EPTOn October 25 2020 07:03 iCanada wrote:
Meta and Zidane, sure. I do think they are the exception rather than the rule though. I'd say it's more common for a guy like Ralph Krueger to come from nowhere and be a successful coach.
At least for Hockey, I would say nearly all of what I would consider the best NHL coaches of all time (or atleast, the last 30 years) are coaches that more or less were bad hockey players. NHL hall of fame coaches like Scotty Bowman, Punch Imlach, Pat Burns, Ken Hitchcock, Barry Trotz, Mike Keenan, John Tortorella and Glen Sather all never played the game professionally. Guys like Al Arbour, Joel Quenville, Bob Hartley, Pat Quinn, Dave Tippet, Todd McLellan, Peter Laviolette, Alain Vigneault, and Don Cherry all were more or less replacement level players or worse. You combine those two lists and its more or less the top 30 best coaches in NHL history.
In fact, the only good NHL coach i can think of that had any real success as a player is Jacques Lemaire. The only good exNHL player right now out of 31 NHL coaches is Rodd Brindamour, and as much as he was a star player, he was not the most talented fellow. More a huhi level talent than a Bjergson level talent.
American Football is notorious for guys that couldn't cut it being top coaches; guys like Tomlin or Belichek. I can't think of a single successful pro basketball player that is a successful NBA coach. Hell, even top boxing coaches like Cus D'Mato (never boxed professionally) and Freddie Roach (a top 10 contender for about a year in the worst boxing association) were mediocre boxers.
Even if you narrow the field and only look at eSports; all the good coaches have been bad players. kKoma couldn't make an LCK team in S1. Reapered was replaced immediately. Yamato was not a good player. Jatt had to cheat to see success as a player. I can't think of a single prolific starleague coach that was a good player. Grabbz never played pro LoL. Zefa was a LCK sub. Crescent was always an LPL sub. cvMAX was never more than a sub in the LCK. Homme was a sub in the LCK. YoungBuck was never a really prolific player, and was an assistant coach for years prior to becoming head coach. Thats basically all the top contending coaches at worlds this year.
Idk, I think that its possible Bjerg could be an exception, but the overwhelming trend is that those who are good at executing aren't the best at coaching, thinking, or leading. And think about it; if the execution is natural to you, you don't need to think about it. You don't need to achieve a fundamental understanding, you just do it because it comes natural to you; when it is natural to you, and you dont need to think about it to achieve it, how do you explain and teach that to someone else? The answer is usually that you can't; atleast not as well as the people who needed to understand and try damn hard to barely cut it.
Meta and Zidane, sure. I do think they are the exception rather than the rule though. I'd say it's more common for a guy like Ralph Krueger to come from nowhere and be a successful coach.
At least for Hockey, I would say nearly all of what I would consider the best NHL coaches of all time (or atleast, the last 30 years) are coaches that more or less were bad hockey players. NHL hall of fame coaches like Scotty Bowman, Punch Imlach, Pat Burns, Ken Hitchcock, Barry Trotz, Mike Keenan, John Tortorella and Glen Sather all never played the game professionally. Guys like Al Arbour, Joel Quenville, Bob Hartley, Pat Quinn, Dave Tippet, Todd McLellan, Peter Laviolette, Alain Vigneault, and Don Cherry all were more or less replacement level players or worse. You combine those two lists and its more or less the top 30 best coaches in NHL history.
In fact, the only good NHL coach i can think of that had any real success as a player is Jacques Lemaire. The only good exNHL player right now out of 31 NHL coaches is Rodd Brindamour, and as much as he was a star player, he was not the most talented fellow. More a huhi level talent than a Bjergson level talent.
American Football is notorious for guys that couldn't cut it being top coaches; guys like Tomlin or Belichek. I can't think of a single successful pro basketball player that is a successful NBA coach. Hell, even top boxing coaches like Cus D'Mato (never boxed professionally) and Freddie Roach (a top 10 contender for about a year in the worst boxing association) were mediocre boxers.
Even if you narrow the field and only look at eSports; all the good coaches have been bad players. kKoma couldn't make an LCK team in S1. Reapered was replaced immediately. Yamato was not a good player. Jatt had to cheat to see success as a player. I can't think of a single prolific starleague coach that was a good player. Grabbz never played pro LoL. Zefa was a LCK sub. Crescent was always an LPL sub. cvMAX was never more than a sub in the LCK. Homme was a sub in the LCK. YoungBuck was never a really prolific player, and was an assistant coach for years prior to becoming head coach. Thats basically all the top contending coaches at worlds this year.
Idk, I think that its possible Bjerg could be an exception, but the overwhelming trend is that those who are good at executing aren't the best at coaching, thinking, or leading. And think about it; if the execution is natural to you, you don't need to think about it. You don't need to achieve a fundamental understanding, you just do it because it comes natural to you; when it is natural to you, and you dont need to think about it to achieve it, how do you explain and teach that to someone else? The answer is usually that you can't; atleast not as well as the people who needed to understand and try damn hard to barely cut it.
Counterpoint on NBA:
Larry Bird, Jerry Sloan, and Steve Kerr all became great coaches while being great players. Statistically, I don't know if there'd be difference between great player to coach vs poor player to coach.
Overall, I like the move. Like someone already said, there's an issue in NA with players even listening to coaches in the first place. I think given Bjergsen's ownership + his legacy, he'd be one of the few people capable of coaching players who tend to look down on coaches. Having watched Bjerg's streams, I also think he's very self-aware and diligent when it comes to noting mistakes and places for improvement. I hope it works out for him because, honestly, I think League needs more ex-pros as coach or at least Dia+ players to become coach.
