The Captain Class summary

Society loves to put talent on a pedestal and worship those who possess an amazing singing voice, a deft hand for visual art, tremendous athletic prowess or a gift for mathematics.

But when we take a closer look at team sports, we can see that talent isn’t the decisive factor for winning trophies.

The American football coach Vince Lombardi is often brought up when people discuss the greatest coaches of all time. Many credit his motivational skills as being instrumental in turning his team, the Green Bay Packers, into NFL champions and Super Bowl winners.

However, while brilliant coaches can be influential in a team’s success, they’re not necessarily a requirement.

If you’ve watched any movie about a sports team, you know there’s always a moment when one team is facing a crushing loss until one of their players makes a desperate but brilliant play that turns the tide.

These moments of desperation and courage in the face of adversity are exactly the kind of moments that can inspire a team to give it their all. This is important because athletes and players tend to give less than their all when they’re part of a team.

There are two activities in which society seems to think it’s acceptable for people to hurt one another for victory: war and sports.

However, in both cases, the people involved will be heavily scrutinized over the methods they use.

Superstar players are the kind that will get the ball as the clock is seconds away from hitting zero and score the game-winning goal or basket every time.

But most captains aren’t this kind of ego-driven player and rely on different qualities to gain respect and lead their teams.

We’ve seen how a captain’s dedicated performance can inspire his teammates. As such, you might think a team captain will also be the one in a team huddle giving impassioned, motivational speeches.

We’ve certainly seen this plenty of times in Hollywood movies. But in reality, most team captains will leave the speeches to the coach or someone else.

If you’ve played team sports, you may have experienced the thrill of everyone on your team locking in and feeling like your minds are all perfectly connected.

Scientists and psychologists have known that humans have a capacity for herd-like behavior and group mentality. But it’s only been relatively recently that they’ve identified mirror neurons.