David Saur: Relationships With Your Players

Relationships with our players…

As the season has begun for division 1 college basketball teams and the rest of the country soon to follow I wanted to touch on something that sometimes gets lost in the daily grind of a season but plays a huge role in the success of every team.

It is my belief that the better relationship you are able to build with your players the better chance you give your team to be successful. Of course NOTHING replaces talent, skill, toughness and execution but the deeper the bond you are able to build with your kids the more you will be able to get out of them. You will never be able to build the same bond with every player on your team but I believe the head coach must develop that bond with the core of his or her team. Assistant coaches play a major role in these relationships by creating a supplement to the bond the head coach has built with your team’s core but also building a relationship those players outside of that core. As those players often times can move a team in either direction on the success ladder.

From my experience it takes many attempts at spending time with your players on and off the basketball floor. I am certain that a player must KNOW a minimum of three things without question to have complete trust of you and ultimately push themselves to a point they never imagined they could reach. First a player must believe you truly care about them as a person and their success not only on the court but off it. You can build this bond through strictly life, school and personal conversations never once reaching the topic of basketball. I have found players find this time refreshing and you can often learn a lot more about your player than you ever thought through a simple conversation. The next thing a player must feel from you is that you believe in them as a basketball player. No matter how frustrated you might be with a certain player you must find a way to communicate your believe in your players ability and communicate your desire to help them reach their full potential together. That it’s a shared journey. I have found players really appreciate a coach who is not only demanding but believing. A few words of encouragement go a long way. The final thing a players needs from you is honesty. No matter how hard the truth might be for a player to hear you must give it to them straight up. If you are able to convince a player of my first two points first, this one is much easier for a player to hear. At the end of the day your players want to know exactly where they stand, they hate the grey area just as much as you do as a coach.

Call your players, text your players, talk with them after practice and even share a meal with them one on one. Just like building a relationship with that girl/guy you just met it takes time to build trust. Spend the time and give the effort and you can build a strong bond with your players…..Its more about the Susie’s and Joe’s than the X’s and O’s!

Dave Saur