Leadership in Coaching: Team Captains

I rambled a bit about the role of assistant coaches within a team’s leadership. I was going to put team captains in with that but decided to separate it because my thoughts are undecided regarding team captains and whether they are good, bad, or irrelevant.

And to be clear–I lean against having them but I don’t criticize coaches who have them, either.

*GOOD: Offers leadership opportunities to young people. *BAD: Popularity contest. *GOOD: Being players, they will be the first to spot drama/problems and can potentially solve the issues before they really become problems. *BAD: The title goes to their head thus causing problems. *BAD: They use their roles to try and fix problems they thought were minor–and turn them into big ones. *GOOD: They can be someone to talk to coaches on behalf of players scared/intimidated by coaches or lacking the confidence OR who want a problem talked about but are afraid of being singled out/known for bringing it forward (the snitches-get-stitches effect)

*BAD: They take select portions of conversations with coaches for their own reasons within the team.

*BAD: Assigning captains can stunt leadership development in players not selected as captains.

*BAD: Players not selected may become resentful or jealous leading to problems/maturity issues.

*POTENTIAL BAD: Captain selection process–voting creates a popularity contest, coach selection may miss the ‘real’ leaders within a team, seniority rewards age rather than ability.

So–I’ve preferred to just not have captains and go for collective responsibility. I think this gives all athletes a chance to lead in some fashion.

EXAMPLE: As a high school coach 1998-2001, I had a hard-working setter. She never set until her freshman year (she rode the bench in Jr High as a hitter…she saw an opportunity and ran with it–played NJCAA and NCAA D1 for a bit). She had one of the best work-ethics around. I thought she needed to become a better leader. We went to a tournament (Mt. Zion, October, 2000)…because I remember this quite well). After the first match, I had a talk with her about being more assertive, demanding more of her hitters–that she needed to get in their face a bit.

She gave me a weird look (because she was 16 and about to disagree with an experienced adult coach) and asked if that was an order. She explained she preferred to NOT do that because of the mentality of the hitters and that she felt if she got in their face, they’d back off or have runs of errors. Instead, she wanted to keep taking the blame for hitting errors even when it was a spectacular set. She felt that if she was encouraging in that regard, we’d be more successful.

What do you do as a coach? Me? I nodded and said okay. We were already a great team–she was specific in her comments and examples and these were her friends, too, that she hung out with after school or on weekends. I thought her comments and understanding of her team were examples of great leadership.

In contrast, I know a coach in the southern part of the state who uses captains for his HS team. He selects the captains–but to become a captain, those athletes have to apply for the position and he assigns them ‘homework’ and readings in how to lead teams. When he has issues–he goes to the captains. He does not take any of that to the team. If a captain wants a timeout during practice for a team talk–the coach steps back and lets the captains do their work. Does it work? Since doing it, he’s got 5-6 consecutive 20+ win seasons.

Have you put much thought into captains? Do you just do them because that’s the way it was when you were an athlete or that’s the way it was with the former coach?

–Feel free to put comment here in the comments. As I noted at the start, I tend to not use captains…but I’m persuadable.