Coaches’ and Players’ Perceptions of Goal Setting in Junior Tennis: An Exploratory Investigation

This study examined the various aspects of goal setting of youth tennis players and their coaches. To examine this multifaceted technique, an extensive goal-setting questionnaire was administered to 224 youth tennis players and 35 youth tennis coaches. Results indicated that improving overall performance, fun/enjoyment, and winning were the three most important goals for youth tennis players and that they most preferred setting moderately difficult goals. The most effective type of goals for players were physical conditioning, practice, and skill/technique, whereas the top reasons for setting goals were focusing attention, problem-solving, and increasing effort. Results also revealed numerous significant differences between coaches’ and players’ goal setting, with the coaches generally having a higher frequency of using different goal-setting strategies and finding…