Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a good start into the year. To be very honest, this was probably the first New Year’s Eve I missed since I can remember. I had gone to bed early since we had planned a day trip the next day starting early (or maybe I’m also just getting old). Also, being a passionate advocate of climate protection, I cannot really support fireworks. As amazing and magical I find them every single time I see them, I find it quite shocking and not worth supporting considering that the toxic particular matter emitted in one night in Germany equals 16% of Germany’s yearly emissions by traffic (that’s a lot!). But anyway, I’m not here to rant about climate change but about something else.

New Year's often is an occasion that many of us use to set goals for the next season. To achieve them, we have to plan them in advance as part of an annual process, to adapt our life style, our training, or our spare time. The more precise, the more measurable and the more individually attractive we find them, the more likely we will be to achieve these goals. For this reason, I have decided to write a blog post about goal setting in climbing which I hope you find helpful for your 2020 goals.

What exactly is a goal?

A goal is a result we desire to reach.  We envision, plan and commit to it. It requires some kind of development – and usually, hard work. Setting goals help us to make and execute plans. Many of us strive to reach their goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. In competitions, these deadlines are externally determined and one has to perform on demand in order to reach ones goal – on a certain day, at a certain time, on a certain climbing wall. But goal setting is more than just thinking about outcomes and results. The more precise we set them, the better it will serve its purpose.

How can we improve our goal setting?

There are different ways of setting goals. For example, if we want to win a certain competition, want to be ranked top 3 in this ranking or top 10 in another, if we want to reach finals at the World Cup or reach semis for the first time – we call these types of goals outcome goals. They focus on the result, the outcome of a competition or specific situation. Outcome goals are important because they increase our motivation. If we have a reason to give 100% in training because we want to pursue our goal and get better in the long term, we might be more likely to do so if we have a specific, measurable goal. If we just go climbing with no real reason, we might still enjoy it but might be less effective (nothing wrong about just “having fun” – but you always have to ask yourself: is that what you want to achieve? What is it that you want to pursue?)

When formulating a goal, we can also focus on our own performance and how we can relatively improve compared to our previous performance. For example, compared to last time you want to top out 8 instead of 6 boulders in a qualification. Your goal is to on-sight an 8a which you have so far only red-pointed. Or you want to reach the podium this time as you have only just missed out in the past. We can improve ourselves in very many different ways. Regardless of whether our improvements are big or small, there‘s an art to recognising them. Ask your coach next time where they see your improvement. This can give you valuable insight and help orientate your training. This type of goal setting is called performance goals. Such as outcome goals, performance goals can be really motivating and give us a drive to try hard.

The third main types of goals is called process goals. This type of goals include psychological goals. For example, if you noticed a lack of concentration during competition due to nervousness or other distracting factors, you write this down as a goal to improve (e.g. “In my next competition, I want to be focused”). If you find it hard to motivate yourself during trainings, getting motivated might be a good goal to have. It is important to find your personal strategies what helps you to mentally better deal with competitions or trainings.

If you think about it, you might realise that we have little control over the outcome of a competition. Nobody, not even the best athletes in the world, can enter a competition and guarantee a win. There are always other competitors or, particularly in climbing, variables such as unpredictable route-setting. Usually, our outcome goals correlate with pressure, tension, or suboptimal functioning. 

I think we have all had this experience at some point – e.g. in decisional training or competitions. If we have to achieve one thing to achieve another thing (e.g. do well in the competition to qualify for one of the last spot in the Olympics), we might feel nervous more easily. If it all comes down to one specific event to qualify or if your last results haven’t been that good, so this upcoming event decides whether you stay in the "A-Team“ or might be down-graded to the "B-Team“. 

Another example might be the decision of who is allowed go to the (Youth) Worlds. If a country has many strong climbers (e.g. in Austria) and only a limited number of athletes per country can compete in these competitions, it puts additional pressure on the athletes. Being selected can mean travelling to exotic places all around the world, making friends and having amazing experiences. But all of this rests on a knife‘s edge.

In such situations, process goals can help to not focus too much on the outcome, but rather on the process instead. I recently watched a really interesting video with Mikaela Shiffrin where she explains what led to her success in her last, record-breaking season. During competitions, instead of focussing on the results, she focussed on having fun (focussing on the process of skiing), knowing that she skis best when she enjoys it.

We can obviously apply this onto climbing. Just ask yourself: When do you climb at your best?

Once you have answered this question, try to formulate a process goal based on your answer. What do you want to focus on next time? What will your process goal be in the next competition?

Interesting fact: Research recommends that process goals contribute to a reduction of an athlete‘s sensitivity to psychosomatic fear in stress situations like competitions. It also proves an increase in self-confidence and an improved ability to concentrate on the immediate task, rather than the result. Our performance on demand is enhanced significantly.  

Other examples for process goals could be:

• Trust in my abilities.

• Enjoy climbing!

• Focus on every move.

• Do one boulder at a time – and don’t think about the other boulders when I’m still at the first one.

• Give 100% in every try/route.

• Focus on my footwork.

• etc.

There is no wrong or right – please formulate these process goals (and all the other goals) in your own language. Don’t just copy what I wrote up there. Think about it and try to find out what suits you best!

I guess you know what to do next – write down your own personal goals for the upcoming season! Make sure you define your goals on all levels to shift the focus of just having to achieve certain outcomes.