Utilize Mini-goals, Achievements, and Badges for Increased Focus and Output

It often helps players and coaches to have some specific goals to try to accomplish. If as the coach you are the one coming up with the ideas for your players then you’ll know your players are working towards things you think will best help them develop and help the team. But if you’re a player you can also set your own targets and you should!

As a coach I’ve pondered this concept many times but never really put it into practice because it SEEMED a little cheeky and possibly time consuming, but in reality it’s neither. The psychology of achievements, badges, and things of that nature is very real. It’s used in video games all the time to motivate players to accomplish more. Getting that achievement gives a little rush and boost of confidence and keeps the player motivated to start shooting (no pun intended) for even more achievement. This article lists 8 possible reasons achievements might work. So maybe it is a little cheeky, but the science is real and the results definitely legit.

As for time consuming? It took about 10 minutes to come up and get on paper player-specific mini-goals for a team of 9 basketball players – and that was completely from scratch! The even better news is that I’ll be able to reuse some of the more complex goals in future games for players that achieved their own smaller goals!

You don’t have to believe me though. Here 8 reasons found in the article previously referenced of why setting up achievements helps motivate.

1. They anchor our performance expectations higher
2. Having goals increases our self efficacy
3. Completing goals leads to satisfaction
4. They create goal commitment
5. They act as guidance mechanics and provide feedback
6. They facilitate psychological flow through feedback
7. The trigger social proof
8. They trigger motivating social comparisons

So How Do You Create Mini-goals for Games?

Creating achievements is not hard once you get started. What you choose to focus on is up to you. They should be player skill level appropriate and they can even be game specific if your scouting report tells you something particular will be needed for a given game.

For example, if you have a player that is quick but doesn’t move on the ball while its in the air (defensively) then you could give that player the goal of stealing a pass. They will be incentivized to put into practice anticipating and being ready to quickly act when the opportunity presents itself. And doing that just once and being successful could unlock that skill forever.

Another example would be to give a player the goal of taking a shot. It sounds simple but some players are really hesitant – they’re either nervous by nature or they think they are doing something wrong if they miss a shot. Tell them that their goal is to take 1 or 2 good shots each quarter (notice this one is just “take shots”. Not good shots. Not make shots. Know your player and work up to it. Saying to take a shot (and even reinforcing that making isn’t necessary) lets them get used to the idea that it’s okay if they miss. They’ll find after they do it that nobody died from it and maybe they even make it – or maybe the team even got a rebound and putback so the team still benefited!

The above list was of goals was used recently for a team I am involved with. Chloe never ever shoots and we started implementing this per game mini-goal system just last night (at the time of this writing). Guess what happened? Chloe got the ball, took a shot, got fouled, and made one of her freethrows! Big deal in the big scheme of basketball? No. Big deal to her right then? Absolutely! And she’ll be more likely to try the same thing in the future without being nudged quite so much.

Remember the idea of these goals is to give players a chance to focus on things that they can control. So be careful with things like “get 5 Assists”. This requires other players to help them out by actually making a bucket. Tweak it just a bit to something like “Deliver 5 passes to players in scoring position” makes it much more focused on the passer than the receiver.

One more thing to consider, coaches. You can do the same thing for yourself! Give yourself 2 goals before the game and try to achieve them. For example you might choose something like:

1. Identify opposing defensive scheme within two offensive possessions
2. Call a timeout early just to tell everyone they’re doing great and get them a quick rest (this is a good one for me because I am too stingy with timeouts and often have several in my pocket at the end of a game when my players could have used a couple more breathers). I find it much easier to use a timeout after i’ve already called one which means i’m less likely to let things go bad for too long if i’ve already used one!

I hope you find this topic interesting. Feel free to ask questions or share your thoughts on the matter in the comments section.