Are You Building Trust?
November 21, 2018 at 5:47 a.m.
By Roger Grossman-
They are people, often family members, who are probing for a secret path for a certain player to get more playing time. When responding to these people, I am quick and consistently say that ‘this is what I see’ and not mention anything that has been said to me by coaches about players.
I have spent 28 years building relationships and bonds of trust with coaches in our area, and I have no intention of fracturing that at this point. That trust is a really hard thing to get, and even harder to get back when you lose it.
But there is one theme that I see and hear from coaches in all sports at all levels – from the pros right down to the elementary school – and that is this: coaches play the people they trust.
When I say that, I mean that when games are in the balance in hostile environments with the odds stacked against them, a coach will call a play for or design an adjustment in their plan for a certain player or subset of players on their team specifically because he/she believes they have the best chance to carry it out.
That is a “line of credit” a player or players build up over time. It is rare that a player immediately is given a large amount of responsibility without proof in the heat of competition of being worthy of getting that opportunity.
In my time covering sports here, I can think of a few players who were immediately handed keys to the car: Nic Moore and Shanna Zolman are two that immediately come to mind.
We see coaches exhibit trust in football a lot. A coach may go for it on 4th-and-goal from the 1-yard line simply because he trusts his defense to not let the opposing offense get out of that hole. That leads to a punt that should result in good field position.
In basketball, a team that needs a court-length pass to score in a game’s finals seconds will turn to someone who may not have played much or at all in that game, but the coach has seen them do it in practice and believes they can duplicate it in this moment.
Baseball is perhaps the most obvious place to find trust.
Managers leave a pitcher in the game because they trust them to get the next man out, or they take them out because they trust the guy warming up in the bull pen more. They trust their veteran catcher to call pitches. They trust a man at first base to try to steal second base and get the tying run in scoring position with the team’s best RBI guy at the plate.
Coaches play the people that they trust to get the job done.
The pushback I get on that is almost always “well how will the coach know if he/she can do it or not unless they get to play?”
The answer: they have to do it in practice, and if they do it consistently there, they will get a shot in games to prove it. Playing time is earned. It is not a birthright, nor is it bestowed based on last name or economic demographic like some will claim.
Here is an example: Joey (totally fiction, made up 17-year old baseball player) gets pinch hit for in the 6th inning of a game in which his team trails by a run. Joey has had a decent year at the plate, but there are runners on first and second with no outs and the coach wants to move the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position. The coach watches Joey in practice and he struggles with bunting, so rather than relying on prayerful thoughts that this time will be different, he replaces Joey.
Does the coach not like Joey? Absolutely he does! But coaches are supposed to put their people in positions to succeed for the good of the entire team and the best move here is to get someone else to the plate who is good at bunting.
My brother Bruce played basketball at Bethel College for the famous Homer Drew. He was 5-foot-6, quick as a cat and a very good free throw shooter.
The Pilots played at the old Grace College Lancer Gym in the Great Holy War back in 1980, and Bethel had a four-point lead with under two minutes left to play. Coach Drew put my brother in. Remember, there was no shot clock or three-point line then, so four points was significant.
Bruce’s job was to let the Grace players chase him around the front court while he dribbled in circles and then either foul him or leave a man wide open under the basket for a layup. Ask Grace Coach Jim Kessler about it today, and he still remembers (and the memories are not fond ones).
Coach Drew put Bruce in the game because he trusted him not to turn the ball over and to make free throws. That night he made 8 of 8 to secure a victory to the dismay of the toga-wearing Grace students.
Bruce earned that trust because Coach Drew had seen him do it before. He had a file of that in his memory bank because my brother did it in practice every day.
My point is that what you do in practice and how you go about your business in practice will go a long way toward earning the trust required to earn game action.
Said a different way, if you prove that you can handle the little things, you will be given the chance to do handle bigger things.
That’s true in sports.
That’s true in business.
That’s true in families.
