Most swimmers are told to set goals. But they’re rarely taught how to set them well, or how to use them as part of their daily training. You might write down a goal at the start of the season like:
These goals matter. But they’re not enough to help you get faster. Why? Because they leave out the most important part of swimming: what you do every single day in practice. That’s where performance goals come in.
This article will walk you through how to structure your swim goals better, so you stay focused, track real progress, and build confidence in your training.
You need more than just a goal time. You need a system that connects what you want with what you do.
These are the big goals, race results, qualifying times, and rankings.
They’re exciting and motivating, but also out of your control. You can swim a personal best and still not place. Or you can place well despite swimming poorly.
Outcome goals give you direction. But they can’t drive your training alone.
💬 Examples:
These are the controllable habits and behaviours that shape your training.
Process goals help build discipline, focus, and commitment. But they don’t always tell you whether your swimming is actually improving.
💬 Examples:
You need process goals to stay consistent, but consistency without direction is just busy work.
Performance goals are measurable skills and abilities that directly lead to faster swimming. They’re specific to your stroke, tied to your training data, and directly influence your outcome goals.
💬 Examples:
Performance goals are where real progress happens. They take your effort and turn it into speed.
Even high-level swimmers often struggle with goal setting. Here’s why:
The end result? You’re training blind. And when progress does happen, you don’t always know why.
Let’s compare a traditional swim goal with a well-structured performance goal:
| Weak Goal | Strong Goal |
|---|---|
| “Improve my underwaters” | “Increase time underwater to 4.5 seconds off every wall in free by March” |
| “Have faster turns” | “Lower turn time from 1.3s to 1.1s over next 4 weeks” |
| “Get better at breaststroke” | “Match stroke rate and DPS to ‘like me’ benchmarks in breast by April” |
Better goals:
Here’s a step-by-step guide to building performance goals you can actually use in training:
What time are you trying to hit? What race are you targeting?
📝 Example: Qualify for nationals in the 100 back with a 1:05.
This might include turn speed, underwater time, stroke rate, etc.
🧠 Ask: Where do you lose time? Where can you gain it?
Focus on the ones that matter most for your best stroke.
📊 Examples:
Know your current numbers. You can’t track progress if you don’t know where you’re starting.
Make it realistic, but challenging enough to stay motivating.
📌 Example: Improve push max acceleration in breaststroke by 5% over the next 5 weeks.
Inside the TritonWear app, you now get three automatically generated technique goals, based on:
You’ll see where you started, where you’re headed, and how you’re trending after every practice.
You don’t have to guess what to work on. It’s right there. And it updates as you improve.
You can also edit your goals at any time: choose the stroke, skill, and timeline that best fit your training focus.
Goals are only useful if they show up in the places where you train.
Here’s how to keep them front and center:
When you hit or exceed a goal, you’ll know and you’ll build belief in your ability to keep improving.
Alongside your technique goals, TritonWear now shows your pace-per-100 targets for all 5 training zones—customized to your stroke, pool type, and swim data.
This gives you the intensity targets you need to:
Better goals don’t just help you focus. They help you believe in the work you’re doing because you can see it paying off. With Swimmer Goals, you know exactly what to work on, how to work on it, and whether it’s getting better. That’s how you build real speed.That’s how you show up to a race with confidence.