How to establish goals?

Set ambitious but attainable goals.

Set realistic goals, ones that never exceed the abilities of the swimmer.  Otherwise, you will have a discouraged athlete that makes a lot of mistakes.

Set logical yet challenging goals.  Be sure they are feasible.

Set specific, clear, precise and tangible goals.  Goals depend on the maturity level of the athlete, their athletic capacity, sex and characteristics.  They should always be adapted to each unique individual.

Set long-term and short-term goals.  It’s important for athletes to have short-term goals that motivate their daily efforts and at the same time, allow them to see quick improvements in their performance.  In other words, everything they do should be exciting.   Enjoying the small achievements allows us to continue to advance to bigger and more challenging goals.

Keep a positive mindset.  Although the challenges can sometimes overwhelm us, ideally, they should motivate us.

Set time-bound goals.  Motivation increases when the athlete has a clear notion of when they should start to attain certain objectives.  This will help push themselves to reach their goals within a realistic time frame.

Be prudent with your expectations.  It is forbidden to have false hopes.  They only drive us to lose credibility and in the worst-case scenario, cause the athlete to quit.