Coaching or managing a professional team: What sport would you chose?

[Doc Holliday]

I'm an avid sports fan & like everyone else, i often will disagree with the coach or manager of my favorite team. Out of baseball, football, basketball & hockey, i'd probably prefer to manage a baseball team. It's less stressful, the weather is usually very nice, and it seems more relaxing & enjoyable than the rest.

What sport would you prefer to coach or manage in if you had the chance?

 

[EagerBeaver]

I actually did manage amateur basketball and softball teams in real life.

Basketball was more fun. We won our league. I know a bit about basketball and used strategy to compensate for my team's lack of size (tallest player was 6'1"). We played zone defenses, and utilized our quickness. It worked. In the playoff we were crushed by a bigger team that we initially frustrated with a zone defense and a Princeton offense. They pressed us second half, and were not only bigger but more athletic. We got hammered on the boards.

Softball was harder because teenage girls have self esteem issues. However I was fortunate to have a very good athlete, leader and player in our centerfielder. Most of the coaching was in building the girls up, especially the pitcher who would start crying whenever she got to a 3 ball count. Continual trips to the mound to settle her down and tell her she was great. That is what girls need.

I liked coaching basketball a lot more, so I go with basketball although I like college more than pro.

 

[MaxxxEdge]

F1... :thumb:

 

[Halloween Mike]

Pro-Wrestling, that would be the most fun, all the rest is too much stress for nothing lol

 

[Doc Holliday]

I once spoke with a current NHL coach on the subject and he was saying that in a perfect world, the coach would hire the GM and not the other way around. Once he joined the coaching ranks, this same coach also shared the GM duties. He had told me that it wasn't just a job-security thing, but also to have control of which players he'd be coaching. Many coaches today are basically stuck with the players their GM wants him to coach.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

Ping Pong or as they call it in China Ping Pong

 

[EagerBeaver]

Coaching ping pong at the recreational level is interesting to me because I belonged to a ping pong club back in 2007 and 2008. At that level one thing I noticed is that most players are forehand dominant and have weak backhands and I would attempt to exploit the weaknesses. My friend that I played with had a very weak defensive backhand and anything with pace that required a backhand return would result in a very high % of errors. On the other hand, my own forehand tended to be weak as compared to the other players resulting in an inability to slam winners on short balls with no pace. Coaching involves repetition in hitting balls to these areas and learning proper paddle grip and swing technique. I did get some lessons with this. I find the natural part of ping pong is in player's ability to create spin and hit a ball that comes heavy off the table. Such players however can be timed and eventually adjusted to if they do not vary the depth and pace of their shots. Good coaching employs a use of all of these strategies.

Even though I play an unusual defensive backhand style, the better players adjust to it by forcing me to play aggressive on my forehand side. Weaker players don't adjust as well.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Reading the posts in this great thread, i started wondering if there wasn't a professional coach who also coached in a different sport? In other words, a two-sport coach.

The great habs GM Sam Pollock left hockey to become CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays back in the 80's, but he wasn't a coach. I don't believe we've ever had a coach or GM ever join another pro sport in the same capacity.

 

[simonpaul]

hockey for sure,ilike rthe ho key game.

 

[daydreamer41]

This is for sure fantasy. I and everyone here do not know enough about any of the sports to be a manager or coach. That is for sure.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I and everyone here do not know enough about any of the sports to be a manager or coach. That is for sure.

I beg to differ. Sure, i may be the exception, but i doubt it.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I would like to be Kevin Ollie coaching the UConn men's basketball team this year. The team is very talented but very young, and in my opinion severely underrated by the experts, mainly due to the youth. Coach Ollie is the best coach in college basketball, even though nobody seems to fully realize it yet.