5 goals for our JV basketball team.

1. Having the best record in the conference.

2. Hold our opponents to 12 or fewer points per quarter.

3. Shoot 80% or better from the free throw line in practice.

4. Commit less than 12 turnovers per game.

5. Become positive role models for the youth program.

Having the best record in our conference is an objective goal. Our first goal would also be an example of an outcome goal. We don’t know how good the other JV teams will be in the upcoming season, therefore this goal may not be realistic because we could play the best we can play and still lose to other more talented teams. I believe this group goal does have weaknesses like the one I just stated, but setting an objective goal like this hopefully will help build confidence in our team. “Your expectations of others affect not only your behavior but also the feelings and behaviors of others”( Weinberg & Gould p 329), this means that if I display confidence in our team, then our team could display confidence.

Holding our opponents to a specific number of points per quarter and committing less than 12 TO’s per game are objective goals that may need to be adjusted during the season depending on the quality of our defense and the opponents’ offensive ability. One weakness of this goal is that a more talented offensive team could score more than 12 points per quarter regardless of how our defense is playing. This could create anxiety within the team even though they are playing well. A strength of this goal is that it emphasizes team cooperation in order to achieve our objective. For example, the other team has a “star” player that is very difficult to prevent from scoring, without help defense from other players this goal would be unrealistic.

Last season shooting free throws in practice positively correlated with “goofing around”. Setting a team practice goal with rewards and penalties should help our team maintain focus during this crucial time. According to our statistics, free throw percentage is generally 10% lower in games than in practice. Which is expected due to the environmental differences between the two.

Becoming a positive role model for the youth basketball program in my opinion is the most important goal of the five. Our community is lacking passion for hoops. If we start with the youngsters, then hopefully this will be contagious throughout the area. This subjective goal does not have a timeframe, is both individual and team oriented, and most importantly will assist our young men in becoming future leaders in the community.

References

Weinberg, R. S., Gould, D. (1995). Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Champaign, IL: from Human Kinetics.