Rank the Roster 2023: #28

[CWIMM]

You are right, I had a very bad experience with a HS coach as a sophomore. I was a farm kid and had not finished growing or found my coordination and I joined a HS team anyway. There was no reason to bully me publicly but that coach did and I suspect that most coaches are jerks and bullies and grossly incompetent. I never participated in any team sport after that. At 35 I moved into a condo complex where most of the men played tennis. A year later I was beating them all and most of them were 10 years younger than I was with 10 years of coaching and experience. A year after that I played against a professional tennis player (no, not Jimmy Connors, a guy from Wilbraham MA) and I held my own, took him to a break point once. 4 years ago. at age 71, I was in a league with 20 somethings, mostly foreigners who grew up with tennis. And I never took a coaching lesson in my life - I just watched John McEnroe and Connors and did what they did. Athletic ability can be refined but it cannot be taught. Instincts can be refined but they cannot be taught. And 90% of the time it is the athlete who refines his skills through self teaching, watching film of the best in their sport and practice practice practice. If anything coaches ruin more players than they help, either by bullying or by teaching technique that does not match the athlete's native athletic ability.

It is the same thing in business, government and the military. With rare exceptions, the higher they are the more they depend on intimidation rather than competence.

You might be right that the importance of coaches in individual sports is overrated but in my opinion that's not true for team sports.