Goals – I am not a big believer in short term goal setting when it comes to youth sports. Examples of short term goal setting would be saying you are going to average 20 points a game this season or hit 15 home runs this year. I know that probably goes against most self-help and how to books that instruct people to set goals. Often, short term goal setting sets one up for disappointment when the athlete doesn’t meet their goals. These athletes that don’t meet these short term goals are often looked at as failures by others, if not themselves, when they do not meet these goals. Often this disappointment sends players on a downward spiral out of playing the sport. In reality, they should not have to feel disappointed if they tried their best. Often, results like the goals previously mentioned contain variables that the player cannot control. 
      I let kids know that their only goal is to “work hard towards improvement.” One of my favorite sayings is “you don’t have to prove anything to anybody, but you do need to improve if you want to reach your potential.” Playing to prove yourself to someone may give an athlete good short term motivation. Always working to improve will give better results over the long haul and is a goal that is within athletes control.
Having said this, there is nothing wrong with having long range goals like making the high school team or playing at the collegiate level. No one can avoid all disappointment and when these long term goals aren’t reached players will hopefully learn how to handle disappointment. For more on dealing with disappointment in sports, check out my book which motivated this site, where I deal extensively with overcoming adversity and diassapointment in sports.