SMART Goals: Helping You Achieve Success

People always tell me they have goals that they want to accomplish in their performance domain, but have a hard time achieving their goals. There are many reasons for people not achieving their goals, some look to far down the road at their end goals, others do not know how to set up successful goals, some set unrealistic goals, and some just need others to help them stay focus on their goals. This blog is going to teach one method of goal setting that I do with my athletes. I am going to teach you how to set SMART goals. This is a very common method that people use to set goals.

SMART stands for: Specific (do not make broad goals, be narrow, be detailed); Measurable (be able to track your goals and “see” that they are being achieved); Adjustable (you cannot control life, things happen, be ready for the unpredictable, be willing to adjust to things, don’t stress!); Realistic (be honest with yourself, baby steps, if you shoot to high, you might become discouraged and unhappy); Timely (usually I set this for my athletes and I would say 3 months is a good time for setting long term goals; sometimes if you set to far in the future, you lose sight of your goals; and in 3 months if you have not fully achieved your end goal, that is okay).

Also when you set SMART goals you want to set up your goals in 3 steps. You first set up outcome goals (end goals); from there you set the most important goals (in my opinion). You will set performance goals (week to week) and process goals (daily). If you want to achieve success in 3 months, you must be willing to make yourself 1% better each day to achieve that end goal. You need to ask yourself what will I do and how will I do it? What will I do each day and each week to make sure I am getting one step closer to my end goal. When working with athletes, after we set up their outcome goal and go through the performance and process goals, I will take the outcome goals and never show it to my athletes until 3 months has passed. This allows them to only focus on their smaller goals. If they can always see their end goals, they might become discouraged, but if they focus on the smaller goals they have a better chance of succeeding and they will improve in performance. I promise! For more detail about goal setting, contact me today and set up a meeting.

CrossFit is Special for Many Reasons

"CrossFit is special because it does not focus on one idea of fitness. It punishes the specialist and exposes any weaknesses that we have as athletes by measuring and recording the performance of each and every workout." –Luan Nguyen from WOD Talk Magazine....a magazine for CrossFit created by CrossFitters!

This blog is a two part discussion based off the quote above. First part will be about the uniqueness of CrossFit; and the second part will discuss exposing your weaknesses.

Yes CrossFit is special...I am a strong believer behind it and how I train myself and others. We get stuck a lot of time in the same old routine. Which fine with me, it is better than sitting on your ass and doing nothing. But after a while your body gets use to that same old routine and doesn’t “grow” or become more fit. CrossFit allows your body or your fitness level to ever plateau because it constantly varies each day. “CrossFit is special because it does not focus on one idea of fitness.” This is completely true because it gathers the best type of fitness training and puts it all into one. But besides the different areas of fitness it collects, the community and support behind it is like no other (this is another topic that will be discussed later).

CrossFit will expose your weakness like no other. If you cannot do double unders, you cannot hide it!! Trust me. Ericcson's Deliberate Practice theory (1,000 hours or ten years = expert performance) talks about getting performers out of the area of practice that is not challenging to them (the restless development stage) and expose them to their weakness' and having them practice those specific areas. Athletes will never grow and improve in their performance if they do not work on their weaknesses. This is especially true in CrossFit, 2011 Fittest Man on Earth Rich Fronning, Jr fell to second place (or was out performed, up to you how you want to look at it) in the 2010 CrossFit games because in the last WOD the rope climb was a huge challenge for him. In the last year Fronning has been working on his weakness (the rope climb) to make sure he was ready for the challenge. Spend a little time everyday working on your weaknesses, but also don’t ignore what you are good at either…just make sure to not ignore your weaknesses or you may never get better. Working on our weakness' takes us out of our comfort zone, but it allows us to grow.

