Building Trust In Your Athletes

A coach who gives and receives trust within youth sports paces themselves ahead of the coaching curve. By building trust through encouragement, consistency, and without fear of the possible heartache – you create an environment for next level coaching. #DailyMight

There are few relationship characteristics that a coach exhibits that boost an athlete’s confidence in them more than trust. The importance of the presence of trust in a coach-athlete relationship can mean the difference in exponential growth and exponential disappointment. A coach who can give and receive trust within the youth sports environment dramatically paces themselves ahead of the coaching curve.

There is a tremendous amount of value in trust because of it’s importance in the relationships we build – aka teammates and coach to athletes (and reverse). Trust means relying on someone to do the right thing at the right time, consistently. When you believe in a person’s integrity and strength, knowledge, and care towards you – it puts you in an environment essential to an effective team because it provides a sense of safety in future situations. And hope that you have been equipped to overcome.

Building Trust Through Encouragement.

I’ve found that the easiest way to build trust, is to encourage. You see trust is built, not assumed. Gone are the days of inherent trust on position alone. Coaches must earn the trust of their players by constant attention to it, day after day. I have yet to meet an athlete who performed less by being encouraged to perform more and it’s safe to say we’re all encouraged by leaders who stirs us to move ahead, someone who believes we can do the task given because they have helped get us there.

Building Trust Through Consistency.

When trust is built up, both parties have a strong belief in the goodness or ability of someone or something. In order to have a strong belief, you must see it day in and day out – and lean into the consistency of the goodness or ability that is being offered or received. Trust isn’t a one day and forget it type of bond. To have trust in someone or something it has to be offered daily through small acts of trust building like following through on your word, doing what you say you are going to do, and being reliable with practice attendance.

Building Trust Through Heartache.

Purposeful trust building within the coach-athlete relationship does, however, come with potential heartache pain, suffering, or hardship. I don’t mention such as a reason not to trust or encourage, but to ensure that you understand that trust can work both ways – for good and ugly (lack of trust). You don’t trust that someone is never going to betray you. You trust that you’ll be able to handle it if they do. Both sides of the equation must be open to the idea that there could be a break in trust. However, that does not mean it must be gone forever. You’ll just have to work harder to gain it back.

Building trust in the athlete-coach relationship (I might add coach to coach here as well) is delicate and complex series of small moments that encourage a fruitful experience. By building trust through encouragement of the athlete (which makes you likable and appear trustworthy), consistency with the athlete (daily interactions honestly and reliably completed), and without fear of possible heartache (because it is likely), you take the take the athlete-coach relationship to the next level.

Give everything your everything. And then some.