By Colin Byrne and Brooks Hawkins
Goal setting has always played a major part in how athletes become successful. Micheal Jordan one of the greatest basketball players ever says that “without goals – good, concrete goals – you’re like a ship without a rudder, a traveler without a map.” If the great Micheal Jordan takes goal setting seriously then a small high school Swim and Dive team should too.
There are a lot of reasons why Hamilton’s girl’s swim and dive team is successful during the season. But there’s one we want to highlight, No it’s not the countless hours spent in the pool after school or all the time spent on the diving board tumbling their way into the pool. We want to talk about how they use goal setting to improve and reach the places they want.
Sports doesn’t need to be all goal setting and practice, take time to create relationships with your team or others around you like the Swim and Dive team did when visiting the Robinson Manor in Allegan MI. The team took time outside of practice to create relationships and as Sylvia Mannis said “Sleep in a very scary place with friends” She later said that that helped build a better bond between teammates and the better teammates behind her the higher the goals she could set for herself. Manis Herself did not make it to state but some of her fellow teammates did and that could have been influenced by the want and desire to reach their goals along with the great team behind the scenes.
-Josi Popma Getting ready to dive at an away meet
When we asked Alyssa Volkers if one of her goals was to make it to state and if it was, did you think about State at normal meets? “Yes, I would be thinking about state in the back of my mind knowing that everything I did at these normal meets would determine if I made it to the state finals,” Alyssa says. This shows that goal setting and keeping the goal these athletes set is important Alyssa made state and it was partly due to her keeping her eye on the prize with her goal making and keeping.
Alyssa and Sylvia alike both agreed that the goals they made at the beginning of the year helped them make it to where they are today and without the objectives, they might not have made it this far in the season.
The same question about goals (was one of your goals to make state?) was asked to Adi Garvelink a junior on the team, and she gave a different but similar answer saying “I didn’t form my goals around making state but made small goals at every singular meet like trying for a new Personal Record or trying to start quicker.” Adi is just another example of how important it is to set goals for yourself when it comes to all aspects of your life but in this case specifically sports.
Back to Alyssa Volkers, She has made state in the past along with making state this year, Volkers also won 2 categories in the Covering Hawkeye Sports award system called the Hawkeyes, Alyssa won Outstanding Player and Best Performance which was voted on by her fellow teammates. Alyssa has definitely shown that goal setting and setting your mind to something can get you anywhere in life. We asked A. Volkers If we told your middle school self that you would make state two years in a row and set school records would you believe it? Her answer was short and sweet “No.” She is one of the best examples on the team showing that making goals and believing you can reach them absolutely affects how you perform in the pool.
Another question asked was do you think about reaching your goals outside of the pool? We received a relatively similar answer to this question which was yes, almost all the people interviewed said that they think about how they could reach their sports goals outside of their sport and that reflecting on past meets and then changing their goals if they were unrealistic or unreachable.
The answer to the Title Question overall is yes setting goals for yourself as an athlete helps your performance but there is so much more to how these team players set personal goals. All the girls on the team proved that without goals and something to direct yourself to the finish line then you are “a ship without a rudder, a traveler without a map.”
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Julia Fynrwever swimming at Hamiltons Pool
The Girls Swim and Dive team all agreed that when they set a goal near the beginning of the season it helped them perform better later on and helped them get closer to or make state. And all agreed that when you set your mind to something you can reach that goal, it might take a while but if you put your all into it there is no reason you can’t achieve anything.