Topics: Goal Setting, Coaching
Impacted domains: All performers
Researchers: Ollie Williamson, Christian Swann, Kyle J.M. Bennett, Matthew D. Bird, Scott G. Goddard, Matthew J. Schweickle & Patricia C. Jackman
Study type: Systematic review and meta-analysis
Intro
Before the start of a game, match, or big event, your team huddles around you. As the coach or person responsible for them, you feel you need to light a fire in them.
“We’ve been training hard,” you say. “Now is the time to go out and show it. We have got to win this! We are going to win this! Don’t accept defeat. We will snatch victory from their hands. I expect nothing less!”
While your speech sounds like it could belong in a Disney movie, sport and performance psychology research is actually quite conclusive: telling your athletes to focus in on the outcome that they’re trying to achieve isn’t the most beneficial.
You want to set their intentions on things that are within their control.
What are these called in the goal-setting framework? Process goals
What is goal setting in sport and performance psychology?
In this field, a goal is generally defined as what an individual or team is trying to achieve—or the object or aim of an action.” We further divide this into three distinct categories in sport and performance psychology:
Outcome goals: focusing on the end result. Winning a match, event, game, etc.
Performance goals: focusing on quantifiable achievements or task-outcomes. E.g.: free-throw percentage (basketball), first-serve percentage (tennis).
Process goals: focusing on specific actions or techniques an athlete must execute during performance. E.g.: using breathing reset between plays, following a routine, managing somatic anxiety.
What did researchers do?
To settle the debate on the effects of outcome, performance, and process goals, researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. They screened over 17,000 articles, ultimately narrowing down to 27 studies involving 1,764 participants.
The researchers did not look at whether the athletes “won” based on goal types, but rather analyzed how different goal types affected task performance, self-efficacy, anxiety, and effort
Their findings: process goals had the largest impact
The results were definitive. Goal setting works, and it provides a significant, medium-sized boost to the performance of individuals and athletes. Most importantly, the type of goal that you set makes the biggest difference.
Process goals over others: goals focused on controllables had a powerful effect on performance, compared to a much smaller effect for performance goals and an almost negligible effect for outcome goals.
Impact on confidence: process goals were also the most effective for increasing self-efficacy. When athletes focused on what was within their control (actions, behaviors in scenarios) they felt more capable over the long-run, which directly led to better and improved performances.
Reduced anxiety: self-referenced goals (this is where performance goals also enter the picture) tended to reduce cognitive anxiety (racing thoughts, fear, mind chatter, etc.) and somatic anxiety (elevated heart rate, muscular tension, jitters, etc.) in some studies. Conversely, outcome goals that have an ego component—i.e. goals based around comparison and beating others—often increased anxiety and reduced long-term engagement and enjoyment.
Improved psychological well-being: researchers also found some correlational benefits with process goal setting such as improved motivation, effort, enjoyment, commitment and satisfaction.
Real life example
Legendary coach John Wooden was known for his dominance at UCLA—winning 10 national championships—and encouraging athletes to be process and performance oriented. In fact, this is how he defined success:
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”
Wooden also emphasized principles such as continued progress, trusting the process, and only measuring yourself against your past self—not opponents. If we apply his outlook to the sport and performance psychology goal setting framework, Wooden emphasized performance and process, and trusting in the outcome if one prepared and performed their best.
Limitations
While findings are powerful, there are important caveats. A large portion of the research involved novice athletes, who are more impacted by goal types compared to experienced competitive veterans. It’s also important to consider that a lot of studies are conducted in “lab settings” rather than the heat of play-off games etc.
How you can apply this information
Think about these key shifts for your athletes and teams:
First: prioritize how over the what. During practice and pre-game talks, shift the focus away from “We need to win this,” or “You need to get some points” (outcome focus) toward specific process goals. Example: “Let’s execute our plays with quality,” or “When the whistle blows, I want you to be here, present, and compete.”
Second: encourage your athletes to assess themselves by how well they executed their process goals as opposed to fixating purely on wins and losses. “Did you compete and fight to the end? Did you do your part to execute plays well? Did you prepare well the week leading up to the game?” That kind of thing.
Third: provide feedback on goals. Process goals are great at directing attention toward controllable behaviors, but coaching staff also need to provide feedback on whether or not athletes are achieving the processes. We used the example of, “Let’s execute our plays with quality.” If athletes do not execute these appropriately or to a high enough standard, they need to know what to adjust and how to best execute their play and which adjustments to make.
Fourth: Consider bringing on board adequately educated and credentialed mental performance consultants and sport psychologists to navigate the details of goal setting and building a process-oriented culture.
Takeaway
If you want your athletes and teams to perform better under pressure scenarios or when it matters most, ensure they understand the difference between outcome, performance, and process goals.
That’s all for today. Write back if you have any questions. Just hit reply.
Reference
Ollie Williamson, Christian Swann, Kyle J.M. Bennett, Matthew D. Bird, Scott G. Goddard, Matthew J. Schweickle & Patricia C. Jackman (2024) The performance and psychological effects of goal setting in sport: A systematic review and meta- analysis, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 17 (2), 1050-1078, DOI: 10.1080/1750984X.2022.2116723
