Quit worrying about you as a coach & start focusing on your captains 🏆👑

Published: Fri, 07/28/17

The secret to winning is not what you think it is.
It’s not the coach. It’s not the star.
It’s not money. It’s not a strategy.
It’s something else entirely. - Sam Walker - The Captain Class

I just finished reading Sam Walker's The Captain Class. He studied the most successful professional sports dynasties over the past 150 years and looked for common traits those teams had.

If you're like me, you assumed it would be one of these:

A legendary coach
A superior organization structure
A G.O.A.T. player

Spoiler alert - the common trait he found on the 16 teams he deemed as the 'tier 1' dynasties was none of these. Instead, it was a captain that possessed the following 7 characteristics:

Doggedness and its ancillary benefits
Playing to the edge of the rules
The hidden art of leading from the back
Practical communication
The power of nonverbal displays
The courage to stand apart
Regulating emotion

What is fascinating about his list is the contrast in what we currently think of as the best leaders/captains. Michael Jordan's and Derek Jeter's teams did not make the cut.

The leaders of his 16 tier 1 teams were not interested in talking to the media or being great public communicators, in fact they were the opposite. They did not want the recognition of being the face of the franchise.

As a Cavs fan I have constantly wondered about Lebron James' self-declarations as being 'the greatest player on the planet,' and how that affects his relationships with his teammates. We've seen one answer to that recently with one of the other best players on the planet, his teammate Kyrie Irving, asking to be traded, citing not wanting to play with Lebron.

Lebron's characteristics, similar to Michael Jordan's, do not fall in line with this list the best dynasties possess. It doesn't mean they won't win, Jordan and James have multiple championships. Walker argues that it just means their non-team-first attitudes make it hard to have sustained success.

The biggest takeaway I had from this fascinating book was:

As a coach, I need to spend less time trying to become 'the perfect coach,' and much more time trying to develop my leaders and captains with the 7 characteristics on this list.

Next seek I'll share a great leadership video I recently was introduced by national champion softball coach Patrick Murphy shared.

Great captain training curriculum

I don't endorse many products, but the biggest no-brainer of a product I believe in is the curriculum Adam and his team have developed at Lead 'Em Up. In talking with Adam, I wanted to help spread the word, so he offered a discount for Winning Youth Coaching followers - just enter discount code 'wyccoaches' and save 10% off at checkout at leademup.com.

NEW WYC PODCASTS

WYC 124 – College track athletes – Dr. Charles Infurna talks the Mundanity of Excellence

Dr. Charles Infurna has 10 years of coaching experience at the Division III level, he has had the great pleasure and privilege to have coached and mentored two Division III National Champion Weight Throwers, 10 All-Americans, multiple ECAC champions, and numerous SUNYAC and Empire 8 Conference Champions in the Hammer, Weight Throw, Discus, and Shot-Put. He writes a blog at forzathletics.com Before completing his dissertation he wrote a lot about programming, workouts, overviews of meets, and even included some vlogs. Since finishing his doctorate, he has focused more on how environment and support systems play roles in athlete successes.

Go to podcast episode

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Make winning the right way your habit starting today,
Craig

Craig Haworth is the founder of Winning Youth Coaching, a site dedicated to helping coaches and parents make youth sports an awesome experience for the youth and the parents. He interviews coaches from around the world and posts them on his podcast, which currently has over 120 interviews and has been downloaded over 195,000 times. He writes a weekly note to coaches and parents. He is married to his high-school sweetheart and they share the blessing of 3 children and live in Franklin, TN. You can sign-up for his weekly note here, find him on twitter at @craighaworth1, or visit his website winningyouthcoaching.com.

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"

- Frederick Douglass