Why do you need a team captain at the younger ages?

[Anonymous]

My son switched clubs last year and in the past, the coach would send a kid out for the coin toss, but it was always random. This last season, we had a designated "team" captain on the team and the things the coach would say to this kid was ridiculous such as "you are the Capt, you do that again and and you'll loose that role son." The kid was a solid player, other than wearing an arm band we couldn't figure out what the big deal was about being a "captain", my son was also perplexed why. This was for U11 and after a year of seeing/hearing this I still don't know why it was so important for this coach to appoint a team captain.

[Anonymous]

It could be your new to the club and don't know that particular player/coach relationship. The coach may feel he he's pushing this player just out of his comfort zone enough to see some growth. If he has the confidence to make him captain. He may know the particular player can handle it. By pushing the player slightly out of his comfort zone to continue developing the player into a leader. The question is , Is he treating all the players the same? If he is that may get negative results at such a young age as all kids at U11 aren't ready or may never be ready for that. I would commend his efforts as a coach if he can figure out each player individually. Developing each player by individually finding and expanding their comfort zones is what great coaches do. To answer the original question, Yes captains should be at all ages and used as a tool to develop leadership.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I have seen a lot of weird stuff happen regarding captains. Like appointing a shy 8th grader to captain a mostly 9th grade girls team…like that will work. Also having a vote for captain then just overruling the vote and appointing the managers kid.

[Anonymous]

I’m glad my U11 DD’s Team rotates teams captains every game. The coach selects 2 captains, typically a goalie/defender and a midfielder/forward.

[Anonymous]

You don't.

In my view, "team captain" is one of those things that comes around from time to time in youth sports as a "good idea" that pretty much never works. The kids are not around each other enough in a club sport so that non-playing field issues develop. And, if they do arise -- a pre-teen or early teen kid is never going to be any good at helping bring about a positive resolution.

In high school -- a team captain can serve a real purpose as they are a person who is actually in the school every day. They can serve a role between the coach and the team members as the source of some team communications -- e.g. what practice field today. What jerseys to wear, etc. . . . Communicating any team event stuff - in particular -- any late changes to event stuff.

They can also do things like get practices going if a coach does not work at a school and may run late. And, by 16-18 they are old enough that they may have the maturity to handle minor disputes between players. (Mostly to say "knock it off"). My daughter was a high school team caption for 3 years. The first year she said and did nothing off the field -- sophomore not going to tell Juniors and Seniors what they should be doing. By Junior year she was confident enough to do some off the field stuff. Senior year she and her other captains - also Seniors - actually did quite of organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It could be your new to the club and don't know that particular player/coach relationship. The coach may feel he he's pushing this player just out of his comfort zone enough to see some growth. If he has the confidence to make him captain. He may know the particular player can handle it. By pushing the player slightly out of his comfort zone to continue developing the player into a leader. The question is , Is he treating all the players the same? If he is that may get negative results at such a young age as all kids at U11 aren't ready or may never be ready for that. I would commend his efforts as a coach if he can figure out each player individually. Developing each player by individually finding and expanding their comfort zones is what great coaches do. To answer the original question, Yes captains should be at all ages and used as a tool to develop leadership.

NO NO NO, not at the younger ages. You do realize, you want the team captain to really lead during the game, keeping teammates focused, etc. None of them are able to do that at the younger ages, they need to listen to the coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It could be your new to the club and don't know that particular player/coach relationship. The coach may feel he he's pushing this player just out of his comfort zone enough to see some growth. If he has the confidence to make him captain. He may know the particular player can handle it. By pushing the player slightly out of his comfort zone to continue developing the player into a leader. The question is , Is he treating all the players the same? If he is that may get negative results at such a young age as all kids at U11 aren't ready or may never be ready for that. I would commend his efforts as a coach if he can figure out each player individually. Developing each player by individually finding and expanding their comfort zones is what great coaches do. To answer the original question, Yes captains should be at all ages and used as a tool to develop leadership.

NO NO NO, not at the younger ages. You do realize, you want the team captain to really lead during the game, keeping teammates focused, etc. None of them are able to do that at the younger ages, they need to listen to the coach.

Once you are old enough for travel soccer. You can separate the snowflakes from the rec teams and the kids that are ready to compete. Its fine to start teaching leadership and pushing limits to get players better. Giving responsibility to a player is in fact coaching them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son switched clubs last year and in the past, the coach would send a kid out for the coin toss, but it was always random. This last season, we had a designated "team" captain on the team and the things the coach would say to this kid was ridiculous such as "you are the Capt, you do that again and and you'll loose that role son." The kid was a solid player, other than wearing an arm band we couldn't figure out what the big deal was about being a "captain", my son was also perplexed why. This was for U11 and after a year of seeing/hearing this I still don't know why it was so important for this coach to appoint a team captain.

It's not typical from our experience. Our DD's coach did rotate only 2 kids for the coin toss and he called them "captains" but it wasn't really very formal. It seemed to us and the kids a way to recognize kids who are really nice kids and work hard but might not be the top scorers or other types of stars. Like more of a way to call out "role models" for things they could control like attitude and work ethic. No one seemed put out by it and DD has a lot of respect for those girls.