If you are in the running to be your volleyball team’s next captain, congratulations! It is a great privilege to lead a hardworking team to success. As a team captain, you won’t just be the official representative of the team.
You will also have a lot of responsibilities to take care of as you act as a liaison between the team, staff, training programs, competitions and so much more. Do you have what it takes?
The 5 essential qualities of a good volleyball team captain are:
- Excellent administration skills,
- Thorough knowledge of game rules and strategies,
- Respect of the other team members,
- Dedication to the team and the game,
- Ability to motivate and inspire team members even when the team fails.
What’s expected of a volleyball team captain may change from one team to the next. While one captain might be expected to handle some training sessions, others might not. A lot of your responsibilities will depend on your coaches.
That being said, you still need to have a certain level of dedication and a variety of good team captain characteristics to excel in this particular position. Let’s take a closer look at each of the qualities mentioned above to find out if you fit the description or requirements of an excellent volleyball captain.
What Is A Volleyball Team Captain?
Many players wrongly believe that the best player on the team should be the next team captain. While this has a certain amount of merit and best players should certainly be rewarded, this doesn’t always make them the best team captain.
What if the best player has exceptional game skills, but lacks leadership skills or has no time for anything extra that’s involved? The best player might not be able to motivate and inspire other team members through both good and bad times. This doesn’t mean that the role and title of team captain should be handed to just anyone though.
Choosing a team captain is about finding someone who can be a go-between for the players and the staff, ensure the team is practicing sufficiently, and keep everyone together as a close-knit team.
Sometimes these characteristics aren’t found in the best player on the team, but sometimes they are. Before you accept the role of team captain, just ask yourself, “Am I up to the challenge?”
Let’s consider each of the 5 essential qualities of a good volleyball team captain below.
1. Excellent Administration Skills
Some coaches delegate a lot of work to their captains and this work is often of an administrative nature. There is a lot more to the role of a captain than meets the eye.
Again, how much is delegated to you is up to the coach, but below are a few of the summarized responsibilities that you can potentially have:
- Have a thorough understanding of the rules, participation policies, and code of conduct that affect the team – and ensure that they are adhered to/enforced. You should also make sure that you keep current with any changes that might be happening in volleyball as an overall sport and keep members informed of newsworthy info along the way.
- Manage practice, game, and competition schedules and ensure the players and parents all know when and where the team will be leaving and meeting for all events.
- Assisting with managing the team’s uniforms whether helping with designs, collecting sizes, fees, and distributing them to team members.
- Keeping game sheets, rosters, and schedules up to date and recorded. It is important to have a running record of all practice attendance, members information, games and tournaments attended, and so on.
- Future volleyball player recruitment. Help to spot prospect and welcome them when they try out for the team.
- Be available to assist coaches and team members with training and strategizing. Captains are expected to be highly dedicated, missing minimal or none of the training and practice meetings.
- Finally, on the court, the captain has a special role in volleyball because the coach doesn’t directly speak to the referee. Only the captain is allowed to address the referee when questioning a call or filing an objection.
It is important for the captain of the volleyball team to have the right spirit. The captain is a servant leader. Coaches should choose a player that is competitive, hard-working, positive and embodies the qualities they want their whole team to reflect.
2. Thorough Knowledge Of The Volleyball Game Rules & Strategies
While coaches are typically tasked with teaching techniques and helping with team strategies, it is sometimes better when a teammate takes the time to ensure that all team members are familiar with the rules and strategies. It is important for the team captain to be prepared to get actively involved.
The coach can’t be out there on the floor when your team is facing their toughest challenges. By having a thorough knowledge of all game rules and your team’s gameplan, you can help your teammates to be at their best.
This actually helps to tighten up play and ensure everyone is on the same page. If you notice a teammate making mistakes during the game, you can give them advice and teach them alternative techniques. This is certainly an expectation of a player with team captain qualities.
If you would like to get better at knowing all of the rules, spend some time reading on websites like this one!
Check out articles like Volleyball Serving Rules: Your Questions Answered or 23 Net Violations In Volleyball And The Rules Behind Them
3. Respect Of Your Team Members
Probably one of the most important qualities of a volleyball team captain is respect from the other team members. You will find that it is easier to lead if your teammates respect you.
This doesn’t mean that you have to be “best friends” with each of the team members, but you should have a rapport with teammates and they should look up to you. Personal characteristics that earn respect include:
- Clear communication skills.
- A show of confidence in the team and each player.
- Respectful behavior towards others even if they have differing opinions and outlooks.
- An attitude of fairness, kindness, and understanding.
- Being in control of yourself – no angry outbursts.
- Show of equality/equal opportunity – no favoritism.
- Display of obvious dedication to the game and team.
Remember, if you want others to respect you, you’ve got to treat them with respect first. Breaking that trust makes it very difficult to lead them in the future.
4. Dedication To The Team & The Game
A team captain needs to show dedication to the team and the game. This means that the captain must be willing to do everything that the rest of the team does and then some.
It is all about being willing to take on extra responsibilities and handling those responsibilities with maturity and a meticulous approach. Being captain is not about dumping off tasks and responsibilities to other teammates.
Dedication is showing up for all practices and meetings, encouraging all teammates to be just as dedicated and present, sacrificing personal time for the benefit of the team, doing additional research to improve strategies and games, and generally making yourself “always available” if it helps the team and ensures improvement and success along the way.
A good team captain encourages a team to practice, practice, practice while instilling an attitude of “anything for the team”. The captain is able to resolve issues within the team and keep the team thinking and working as a team, regardless of any hardships and differences of opinion that might arise.
Having an undeniable passion for volleyball and the success (and well-being) of the team is a great way to show your teammates just how dedicated you are. If you can take it upon yourself to put the team and its success ahead of yourself, you definitely have team captain qualities.
5. Ability To Motivate And Inspire Team Members
A good team captain has a “take charge” approach when it comes to motivating and inspiring team members. If you are thinking about becoming the next volleyball captain, take the time to get to know each of the team members a little better.
Try to get a better understanding of what makes them tick. You should also observe them carefully to ascertain their fitness levels as well as their volleyball skill strengths and weaknesses.
Having this knowledge will help to motivate and inspire the team in such a way that appeals to all members. If a particular team member is struggling, you can encourage them in a way that works best for his/her personality instead of simply trying to motivate people in a way that only works for you.
This goes a long way towards helping to drive motivation and encourage renewed effort, even when the team isn’t doing so well. It is easy to encourage a team that wins every game and tournament.
What is really telling is if you are able to boost morale when things are not so great – that can be challenging! It is being able to keep a team going when the going gets tough that makes for an excellent volleyball team captain quality.
Last Word On Captain Qualities
Good volleyball team captains have the above qualities and more. Whether you are in the running for the position or are looking for qualities to measure potential captains up against, these are qualities of good leadership and if you see these in yourself or another, you won’t be making a bad choice.
These qualities that every player should try to develop, whether they want to be named the captain or not. These are the traits of a strong leader and every team could use another one of those!
Recent Posts
Athletes, listen up! Do you have a closet full of old jerseys, sweatpants, and tees that you just can't seem to part with? Well, dust them off, because you're sitting on a goldmine of fashion...
You may have heard, or you may have noticed, that there's been a change to the rule about double contact in volleyball. In 2022, an experimental rule change began to be implemented, where the double...