The what, why, and how of goal setting: A review of the goal-setting process in applied sport psychology practice

Abstract

Goal setting is a widely used intervention by sport psychology practitioners (SPPs) and coaches aimed at enhancing the performance of their clients and athletes. Many mnemonics and acronyms have been suggested to follow when setting goals. These often recommend certain principles or characteristics, such as setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-related (SMART) goals. Less attention has been paid to the process of goal setting, or specifically how a SPP or coach goes about setting goals. The purpose of this review was to provide an overview of current goal-setting processes by identifying, describing, and comparing models within the applied sport psychology and professional practice literature. Furthermore, we aimed to synthesize contextual information and critically evaluate stages presented in these processes, while providing further considerations for practitioners and future directions for researchers. Our review shows there are several commonalities in the suggested processes of setting goals and that the stages can be broadly categorized as: (i) preparation; (ii) goal setting; (iii) planning; and (iv) follow-up. Although goal setting should be applied in a dynamic, individualized, and contextually-appropriate manner, the review demonstrates the need for integration of additional evidence-based psychological strategies within each stage of the goal-setting process. Lay summary: In this paper we provide an overview and synthesis of the different goal setting processes used by SPPs and coaches. We present ideas to consider when setting goals and direction for research in this area.