At some of the many Baseball Coaches’ Clinics I attended during my days as a High School Baseball Coach, I had opportunities to listen to the Head Coach of one of the most successful College Baseball Programs in the country, one that’s reached the College World Series in 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2015, and winning the National Championship in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2009. The coach who often spoke at this annual clinic was Skip Bertman who coached the Tigers of LSU from 1984 until 2001, which included 11 of those trips to the CWS and five of those six championships. Needless to say, he was a very sought after speaker, not just because of skills and drills, but for motivational ideas, stories and how to teach taking the sport or activity being played or done, and use it in real life situations, in problem solving situations in times of stress, in times when people young and old feel desperate. When attending clinics, I’d bring a cassette tape recorder, being it was easier recording than writing notes — though I did take notes too — and I always came home with a folder full of ideas jotted down and a small satchel full of cassette tapes, to which I could listen and get ideas to use with my kids, my students and my athletes. I brought back many useful tidbits offered by Coach Bertman.

One of the things Coach Bertman shared with us was how he’d meet with every new player one-on-one in his office to talk and get to know the athlete, share some thoughts with the player, and just get a feel for the young man’s attitude and goals that he hoped to achieve in his entire college experience, not just on the diamond.

As the young man and Coach Bertman talked across Coach’s desk, there was a rope draped across the desk from Coach Bertman’s side to the side where the athlete was sitting. Not a lot was said about the prop until Coach asked the young man to close his eyes where he proceeded to create a scenario for the athlete to imagine. (And now, please pardon me if those of you who’ve heard this story/technique may note that it may not be exact to the story the way it may have been written, or even told by Coach Bertman, but the meaning is the same. I heard it years ago and have tweaked it some to fit different groups with whom I’ve worked, but the gist of this activity is basically the same.)

Coach asked the player to imagine that he was hiking up a high mountain jagged with smaller hills and cliffs and that he slips off that cliff, grabbing a tree root, in danger of falling a great distance. Struggling to hang on to the root, a rope was thrown over the cliff for the athlete to grab onto (and he had the player reach out to actually find the rope draped across the desk with eyes still closed, then grab it), and hang on to it, not being able to see who was attempting to rescue him from possible disaster. Coach then asked the athlete, “Who would you like to imagine is on the other end of that rope pulling you back up to that mountain?” He waited for the player’s response.

Coach Bertman shared with us that some young men chose their fathers as the one they’d like to imagine was pulling them up. Some chose their best friend, other’s a sibling, teacher, or coach they’d had in their past, and Coach told us that there were about a dozen players, the first time he did this activity, who gave various answers before he heard the one he wanted to hear, and that response was, “a teammate.”

With other young men having different answers, Coach let them know that all were excellent choices, but all were choices of people known to the athletes, people they knew they could trust, and that’s fine, but sometimes life puts people in situations where you have to trust persons we may not know as well (if at all), maybe people who may not be very popular, people we may not agree with on certain things, or people we maybe don’t like very much, but if we were in the scenario on that cliff, we probably wouldn’t be that picky as long as there was someone on the other end of that rope telling us to hang on to it.

On teams, we don’t have to like everyone, though it would be great if everyone did. The same goes for classmates, people with whom we work, or people in our neighborhoods, etc. We’re put in many situations where we don’t necessarily have to like everyone else, but to make a project, team, company, business, group, sometimes marriages and families, be successful, or school experiences be the most they can be, people need to be able to rely on others and feel that if they were on the end of that rope, it wouldn’t matter what our opinions about this, that, or something else were, it would just matter that they’d be willing to pull us back onto the mountain. So we’d need to hang on to the rope and trust that the person on the other end would do everything he/she can to bring us back up.

In other situations in our lives, there are times when we need people, and situations where others need us. We may not know some of these persons well, or like some of these people a lot, or agree with some of these people, some maybe not even at all, but to reach a goal, we need to trust, and rely, on all these people if we are to reach success. The fact that we can’t see the person above that cliff means it doesn’t matter of that person is black or white, tall or short, woman or man, gay or straight, Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Buddhist, Agnostic, or Atheist, Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, whatever or whoever they are, as long as they’re pulling on that rope on which the person dangling is holding.

I’ve started telling this story with a bit of a twist, saying that the first person you could have wanted to be on the other end is yourself, as sometimes we need to pull ourselves up as much as we can. We need to do as much as possible for ourselves, but also realize that it’s not always possible, so we need to admit our shortcomings, swallow our pride, and sometimes, without shame, ask for help, then rely and trust others who may have strength to help us out of whatever situation in which we may find ourselves. The most important thing though is that we never let go, that we always “Hang on to the rope.”

I never actually knew if Coach Bertman wrote this story himself, or if he knew initially, that it would work for him and his players. I know that it’s helped some of the young people with whom I’ve worked through the years, and if I see an idea work, I’m inclined to keep using it. If you see players on one of the 2017 Falconer School’s Girls Softball teams, you’ll notice their team t-shirts sporting the cry, “Hang on to the Rope.”

So as long as I’m able, I’ll hold on to my rope, and ask everyone else to hang on to yours, if we ever find ourselves dangling from whatever cliffs we’ve slipped from in our travels.

Thanks Coach Bertman … for the rope and the lesson.