November 12, 2024
There are numerous ways to determine your team’s captains. In our survey of D3 men’s Volleyball players, we collected data regarding team captains: how they were selected, how many, as well as individual input received. It is very apparent that volleyball coaches around the country have a wide variety of strategies when it comes to using and determining team captains.
In our cross section of players who responded to our survey, 83% of teams had more than 2 team captains. Only 10% of teams had just one designated captain. And 7% of teams surveyed did not designate a captain.
There are certainly many different ways to go about selecting your team leaders. There are advantages and disadvantages to every method. Finding and applying the method that is the best match for your player mix will make all the difference. Here are some strategies coaches and teams use to find the best leaders for the captain’s role and the pros and cons of each selection method.
No Captains-There are some coaches that prefer not to designate team captains, 7% in our survey, opting instead to let leaders naturally emerge. This approach operates on the belief that true leaders will rise to the occasion without the need for formal titles. By not naming official captains, they allow all team members to feel empowered to step up and lead. This approach can foster a sense of shared responsibility and encourage multiple players to develop leadership skills. One advantage of this method is that it can mitigate potential resentment or jealousy among athletes who are not chosen as captains. Without official titles, there is less opportunity for conflict over perceived favoritism, and everyone can focus on contributing to the team’s success. However, this strategy also carries the risk of allowing a negative player to gain influence if the positive leaders do not step up effectively. To counter this risk, coaches and staff sometimes need to formally support and recognize the emerging positive leaders. By endorsing and encouraging these individuals, they can help ensure that the right players take on leadership roles and maintain a positive team dynamic. This approach blends the benefits of organic leadership development with the guidance and support needed to prevent negative influences from taking hold.
Coach selects: With this option, you get to work with a captain who you respect, trust, and feel you will do a great job. You also won’t have to worry about the captain selection becoming an athlete popularity contest – or the athletes choosing someone who you believe would make a poor leader for your team. The potential problem with having the coaches select the captains is that you might select someone who the team doesn’t really respect or follow. You might pick one of your favorite athletes – but for whatever reason, this person has not fully connected with the rest of the team. Further, by you imposing a captain on the team without their input, you might actually hurt your captain’s platform of leadership. The team might have the tendency to view the person as a “Coach’s Pet” and be less likely to follow the coach-named leader.
Teammates select: Many coaches permit their teams to elect captains through a voting process. Coaches distribute ballots, request players to list their choices, tally the votes, and then announce the results. This method offers several benefits, primarily by giving team members a say in selecting their leaders. Instead of imposing a captain from above, this approach respects the athletes’ perspectives and encourages them to choose someone they are willing to follow. However, there are potential drawbacks to this method. Firstly, the team might elect a captain who, in the coaching staff’s opinion, isn’t the best fit for the role. Secondly, the voting process might turn into a popularity contest, leading to the selection of a socially popular player who lacks the necessary leadership skills on the field or in the locker room. Therefore, it’s crucial to assess the maturity and judgment of the athletes to ensure they are capable of making an effective leadership choice.
Applications: You can also have your athletes apply for a captain position – then provide your interested leaders with time in front of the team to explain why they feel they would be an effective captain for the program. All of these ways help ensure that your athletes put some serious thought and consideration into selecting the leaders of the team. When selecting team captains, follow the adage of “measure twice and cut once.”
Team votes for candidates – Coach selects: Combining the first two approaches, some coaches let their athletes essentially nominate teammates they view as leaders. The coach then reviews and ultimately approves these selections. Typically, coaches use surveys or a set of questions to gather the team’s choices. This process highlights the athletes who are already recognized by their peers for displaying positive leadership qualities and behaviors. Essentially, this method allows the team to identify those they consider leaders and value their input. After collecting the lists from both the team and the coaching staff, it becomes evident who the team regards as leaders. The coach can then communicate back to the team, confirming that the exercise has identified specific individuals as leaders. From here, the coach can choose to either leave it at that or officially designate them as captains.
Develop Group of Leaders: Group Leaders typically are comprised of a representative group of athletes from certain segments of the team. Some coaches determine this by class: having a representative or two from the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes. Other coaches, especially in large roster sports like football, track, and swimming, determine their representatives by position groups or event. The Group Leaders are often charged with providing input on the team, establishing team standards, enforcing team rules, keeping the coaches informed, and being the primary leaders of the team. These Group Leaders are often voted on by the team or selected by the coaching staff. One of the biggest advantages to the Group Leader concept is that you get input from a variety of segments on your team. If you organize the Leaders by class, you in essence create captains for each of your classes. This helps you stay in close touch with each of the levels of your team. Further, having a Group concept is great for succession planning – having outgoing senior leaders smoothly replaced by underclass leaders who are prepared to lead. This concept is especially effective for teams with large rosters, usually 20 or more athletes. The potential drawback with a group format is that things can get a bit bureaucratic. Rather than making decisions with one or two captains, you now need to work through multiple people. The Group concept is good for handling the administrative aspects of team leadership, but you still will need a primary leader or two who will be vocal during actual competition. Make sure that at least one or two of your leaders are comfortable and effective in this vocal role too.
As far as the D3 Men’s Volleyball landscape, we see an equal distribution of how Team Captains are determined:
Players appear to have input in almost two thirds of the selection process and direct selection responsibility in almost 30%. It’s great to see the D3 coaches incorporating the players’ voices into their process.
Some other observations picked up in our data collection were the uncertainty around the communication regarding team captains. We had multiple occurrences of players from the same team giving different answers regarding their team information. Some players did not know that they had three captains and recognized only two. We have seen a distinct pattern with players not retaining items from their team or team culture throughout the survey process, and this is just one example. The percentage of players who felt uninformed about basic team knowledge such as which players are starting on a given night, their specific roles on the team, expected playing time, or pre-season tournament opponents or venue, were all evident.
Choosing the right captains for your team can be a complex undertaking. The previously mentioned strategies aim to offer you a range of effective methods for selecting your team leaders. By considering the advantages and disadvantages of each option and having thorough discussions with your coaching staff, you can identify the strategy that will best meet your team’s needs.
As far as specific duties and responsibilities of each team Captain, we will leave that for another article or survey.