Goal Setting: Building Blocks of Success with AST
Happy New Year from the Staff and Athletes of Alberta Alpine!
We hope you had a fun holiday season and are feeling ready to get back to racing.
As we ring in the new year, many people reflect on what they want to achieve in the months ahead. Setting goals, especially in sport, is one of the most effective ways to stay focused, motivated, and accountable.
Before heading east for their race block, we sat down with our Alberta Ski Team (AST) athletes to discuss goal setting. As athlete Caleb Brooks puts it,
“Goal setting is important. You need to be able to set long-term goals and short-term goals. The short-term goals are steps on the staircase of the ultimate goal. And goal aren’t always results. It’s important to realize that.”
Athletes often set three kinds of goals:
- Outcome goals (e.g., scoring points)
Performance goals (e.g., hitting a personal record) - Process goals (e.g., improving form or technique)
Combining all three keeps motivation high while helping athletes focus on what they can control. Most of our athletes reported preferring process goals. As Amy Attalla reflected,
“Ski racing is a sport where almost nothing is constant—snow conditions, course sets, hills, equipment, even weather can change run to run. Because so much is out of my control, I’ve found a lot of confidence and focus in committing to the process and the things I can control.”
The smaller daily process goals also have other benefits in ownership and understanding of working towards the big picture, “With process goals, it’s easier to focus on what I can do to change things and improve.” says Thomas Cias. Gavin Johnson echoed this sentiment, saying, “In order to obtain outcome goals, you need to understand the process to achieve it.” Caleb concluded with “The process keeps things in perspective and keeps you disciplined day to day. Nothing goes according to plan [you just keep] trusting yourself and your work.”
We got into the details of the team’s current goals, with a prominent theme being activeness and movement in their skiing. Adian Kometz wants to “ski less static,” and Thomas wants to see his “hips forward through the bottom of the turn.” Gavin set a technical goal that would have tactical advantages: “Hips up in transition to allow me to commit to an earlier line with early pressure.”
There were also some ambitious outcome goals discussed. Amy and Thomas have their eyes on the Nor’am series, with Amy wanting to score Nor’am points in slalom and Thomas looking for a couple of top 15s in speed events. Oliver Jackson, coming off a rehab year, said he “would love to get back on snow to be able to get a race in for the end of the season.” Adian seeks greater consistency in his finishes. Cole Merrett and Graeme Cliff have qualifying for the World Junior Championships in Narvik, Norway, in their sights.
We love hearing about our athletes’ sport goals; they are much more than their ski careers. It is essential to set goals outside of sport to help athletes maintain a well-rounded life, thereby improving mental health and resilience. Our athletes do a lot off-snow, and we sought to showcase some of their goals outside skiing.
Amy is active in her community, working with SibShops, a non-profit for the siblings of children with special needs, saying, “it keeps me rooted in my community, reminds me why connection matters, and gives me perspective outside of results and performance.” Oliver says, “this year I would love to further continue and broaden my impact with kids cancer care.” Caleb and Gavin look towards careers in Home Development and Carpentry, respectively. Cole is looking to maintain a 90% academic average while on AST. Thomas wants to keep it fast on the hill but slow down in life a little “to just enjoy the things and moments around me […] appreciate life and the privilege I have to be surrounded by so many amazing people in such amazing places.”
We asked our athletes for any final advice for the younger athletes.
“Don’t tie your confidence or self-worth to results—tie it to how hard you work,” says Amy.
Gavin points out that success is not a straight line: “Be patient. Success is not always linear you are going to have moments where you are succeeding and moments where you are failing.” Thomas built on this, saying, “Chasing perfection means that there will be runs or days or weeks where nothing will click but thats okay, you just can’t get frustrated or discouraged because things take time, even when you are trying your hardest.”
Oliver encourages self-discovery, “do not be afraid to branch out into completely different areas of your life that you would not have otherwise explored, it might just lead you to something you will love.”
Graeme says, “Make [your friends] your biggest competitors, as you will all become better,” drawing on personal experience with AST.
Adain was straight to the point, “Don’t put in half effort, win or lose, then you never have to wonder what if.”
We hope that you achieve your goals in the New Year. See you on the slopes.