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Overview

The most important thing in a winning sports team is the captain. The best teams throughout history all had captains with certain qualities, and those are the qualities that make them successful. A captain must have these characteristics to be effective, and one should also look at whether they need superstar talent to be a good captain or not. Another important factor is how their cheekbone breaking affected their role as a leader of the team, and what kind of dance helped increase morale for teamwork.

Big Idea #1: The best teams have great captains, but they’re usually not the superstars you have in mind.

Every once in a while, there comes along a sports team that’s so good at playing their sport that they’re practically invincible. This was the case for the Boston Celtics basketball team between 1956 and 1969.

The Boston Celtics and the New York Yankees were both dominant teams in their respective leagues. The Celtics had yet to win a championship when Bill Russell joined them, but then they went on to win 11 championships over the next 13 years. Similarly, Yogi Berra was not a star player for the Yankees before he became team captain; once that happened, they started winning championships again. These trends can be seen in other sports as well, including Australian football (AFL). The Collingwood Magpies dominated during Syd Coventry’s time as captain of the team.

In every team, a key player is promoted to the role of captain. However, they aren’t always the best players on the team; instead, they are often average and their coach will usually be able to point out one or two skills that they lack. They’re also quiet types who avoid interviews and public speaking.

Generally, team captains are not the kind of players who lead their teams through a dramatic last-minute win.

There are certain commonalities in captains. They lead their teams to victory, but when they’re not there, the team loses. What makes them so special is that we can’t figure out what it is about them that makes a difference. Here are some things to look at as you try to identify those qualities and emulate them for your own teams.

Big Idea #2: Talent and a big budget will only take a team so far.

Society loves to focus on talented people. When we look at sports, however, it’s clear that talent isn’t the only factor for winning trophies. In other areas of life, too, a cluster of talents can lead to amazing results. A study by the University of Texas showed that when teams are asked to accomplish intellectual tasks, they do better if most members have above-average skills; in other words, a talent cluster is more effective than having one person with all the skills.

But this isn’t true for sports. In fact, the teams with the most talent are generally not winning championships. For example, in 2000, Real Madrid signed some of the world’s best players including Figo and Zidane. However, after a strong first year, they ended up having three straight losing seasons without any trophies to show for it.

While it may seem that you can buy a winning team, the truth is that you can’t. Many people have tried to do this by spending lots of money on their teams, but they don’t win because they’re not really a good team.

A lot of people believe that a team’s success is dependent on its financial situation. However, there are many examples where teams performed well despite being poor. One example is the Collingwood Magpies, an Australian football team from the 1920s that won four Grand Final titles in a row despite not having much money to spend on players. Thus, it isn’t about talent or money; rather, it’s about something else entirely.