Are most successful coaches "mean?"

[Silock]

I'm having a hard time thinking of many great coaches that don't yell at their players. Belichick doesn't seem like a yeller. Nor does Phil Jackson. But looking at other successful coaches, it seems that being a hard-ass and yelling seems to do more than being a nice guy. Bill Self yells at his players a LOT. So did Mangino.

Tom Coughlin is a hard-ass. Jim Harbaugh. Bill Cowher. Marty. Nick Saban (college only, it seems). Bobby Knight.

It seems like it takes a special kind of coach to motivate his players without yelling at them to really get their attention. I'm not saying that yelling is indicative of success (lol Haley), just that, in general, it seems like more coaches have more success with being mean than they do with taking the Romeo approach.

I'm also certain that I'm leaving out a ton of coaches that are successful and DON'T yell. So, I'm open to being wrong about this, but it just struck me the other night that I can think of more successful "mean" coaches than successful "nice" coaches.

It also seems as though players today are less comfortable being yelled at than we were back in my day. And I'm only 31, so it's not like I'm THAT old. But I never had a problem with a coach yelling at me to either motivate me or point out mistakes I made on the field. I feel like it made me better as a player.

[jspchief]

Keep in mind, the giants locker room was near mutiny in Coughlin's first year. They were trying to run him out of town. The asshole act only works in the pros when you win and win quickly.

[theelusiveeightrop]

Chuck Noll was fair.

[whoman69]

Originally Posted by theelusiveeightrop

Chuck Noll was fair.

Nobody is fair. Jimmy Johnson said that he treated you in relation to your effort and ability. If you put forth the effort and had the ability he let it go. He gave an example of how he caught an ST player sleeping in a meeting and cut him. He said that if it was Troy Aikman he would have walked up behind him and said, "Troy, you need to wake up."

[TRR]

Hard-nosed with a bit of unpredictability typically equals success in coaching. Especially when your coaching multi-millionaires.
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[TRR]

Originally Posted by whoman69

Nobody is fair. Jimmy Johnson said that he treated you in relation to your effort and ability. If you put forth the effort and had the ability he let it go. He gave an example of how he caught an ST player sleeping in a meeting and cut him. He said that if it was Troy Aikman he would have walked up behind him and said, "Troy, you need to wake up."

Earth-shattering Jimmy.
Posted via Mobile Device

[scho63]

Yelling can only deliver results when it comes sporadically, not as SOP. People who yell 99% of the time to try and motivate or prove they are the boss, lose respect quickly. There are always exceptions to the rule like Bobby Knight or Woody Hayes but that was more about the legacy of the school and the program.

Any boss in my life who tried ruling by being a tyrant had the shortest and least successful career.

As people age, they respond less and less to people yelling.

[loochy]

Are most mean coaches "successful?"

[NewChief]

My sampling size is small, but if I'm judging on Bobby Petrino (mean) vs. John L. Smith (nice), I will take the asshole every day.

[aturnis]

I would say most successful coaches aren't "nice" and soft spoken.

[SNR]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Belichick isn't a yeller, but he's very demanding. The anecdote about Tony G catches it perfectly. Brady makes it perfectly clear that Belichick still criticizes him -- alot! But he welcomes it because nobody is perfect and they're always trying to get better. If you can't take coaching, you can't get better.

You can also see that Belichick sticks up for his players. No loss is ever on one guy, it's always about the team. The offense can roll and the defense suck, or vice versa, and it's all about how the TEAM didn't play well enough to win etc.

Does he ever accept responsibility? Even just in small statements like, "I need to coach better."

If not, then we know where Matt Cassel gets his bullshit from

[hometeam]

Any questions?

[xztop12]

Well it has to do with the nature of the sport. For instance, I'm positive i'd make a good coach but I couldn't deal with seeing guys i invested effort and time into getting hurt and ruining their bodies/careers. It's the nature of the beast and you have to be somewhat cold to watch a guy you drafted and studied since HS go down with a torn ACL and call a play right after

[Chief Roundup]

Being a disciplinarian does not make a coach mean.
Disciplinarians do get more out of the team than a players coach does. Sometimes being a disciplinarian means you yell. Sometimes to get over all the noise people have to yell to be able to hear each other too. A coach that is a disciplinarian that rewards his players and of course they win will actually be more appreciated by his players in the long run.
To me it is like Dad=coach and players=children in a relationship.

[DoucheMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

Marty was not a prick.

He knew what buttons to push for each individual player.

Until the playoffs

[DoucheMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Woodsponge Chuckpants

He definately never had one like this. Todd Haley? For real?

Yeah, too bad it didn't mean shit