I think that goal setting is absolutely critical for anyone who's trying to make a significant improvement in any area. In swimming, our sport is kind of tailor-
made for goal setting because we have times, which are really the things we
spend most of our time thinking about. No one sets up a plan that goes 100
percent according to the way that you set it up. Your goals are basically just
your road map and your coach is your GPS. And sometimes you just get off
the tracks. And that's when you really have to start thinking about, "What are
the ways that I can change either my lifestyle or the way I'm approaching
things to get back where I want to go." I have found that swimmers, when they
lack motivation, one of two things has occurred: they either don't have goals
that are exciting and meaningful, or they've lost track of those goals. So my
job as a coach is to refocus them - either come up with goals that are
something that they can achieve, or get them back in contact with the goals
they had previously set that maybe for whatever reason they have kind of lost
track of. So I think goals are a very important coaching tool and something
that we take very seriously.