How Should a Volleyball Captain(s) be Decided?

In the Army, Air Force, Navy, or any Military Force there are always leaders of troops. These generals, lieutenants, and captains are selected by their time in the service, their physical stability, and they are required to take a responsibility test. After all these test, there is another process with higher ranked officers discussing if the potential candidates ability to lead. This process can very easily be translated onto the volleyball court when the decision of who should be the team captain(s).

Coaching Factors in Selecting a Captain

If the coach is the one to make the decision, he or she may very well take into consideration all the requirements that the military takes. The coach will look for someone who has played the game for a long time or has been playing for his or her team for a few seasons. The coach will look at their skills on the court hopefully showing physical talent in every aspect of the game: hitting, serving, setting, passing, blocking, digging, and so forth. Now there may not be a paper exam of responsibility like the military has but the coach will find someone who can be responsible for all the teammates both on and off the court.

The coach will have a good player(s) in mind to be the team captain(s), but is it the coach’s responsibility? Does the power rest in the decision of the people like a democracy? The point being, should the team players decide who they want representing their team and leading them into the battlefield of volleyball competition? If the coach were to choose someone that the team may not get along with or believes they should not be the captain, will the team respond to the captain when he or she is trying to motivate the team or assist them in a game or at practice? With this in mind, if the players of the team choose who they want to be their captain they most likely will respond to the leader better than if the coach picked someone the teammates will not follow.

Best Player or Best Leader?

With the power of who becomes captain in the player’s hands, will the vote just become a popularity contest? Will the team just pick the person who is the best hitter assuming that hitting is the most important aspect of volleyball? Will they pick the player who has the highest status in school or outside of school? Are the players educated enough to know what a true leader is and what responsibilities in lie in being the team captain? All these aspects come into play when a player makes a decision on who their team captain should be.

So where does the decision lie? Who has the authority to pick who leads the team? Does the coach who hopefully has played the sport, been around a lot of different captains or has been the captain on a team decide the team leader? Or should the players who have to listen to the elected captain pick who they want to lead them? For some teams and clubs it is all different in the decision making of the team captain.

The Key Factor: Leadership

Hopefully whatever process is taken the coach or teammates take into consideration all the aspects that the military takes when they promote a solider to a higher rank. The captain will be selected by their time with the team, their physical stability, they are a responsible individual, but most importantly they have the ability to lead a team to victories.

Coach J

When your son or daughter comes home saying they now hate volleyball...

It is sometimes perplexing when your son or daughter is a complete volleyball junkie - playing all the time, watching it on TV, having a wide array of t-shirts that somehow have the word "volleyball" prominently displayed - comes home saying they now hate volleyball. Sure sometimes they could be just burned out, but sometimes there are other factors (social, team, coach, playing time) that could be involved.

Recently we heard the "I hate volleyball" statement after a practice. Sometimes a coach can be demanding and I thought this was the case. I offered this example...

Assume you are holding your favorite cat, a big Tomboy bruiser, who is loving, but every once in a while is not above taking a paw swipe at you just because he feels like. And, today Tomboy is in your harms, happy, purring and content. I was using a butane lighter to ignite the BBQ grill and the metal tip was now hot, and I pressed the hot tip against the inside of the back legs of Tomboy. Tomboy immediately scratches you, bites you and runs off. I then ask you, "How mad would you be at Tomboy?" You reoly, "I am not mad at Tomboy, I am mad at you because you did that to Tomboy."

I then say, "Instead of me, Tomboy and you, imagine that it is the coach, volleyball and you. Some coaches will use volleyball to get at you, whether to motivate you, or punish you, or just because they don't know better. Don't let volleyball be a tool in this dynamic. Recognize the situation, understand it, and keep loving volleyball."

"Ahh... I get it," is the reply.

Is there a "lucky side" to pick when selecting which side of the volleyball court

Is there a "lucky side" to pick when selecting which side of the volleyball court to defend. I have had the dubious benefit of having multiple college level statistics courses, so the analyst in me said it really didn't matter. Then one day I saw our high school coach tell the team captain to change her pick of which side to defend for game 5.

I asked him afterwards why it mattered, as it really shouldn't. He said in many high school gyms, and especially in volleyball club facilities, there is a difference as the backgrounds can make it harder to see the volleyball clearly.

He uses an unscientific method to select which side to defend; he selects the side that has produced the most wins for either team.

Volleyball Club Coaches are Like Portfolio Managers

A parent recently was complaining that there really was nothing she could do if she didn't like a high school volleyball coach or volleyball club coach; that she was really at the whim and favor of the coach, who just happened to not be playing her daughter too much in tournaments.

I stated that a club volleyball coach is different from a high school volleyball coach in that a club coach is more like a portfolio manager. We entrust our valuable portfolio to the manager and pay him or her a fee to manage and improve the value of our portfolio for a specific time period, generally of 6 months.

At the end of this time period our daughters are returned to us, hopefully with more value (and hopefully they had fun) and skills than when we engaged the coach at the beginning of the season.

If they are, we consider retaining the same portfolio manager for next club season, and if not, we find a new manager.