Goals

I don’t know about you but I really need to have a reason to do something and stick with it. For example, how many people would go to work if they didn’t get paid? How many kids would go to high school if they could just be accepted into college and get a great job? I think the answer is, not many. People do things because they have a reason; in other words they have goals. The same should be true in your training, you need to have goals.
For me I love to get in the gym and work out, but there are days that it is just hard to walk through the door. On those hard days I really have to look at the goals that I have set for myself. If you are an athlete you should have goals that you set for yourself. It is helpful to have goals that you set for different timelines. Try asking yourself these questions: What do you want to accomplish in the next workout, the next month, or in this up coming season? When you have answers to these questions, then it is time to decide exactly what you have to do to accomplish those goals, and then go do it. Mike Hanley said, “if you walk into the weight room with no agenda except to workout, then you won’t achieve much.” This could not be more true! I don’t think that I have ever talked to a coach that went into a game saying, “Oh, we will just see what happens.” You need to have a game plan for your training also.
When you go in for a training session, whether it is in the weight room or on the court your goal should be to work harder, to lift more, to be more accurate, or whatever it is you need to work on. You need to have a goal and a plan, and then aim for that goal. Being successful in the weight room is directly correlated to how an athlete perceives himself on the court. There is no formula that says “if I squat 400 I will be a state champion,” but I can tell you that if you start the off season squatting 200 pounds and increase your squat to 300 pounds, you will be a better player. Not only a better player, but you will have gained self confidence and will have started the process of gaining a good work ethic.