So … what are you doing to earn that trust from others?
They are people, often family members, who are probing for a secret path for a certain player to get more playing time. When responding to these people, I am quick and consistently say that ‘this is what I see’ and not mention anything that has been said to me by coaches about players.
I have spent 28 years building relationships and bonds of trust with coaches in our area, and I have no intention of fracturing that at this point. That trust is a really hard thing to get, and even harder to get back when you lose it.
But there is one theme that I see and hear from coaches in all sports at all levels – from the pros right down to the elementary school – and that is this: coaches play the people they trust.
When I say that, I mean that when games are in the balance in hostile environments with the odds stacked against them, a coach will call a play for or design an adjustment in their plan for a certain player or subset of players on their team specifically because he/she believes they have the best chance to carry it out.
That is a “line of credit” a player or players build up over time. It is rare that a player immediately is given a large amount of responsibility without proof in the heat of competition of being worthy of getting that opportunity.
In my time covering sports here, I can think of a few players who were immediately handed keys to the car: Nic Moore and Shanna Zolman are two that immediately come to mind.
We see coaches exhibit trust in football a lot. A coach may go for it on 4th-and-goal from the 1-yard line simply because he trusts his defense to not let the opposing offense get out of that hole. That leads to a punt that should result in good field position.
In basketball, a team that needs a court-length pass to score in a game’s finals seconds will turn to someone who may not have played much or at all in that game, but the coach has seen them do it in practice and believes they can duplicate it in this moment.
Baseball is perhaps the most obvious place to find trust.
Managers leave a pitcher in the game because they trust them to get the next man out, or they take them out because they trust the guy warming up in the bull pen more. They trust their veteran catcher to call pitches. They trust a man at first base to try to steal second base and get the tying run in scoring position with the team’s best RBI guy at the plate.
Coaches play the people that they trust to get the job done.
The pushback I get on that is almost always “well how will the coach know if he/she can do it or not unless they get to play?”
The answer: they have to do it in practice, and if they do it consistently there, they will get a shot in games to prove it. Playing time is earned. It is not a birthright, nor is it bestowed based on last name or economic demographic like some will claim.
Here is an example: Joey (totally fiction, made up 17-year old baseball player) gets pinch hit for in the 6th inning of a game in which his team trails by a run. Joey has had a decent year at the plate, but there are runners on first and second with no outs and the coach wants to move the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position. The coach watches Joey in practice and he struggles with bunting, so rather than relying on prayerful thoughts that this time will be different, he replaces Joey.
Does the coach not like Joey? Absolutely he does! But coaches are supposed to put their people in positions to succeed for the good of the entire team and the best move here is to get someone else to the plate who is good at bunting.
My brother Bruce played basketball at Bethel College for the famous Homer Drew. He was 5-foot-6, quick as a cat and a very good free throw shooter.
The Pilots played at the old Grace College Lancer Gym in the Great Holy War back in 1980, and Bethel had a four-point lead with under two minutes left to play. Coach Drew put my brother in. Remember, there was no shot clock or three-point line then, so four points was significant.
Bruce’s job was to let the Grace players chase him around the front court while he dribbled in circles and then either foul him or leave a man wide open under the basket for a layup. Ask Grace Coach Jim Kessler about it today, and he still remembers (and the memories are not fond ones).
Coach Drew put Bruce in the game because he trusted him not to turn the ball over and to make free throws. That night he made 8 of 8 to secure a victory to the dismay of the toga-wearing Grace students.
Bruce earned that trust because Coach Drew had seen him do it before. He had a file of that in his memory bank because my brother did it in practice every day.
My point is that what you do in practice and how you go about your business in practice will go a long way toward earning the trust required to earn game action.
Said a different way, if you prove that you can handle the little things, you will be given the chance to do handle bigger things.
That’s true in sports.
That’s true in business.
That’s true in families.
So … what are you doing to earn that trust from others?
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