With the excitement of another Little League Season upon us, setting goals can be an important motivational tool for young ballplayers, so long as they are realistic, attainable, and within our control.

There are 3 types of goals that most Little Leaguers have (whether or not they articulate them) and it's important to understand the differences between them.

1) The "Dream Big" Goal

This type of goal includes things like "I want to play professional baseball," or "I want to be President," or "I want to walk on the moon" and should be encouraged at all times. Not to be a "cynical adult," but childhood is the only time when we truly believe that these goals are attainable and we should never take that away from our kids.

2) The "Results Oriented" Goal

This is without a doubt the most common type of goal. This type of goal includes things like, "I want to make All-Stars," or "I want to hit for a .500 average this season" or "I want to have an ERA under 3.00." These types of goals focus entirely on the result, do not encourage any critical thinking on HOW to accomplish them, and most importantly are largely out of our control.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard something like this from a Little League coach: "Don't strike out!" (We can talk about the use of the word "don't" in another blog). Does the phrase "Don't strike out" give the batter any information about how to avoid striking out? Of course not! We know the batter doesn't want to strike out, so it's a pretty pointless thing to say in the first place. But regardless, often "Don't strike out" becomes a "goal" - and a misguided one at that. If we want to strike out less often, the correct "goal" should be something like: "become a better two strike hitter by choking up on the bat and shortening your swing," In this instance we have set a goal that CAN be controlled through practice (become a better two strike hitter) AND we have given concrete instructions (choke up, take a shorter swing) that will allow a player to achieve it.

We can apply the same exact concept to the "I want to hit .500" goal: Rather than focus on the uncontrollable "result" - hitting .500 in this case - lets focus on concrete "process" goals that will allow us to get there. These include, "improve my hand path to the ball" or "be more aggressive early in the count" or "take a smaller stride," etc.

3) The "Totally in Our Control 'Process Based' Goal":

I just started to introduce this concept above. This is the type of realistic, process based, and completely in our control goal that Little Leaguers (and coaches) should be setting this pre-season. "Let's win the division" is a silly, results-oriented goal - which team in the league do you think ISN'T trying to win the league!?!?!? But more importantly, this goal tells your team nothing about how you're going to win the league. "Let's play great defense by cutting down on the number of free bases we give the other team," or "We're going to apply pressure to the other's team defense by being extremely aggressive at the plate" are great goals because we have clearly defined the "process" for our players that, when executed properly, will produce the ultimately desired result of "Let's win the division."

Coaches: set the right kind of goals at practice this pre-season and you'll get the most out of your players. More importantly they'll have more fun working hard because your expectations of them are clearly defined and you've given them a blueprint success by encouraging them to focus on the controllable process rather than the uncontrollable results.

Players: Baseball is a difficult sport, and you should define success in terms of whether or not you worked hard to improve the process, instead of worrying about the results. Using this method, you will have more fun, feel like you have more control over your season, and will be much more likely to achieve the results you want as a natural by-product of working on the correct process.