Rank the hardest sports to coach/manage.

[kwolf68]

I have coached baseball, hockey and basketball, on a youth level.

My take overall is baseball easier to "game manage", but can be harder to do great practices where the players got a lot of reps, especially if you had limited coaching coverage. If you have limited coaching help in hockey (and probably basketball too) you can do small area games where the instruction is basically "game play", but not actually a scrimmage. You can't really do that with baseball unless you want a lot of standing around. Imagine working on a double cutoff play. Basically you are using the entire infield and half the outfield to run a practice drill involving 4 players. Meanwhile you have to do something with the other players. Some can roll into the cutoff drill, but the others? I guess move them to the other opposite field? Or work on swing mechanics behind the fence, etc. It's just not easy to really coordinate well. 

However, to me there is more to the other sports. Hockey and basketball have "systems" you run. Football has different systems as well. There are no "systems" in baseball. So not only do football, basketball and hockey coaches have to teach technique and skills, but they also need to teach systems, be that offensive or defensive systems. So I believe baseball is the easiest to coach at the higher levels, however, great managers have great instincts on knowing who to put where, when to replace a pitcher, etc., but it's just not the same as the other 3 sports. I do believe devising baseball practices for youth practice is harder than the other sports. But the overall practice of baseball coach in my view is easier. 

I believe the type of personality is also a factor of the coach. Football, basketball and hockey coaches can be sedate or be screamers. Yes I realize guys like Earl Weaver would go crazy on the umps, but they were always calm and cool with their players in the dugout. I tend to think the going Happy Gilmore on umpires was mostly a release for those managers who were penning up their frustrations with how the game was going. In basketball or football just yell at the ref, easy and it won't impact the players a bit, may even fire them up to do better. 

Hardest to easiest...Football, hockey, basketball tie, baseball (i lean to football even though I never have coached it)

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by kwolf68

[Blazer026]

Football

Baseball

Hockey

Basketball