Why was Wayne Gretzky such a bad coach?

[Grifter3511]

I always thought of Gretzky as a coach telling his players “just put the puck into the net. That’s what worked for me. Get open, get a good look and shoot it into the net, past the goalie. See? Watch, just like this. Now it’s your turn, there ya go.” *jesus Christ why isn’t this working?*

In the penalty kill “just strip the puck from the d-man at the blue line or the winger on the wall and skate straight down the ice for a breakaway. That’s the best thing to do on the penalty kill”. *shit, why can’t these guys just make the simple play?*

“hey you guys, you forgot to shoot the puck in the net. Remember? Passed the goalie? Don’t shoot it AT the goalie, shoot it PASSED him. Easy peasy, come on guys FOCUS!”

I hate to be that guy....but this was soo great until you used passed (and even capitalized it at one point) instead of past.

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

Yeah, Olli Jokinen once explained this.
He was coached by the Great One, moving up the ice in practice, head on a swivel, looking to pass to a teammate.
Afterwards Gretzky asked him, why didn‘t pass to the 4th guy who just stepped on the ice and was out of sight, exactly behind him crossing the blue line.
“Coach, I didn’t see him, even if I tried.”
Gretzky looked puzzled…”Yeah, but didn’t you KNOW where he was?”
It was OJ’s turn to look puzzled. But at least he realised that Gretzky has an otherworldly vision and IQ.
You just can’t teach it. And if you are not able to understand the limitations of your players, you become a shitty coach.

But when Gretzky told him to go have a burger, relax, and don't think about hockey, he was on it.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

He couldn't relate to players if I had to guess, that's most elite level players who become coaches. There's more 4th liners + plugs who become better coaches than the elite talent that's played the game. You need to be relatable to the 13th forward as much as you are to the franchise forward.

 

[Cas]

How many elite players in any sport became good coaches? Off the top of my head, only two come to mind.

The only elite baseball players to have been successful managers spent their careers prior to WWII, and many of them were player/managers. Some of them benefited greatly from other people building their teams (like Bill Terry, whose success faded out as the legacy of John McGraw got further into the past).

Just about the only ones who play and manage after the war are Joe Torre and Frank Robinson (and Robinson was never particularly successful as a manager, though I don't think he was bad). Sure, guys like Dusty Baker, Mike Scioscia, or Lou Piniella were fine players, but they weren't elite.

The #2 manager in games above .500 never played a single major league game (Joe McCarthy). #4 Walter Alston played one. #7 Earl Weaver played zero, Tony La Russa played 132 games, Sparky Anderson 152. Tommy Lasorda 26. Terry Francona and Billy Martin had careers, but they were bad players. Charlie Grimm and Joe Girardi were not especially good players.

Ted Williams was an awful manager. Eddie Mathews was unsuccessful. Yogi Berra didn't make waves. Paul Molitor, Ryne Sandberg, Tony Perez, Mel Ott, Alan Trammell, Rogers Hornsby - all failures.

 

[Jormungandr]

I don’t think most people realize that Gretzky didn’t even try. He was rarely ever at practice, or with the team in general, and only showed up to “coach” the games.

 

[PaulD]

His team sucked.
No other team ever offered him a coaching job other than the team he partially owned

 

[RedHawkDown]

Don’t think it has anything to do with “being too good so he can’t explain it to the players”. He just sucked at teaching. Being good at something and being good at coaching or teaching it are completely different and completely unrelated skills.

 

[CarlSneep]

I mean the good coaches who were 4th line grinders become coaches because they’re poor and need a job. The elite players don’t need to ride a bus in the O for 2 years to prove himself so there’s no way to filter them out before they become NHL coaches. There are probably a lot of NHL stars who would be good coaches if they started small at first but never tried because being a retired millionaire at 40 is a pretty sweet life.

Wayne was a somehow better coach than he is a commentator, I’ll give him that.

 

[Junohockeyfan]

Shorsey has potential to be a great coach because he makes up for his deficiencies as a player with intangibles (leadership, sacrifice, effort and communication).

Gretzky’s a bum.

 

[Dolemite]

His team sucked.
No other team ever offered him a coaching job other than the team he partially owned

He was President of the Coyotes at the time. He made himself coach.

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

Prodigies make terrible teachers.

“Just do it like this, see it’s easy!”

 

[PaulD]

He was President of the Coyotes at the time. He made himself coach.

Gotcha

Thanks

 

[sabremike]

The only elite baseball players to have been successful managers spent their careers prior to WWII, and many of them were player/managers. Some of them benefited greatly from other people building their teams (like Bill Terry, whose success faded out as the legacy of John McGraw got further into the past).

Just about the only ones who play and manage after the war are Joe Torre and Frank Robinson (and Robinson was never particularly successful as a manager, though I don't think he was bad). Sure, guys like Dusty Baker, Mike Scioscia, or Lou Piniella were fine players, but they weren't elite.

Gil Hodges would be another.

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

He kept yelling at the players "JUST PUT THE PUCK IN THE NET THATS THE GAMEPLAN YOU IDIOTS, WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID AND BAD???"

DIG... THE F*** IN BOYS

 

[Foppberg]

Bad coach and even worse Canadian.

 

[BraveCanadian]

His team was terrible and I doubt he was much of a systems guy because he had a god like vision and intuition on the ice.

Pretty tough to teach plugs to play with something they don’t have.

 

[Voight]

Across the four major sports, the best players I can think of who are / were good coaches are

Larry Bird
Don Mattingly
Doc Rivers
Rick Tocchet
Larry Robinson

Pat Riley as well.

 

[Cas]

Gil Hodges would be another.

Gil Hodges goes in my group of "not elite" players (it's true, he really wasn't), I just didn't want to keep naming them.