Smart goal setting

Goals are good. They give you something to aim for and work towards, and then a sense of achievement when you suceed. If I don't succeed in my goals, I don't feel like I failed, I just know I have to keep working on them.

Office speak has a thing about "SMART" objectives. This stands for Specific Measurable Agreed Relevant Time-bound. For more info, see wikipedia. For skating examples, see below.

Specific - don't say "improve crossovers", say "stop toe pushing on crossovers" or "use correct edges on crossovers"
Measurable - to hold a spiral with foot above hip for 10 seconds or to get five rotations on sit spin
Agreed - the skater needs to be on board with the goals, they can't be dictated. I don't mean that coaches need to agree every single short term goal, but there should be medium-long term goals agreed with coach, such as work towards a test.
Relevant - if you're having issues with field moves, working on jumps isn't going to help that
Time-bound - how long will depend on the skater and the goal, but you need a time limit. Its only skating, if you don't meet it, then you can always extend it. You could set a goal for one practice session, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.

I set monthly goals without discussing it with my coach. But if coach takes me in another direction that month, it doesn't matter. If I've set goals around jumps and spins, but coach wants me to work on field moves and footwork, I'm gonna with with what coach says and ammend my goals. For younger skaters, goal setting involving the coach may be useful, but I generally know from my lessons what needs improving.

I also set medium-long term goals with my coach. We've been inching me towards my level 1 field moves since last summer. When I entered my second competition, we discussed what we wanted to improve on from the first comp (there was two months between them) and decided to work on making the transitions smoother, cleaner and faster. Then after this comp, coach decided we need to work on my footwork and basic skating skills, which I am 100% in agreement with.

I don't always set myself SMART goals in skating. I do task myself with "improve three turns", but I'm trying to force myself to be more specific - one of my goals this month was "to hold edges longer in LFI3 turns" (my worst three turn!!!). I guess not measurable as I haven't said "to hold edges for three seconds" but it's at least targeting a specific bit of the three turn. Maybe next month it'll be "to check the backwards edge on three turns" or "make sure there's a distinct bend and rise". But the SMART principles are worth bearing in mind, even if you do pick and choose which ones to use.