One thing we encourage all athletes to do at Next Level Athletics sports performance training is set goals. The reason we want our athletes to set goals is so they have a specific direction that they are going in. Whether in sports performance training or in life without direction there’s nowhere to go. As an athlete you must obviously perform your actual sport you must practice that sport but on top of that, there needs to be some sports performance training to help guide you in the direction physically you need to be in for that sport whether it improves your vertical improve your speed improve your agility all of these things take specific training and direction to achieve. This being what we specialize in with our sports performance training at Next Level Athletics we know the importance of matching the training to the goal. Our athletes have the goal of becoming better athletes this goal comes from their other goal which is to compete at a higher level in sports what does that make the high school team play college sports or even play at the pro level all of the things that they do from actual practice to actual play to sports performance training I’ll drive them in direction of the overall goal. Without a specific goal of the direction you might end up just running circles never actually accomplishing or achieving anything but if there’s a dream to do something at a higher level then you must have the goals to get there and it might not just be one goal it might be many goals smaller goals that are you to achieve things on a daily or weekly basis that help you get to the overall main goal. Here’s a breakdown of how these goals should be put together by an athlete. For this example, all use a hypothetical Athlete name Jeff Jeff has the goal of playing professional soccer Jeff is 13 And currently just plays club and for his middle school team. Jeff realizes that in order to go play pro he needs to achieve a higher level of play at the high school level and then the college level and then put himself in the right positions to be seen or acquired by proteins Jeff also realizes that this starts today. Jeff starts taking his practices into his own hand doing more on the side Jeff starts working at a sports performance training center to help accelerate his athletic abilities because his speed agility and reaction aren’t where they need to be. Jeff realizes his main goal and also knows that he needs to work his way down every step from the main goal up until the point where he is now and he must figure out what he has to do now to get there so by accelerating his practice is working harder on the skills of the game paired with sports performance training to work on his weaknesses in terms of physical capabilities he knows that these things will push him to where he wants to get at the high school level. He then knows that a continuation of these things advancing more and more in these things will push him to the point where he could play collegially. He then does further reassessment at that point to figure out what his needs are and what he needs to work at the most in order to make it at the pro level. All along the way using his coaches his sports performance trainers and any other mentors he may have to assess his needs and the direction that he needs to go in. Setting a goal in a direction doesn’t mean you have to stay in that direction forever but it does give you a direction to head in to make sure that the steps that you’re taking hope you do achieve the overall goal. well, ever-changing and ever-adapting the goal at the end of the day is still the direction.