The Air Squat

I have noticed a lot of talk among athletes about the squat. Everyone wants to know about going pass parallel, stopping at parallel, myth about too many squats being bad for your knees, old people shouldn't squat, etc. I will simply put it how I learned it...when you go to the bathroom, how do you get on the toilet? YOU SQUAT...that is why they call it 'popping a squat.' So YES teach it to everyone. Now the talk about stopping at parallel or going pass parallel. When studying for the CSCS the book says to stop at parallel. Every CSCS professional I have worked for and sport teams coach I have played for says go pass parallel. Here is what I think...go pass parallel!! When you squat to parallel you put a lot of stress or weight on the quad muscles, but once you go pass parallel you balance that weight on the quads and hamstrings. Too me this means more power and strength because you use more then one muscle group. Going pass parallel does not mean going extremely deep, unless you are flexible enough. It is important to go full range of motion (ROM). In my opinion it is important to go pass parallel in the squat as long as it is safe for the athlete.

Why do I have my athletes do air squats in the warm up (besides to warm up the hips)? When an athlete squats there is many things I can examine about that athlete. I learn a lot by watching my athletes do 8 reps to warm up. The air squat will tell me if they have any mobility issues, their core strength, soreness, coordination, lower body strength, injuries, flexibility, stability, how well they listen to coaching, how well I communicate with athlete and much much more. It is crazy to think that the squat is such a vital movement in exercise and LIFE. Haven't you ever noticed that toilets are lower to the ground...so you get full ROM in your squat!!

Fight Gone Bad 6-September 17, 2011

Come out and join CrossFit FTF as they help to raise funds for a good cause on September 17th from 9a-3p with a barbecue, vendors, and of course a little Fight Gone Bad!!!
Why are they doing Fight Gone Bad 6?  Every year they have participated so far, they have had a great turnout for this awesome event.  They members and the community know that they want to support our troops and of course our kids.  Each year the SportsGrant Foundation finds incredible causes to raise money for, and they put it out to us as affiliates to help them raise their goal.  This year, Camp Patriot, Special Operations Warriors Foundation and CrossFit Kids Camp will be benefited by this awesome endeavor.  We are looking to help out the best we can.

Heats will start at 9 AM and run every 20 minutes.  They will have approximately 5 people per heat.  They are asking for a donation of $10-20 for participants and $5-10 for spectators.  They will be providing a barbecue, a silent auction and some good times at FTF.  They love this event as it is the backbone of the CrossFit Community.

Who should be the better performer? The coach or the athlete?

One day as I was doing a WOD, during one of my 800m runs, I was thinking about my performance and asked myself why I coach? I know this might seem like a odd thing to do in a middle of a WOD, but while running it takes my mind off of the actual WOD and allows me to relax and prepare for the upcoming movements after the run. After asking myself, why do I coach? I thought about my WOD times compared to the athletes that I train. Sometimes my time is better, sometimes there time is better. Should I be upset that my athletes are beating me at certain WODs? HELL NO.

Yes, I think that it is important that I be good at what I do. What I do is not trying to be the best CrossFit athlete in the world; but being the best CrossFit coach and training my athletes to be the best. Yes, I believe it is important that I train hard and I do well. And I do. There are things that I can improve on in my performance, that is life, and I work on my weakness. It is also important that I never stop learning and I do the research to make myself and my athletes better. At the end of the day I am happy with my performance. But it is a great week if I am able to make one of my athletes a better performer. I train because I love to see others improve and succeed in life from something that I have taught them, by being there for them, supporting them during the bad and good days. That is why I coach.

So you think you cannot? Changing your mindset to ‘I CAN’

I will be hosting a sport psychology seminar at CrossFit FTF on Thursday, September 29th at 8:30pm. This event is free to the public. This is a six part series seminar and the first topic that will be discussed is self-confidence. The reason this is the first topic and not another mental skill such as goal setting, or attention control is because team FTF (CrossFit team that I am part of) really wanted to know more about this subject. The discussion will cover the substance of self-confidence and how to change that little voice in your head that says 'I cannot' to 'I can.' The seminar will cover how to effectively use different mental skills techniques to improve your self-confidence, followed by a Q & A session. Food and beverages will be provided.

Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right.  ~Henry Ford

Address:
349 N. Minnewawa
Clovis, CA 93612
http://www.crossfitftf.com/