Viking Coach

Trust is the biggest enemy of misunderstanding. . .

Trust allows you to believe in the person and not in something you heard. Trust makes you say. . . “That doesn’t sound right.”

Misunderstanding can lead to a breakdown of any relationship. Teams, nations, businesses and significant others are in a constant battle with Misunderstanding.

My hope is that the players I coach would really doubt any information that they hear that doesn’t seem to fit who I am as a person. Why? Because that would mean they trust my intentions as a coach.

I learned some valuable lessons last year in the area of misunderstanding. It was my lack of trust that led me to jump to conclusions. These conclusions led me to make a few poor decisions.

Trust becomes so crucial because it is so easy for people to have a misunderstanding,

Case in Point:
Currently I am having Chelsea Bjerke and Haley Hoyer play one half of each B-squad game. The primary reason for this is to try to get them to learn how to be "scorers” Both of these girls are good enough to start varsity but playing B-squad gives them the opportunity to work on this aspect of the game.

After Tuesday’s game against Perham I asked them to be a little more selfish on B-squad. I encouraged them to actively look to score when they got the ball.

Today I was asked by a varsity player if I told Chelsey and Haley to shoot whenever they got the ball!

THE MISUNDERSTANDING -> This player had heard about the conversation I had with these two players but the story had been changed to "varsity" instead of "b-squad"

I am sure that this player was concerned. We have been stressing the importance of teamwork this whole year and the girls have been working hard towards that end. Telling these two girls to look to score whenever they touched the ball would have definitely been counter to what I was preaching.

Thankfully this player came and clarified this with me. I hope it was because she didn’t believe what she had heard. That would be a sign of trust. . . and that, ladies and gentlemen, is what it is all about.

TRUST - Who knew it was so important?