Bowling News
It is at this time of year that clubs start to look forward to the summer season and decide how many teams they can run in each league and who is going to captain those teams. The selection of a team captain can make or break that team and maybe even that club. Let's take a closer look at the role of the captain of a crown green bowling team.
!s the role of the captain of a bowling team important or not? Does your captain just see his role as ensuring he has a full team every week or does he go further than that? Can a good captain make a difference to the success of a bowling team?
These are questions I asked myself and I soon realised that there is not an ideal model for a captain to follow and circumstances often dictate how the role is performed but that shouldn’t be allowed to detract from the potential impact a good captain can have on your team and your club.
A good captain is nothing if he doesn’t do the basics well. That is ensuring that he has a full team every week and that he can react when something untoward happens such as someone failing to show on a match day. These are important duties which will be made easier if your captain has embraced the wider responsibilities of the role. If you have a good team spirit then it is easier to convince someone to fill in at short notice than if there is any ill-feeling within the ranks.
The captain has a major role to play in developing a good team spirit by how he handles difficult and sensitive situations both within the club and with team opponents. Few bowlers want to get involved in inter-team disputes especially those of us involved in Veteran’s League bowling where the quiet life is increasingly welcomed (although we all have our grumpy old member to work-around).
When a bowler is left out of a team then that must be handled sensitively if you don’t want to lose that individual for future selection or annoy their friends who think that they have been treated unfairly. It is easy to assume that they will be happy to sit a game out, few of us are, and reassurances about their future involvement and importance to the club are key in retaining that individual’s support and interest. Something about changing the pairing of bowlers can introduce tension and misunderstanding if handled badly, it is so easy to get it horribly wrong.
So how do you select a team captain or is it a case of getting anyone you can because it is a thankless role and no-one wants to do it? There isn’t usually a queue of people lining up for consideration but making the wrong appointment can result in long term damage not just to your team but to the club.
Should your best bowler be the captain or isn’t that important? We play a game which is easy to identify your top performers by the results and averages that are readily available. These same records can be used to aid team selection but it is a foolish captain who takes all these statistics at face value. There are more things to consider than just the basic set of facts and figures and to be so single-focused will do an injustice to your team members who will see the bigger picture.
Yes results and averages are important but an opponent, a pairing, a particular green, the weather, these are all variables that must be factored into measuring past performances and any future decision making about team selection.
I can recall an occasion when I merited promotion to a club’s higher team. I played three times for that team during which time the captain never spoke to me. I was never introduced to any of the other team members, most of who I had never seen before and finding a scorer was an embarrassing chore. It should have been no surprise that I lost all those three matches I played, didn’t enjoy myself at all and couldn’t wait to get dropped. I maintained that I didn’t play well because of the way that I was treated. That may not have been the total answer but it was certainly an important contributor. I would not play for that team again and at the end of the season I found a new and friendlier club to play for.
I noted with some understanding that this club reduced their number of entered teams for the following season. How many bowlers have your team lost because they haven’t been made welcome? That leadership has to come from the top down and sets the tone of behaviour expected of members without which the repercussions will be long felt.
The art of good captaincy is often under-valued. I know captains who have taken the role beyond ensuring a full complement of players each week. The good ones you can see taking the role seriously. I know one who will never mark a card because he explains that he needs to watch all team members, not just one. He is happy to take on the role of measurer but finds marking a game is too restrictive for what he sees as the wider role of a captain. That stance allows him to get around the green talking to scorers and bowlers alike. He creates the opportunity to talk one-to-one with every team member at every match if only to pass the time of day. That ensured the contact was there and the team member had the opportunity to raise issues with them in a confidential manner if they so wished.
Usually the captain took these opportunities to check out that each member was happy with things within the team, that their pairing was working for them, that they will be available next week or any future games when they would not be available, how is their game going, is there anything they need from the club. Opening up a dialogue isn’t always easy but can result in good feedback and often a minor change can make a huge difference to a bowler. Something that is no big deal to change and implement could be readily received and ensure that a bowler retains a commitment to the team.
If you don’t talk to and listen to your team then you will never learn what they are thinking and concerned about. Sometimes they are concerned for a fellow team member and that gives you a prompt to follow that up with that particular individual. Don’t under-estimate the power of listening to your team members. Team talks from the captain certainly have a place but the one-on-one conversations are much more powerful and, if the culture is right, are much more open and meaningful.
I remember a bowler who never turned up for the start of a match as he knew he would not be playing until the second half of the game. This way he avoided marking a card and generally failed to embrace the role of a good team member. How a captain handles such a situation is important. Other team members were watching how the captain managed the situation, something many of them were uncomfortable with.
On this occasion the captain was aided by the fact that the opposing team turned up one bowler short for a match one day. The captain had to leave one of his team out without an opponent. With the aforementioned bowler still not showing it was an easy decision to make. Just by being perpetually late he had eliminated himself from a game that week and realised that the same could happen again in the future. This time the captain was aided by the circumstances but that won't always be the case and ignoring such a bad situation can turn the whole team against the bowler and the captain.
Many teams start a match with the best of intentions to support the bowlers on the green by spreading out around the green to provide support and guidance to those in play. However that intention is sorely tested most match-days as small gatherings develop and the absence of a team member to tell whether they ‘are on or not’ irks many a bowler especially when he sees several team-mates having a cosy chat and ignorant of his frustrations. The captain has a role here but if he has got his team set up right then he will find that the team will be reminding each other of their support responsibilities without the need for a captain to shout out to all.
Some captains take the easy option whenever possible, it is human nature to find the easy way out of any difficult situation even if it isn’t always in the best interests of the team. Take the instance of which player to leave out when, with everyone available, he is spoilt for choice one week. The captain who leaves himself out is taking the easy option which may not be the best option for the team. Those that introduce a rotation system of those to stand down have my sympathy. For a team that has no aspirations of success then this can work but in my experience, such tactics guarantee that this team will never have success whilst trying to keep everyone happy. The good ambitious bowlers will be frustrated by such an approach knowing that they are just turning up for a team with no intention of challenging for honours. The good players will move on pretty quick if the team’s ambitions are less than their own.
I find that most team captains are appointed outside of team meetings. That means that they have been approached by some team members to take on the role so that they can be presented to team meetings as the approved candidate with an engineered groundswell of support. Normally this is to fill a vacancy with very few captains being deposed as it is viewed as a thankless task that few would take on.
It is good if your team has put you forward as that is a good starting point but beware of their intentions. Sometimes it is to ensure that they don’t get put forward for the role themselves or it may be that they think they can captain the team through you without the hassle and repercussions of their actions. Other team members will soon see through this and you will be viewed with suspicion and regarded as weak.
A good team captain will get players playing for them as much as the team, bowlers will put themselves out at short notice to help out, will take on tasks others are reluctant to assume, will put the needs of the team before their own needs and contribute to a feel-good culture that makes it a joy to turn up every week, playing or not.
Leading a good team punching above their weight will bring a lot of satisfaction for the discerning team captain regardless of their own personal form. If only the team recognised when they have got a good captain and don’t take all the credit for any success. Because, as sure as eggs are eggs, if the team is successful it is all down to the players but if they are unsuccessful then it is almost certain to be labelled as the captain’s fault. Such is the way of the world of bowling and most team sports.