imagine a cargo ship leaving the harbor and not having a final destination or route to get here. The ship will just be aimlessly floating around the water until the captain determines where the ship is going and the path it needs to take to get there. You only have a short window in your life to accomplish the things you want to in wrestling, be sure to make the most of your time.
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