Sam Walker is the author of 'The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates The World's Greatest Teams".
(Here are a couple of links to the books:
Amazon: amazon.com/Captain-Class-Hidden-Creates-Greatest/dp/0812997190
Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31869155-the-captain-class)
The focus of the book is a look into the greatest teams in sports around the world with the desire to find what they might all have in common; a secret, if you will, to building a successful team or franchise.
I won't go into detail but I've found a couple of articles that provide a summary if you're interested:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/george...-the-captain-class-brave-leader/#23cb1a267e2f
https://www.15minutebusinessbooks.c...s-by-sam-walker-my-six-lessons-and-takeaways/
Here's one of those from the Forbes article listing six categories:
Values – What matters and why
Strong convictions and courage to stand apart and stand up for the team to anyone (starting with the conviction of the importance of the team over everything else including self).
1 - Attitudes – How to win
Extreme doggedness and focus in competition almost to the point of madness – like playing through concussions (All Blacks’ Buck Shelford), broken toes (USA soccer’s Carla Overbeck) or even heart attack (USSR hockey’s Valeri Vasiliev).
2 - Ironclad emotional control — including having a “kill switch” to turn off distracting thoughts - like French handball’s Jerome Fernandez’ father’s imminent death.
3 - Relationships – How to connect
Motivates others with passionate nonverbal displays — like the Pittsburg Steelers Jack Lambert’s letting the blood from his hand gash smear his jersey and pants.
4 - A low-key, practical, and democratic communication style — with a bias to private words of encouragement or correction over public speeches.
5 - Behaviors – What impact
Aggressive play up to and often beyond the limits of the rules — including taking penalties when they lead to better results for the team - like Cuba volleyball’s Mireya Luis taking trash talking to new heights against Brazil.
6 - A willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows of more acclaimed teammates — like carrying water or bags or cleaning up or accepting less than market value in pay to create space versus a team salary cap to bring in other players the way the Spurs’ Tim Duncan did.
And here's a quote from an interview that the author, Walker, gave:
It's an interesting premise so I thought I'd post it here.
We're all hoping for a turn around with the Miami Dolphins franchise, and one that lasts. If there's any truth to the premise in this book, then one might ponder where Flores and Tua match up.
I don't want to create any false hope or make any crazy predictions, but rather thought it was something different and worth thinking about. I have to say I think that perhaps there's a chance that both our new HC and QB have a lot of the characteristics in place. So maybe that bodes well for the future. It is, of course, too early to tell.
Your thoughts guys?
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Puka-head My2nd Fav team:___vs Jets Club Member
Looks like a good recipe for successful leadership regardless of endeavor.
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Interesting article, but a lot of fluff, I believe in two elements that make a great organization in sports, especially one that a abides by a hard cap..
1) great ability to evaluate talent.
2) great head coach.
I know we have one., arrow is pointing up in the eval Dept. -
Yeah, it seems like it's very basic. Think about it...who would look for the opposite of any of these things? Who would say "I want players who dont care and want to lose"
Unless it goes very in depth into HOW to accomplish these things it seems kind of fluff as mentioned. -
Reading the 6 categories of values, the '72 Dolphins came to mind, particularly the category of values when it came to selflessness. The TEAM is more important than any one player and are "you" willing to put the team before your own personal achievements?
That team had a will to win like no other team I've ever seen in all of my years of watching football. -
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I mean, look at the men's hockey team in the '72 Olympics...they were one of the least talented teams in the whole tournament and for the most part, they hated their coach. But they out-worked everyone by a long shot and showed up with endless determination. The key left out in those six points is wanting it more than anyone else and the willpower to push yourself to new heights. We saw it when Buster Douglass beat Tyson and so many other times in modern sports where the underdog was simply hungrier and refused to accept defeat....that's simply work ethic and desire.
Heck, we saw it in week 17 last year against NE; does anyone really believe that Miami was the "better" team? Heck no, but we showed up and played harder. That's what matters...human willpower combined with leadership. -
Offensively I would have to say it was Griese. While the offense had a myriad of talent with Csonka, Morris, Warfield etc, Griese led that offense, even after he went down with his broken leg and Morrel came in relief through the rest of the season.
However, for the entire TEAM, Shula was the LEADER! Following Miami's humiliating 24-3 loss to Dallas in Super Bowl VI, Shula was NOT going to let that happen again. It was the second trip to the big game for Shula and twice he had lost, the first to Broadway Joe and the Jets when he coached the Colts. Shula was NOT going to let his reputation be that of one that couldn't win the big one. It was SHULA that was dogmatic during the off-season and instilled his no nonsense sense of discipline and motivation in the team. It obviously paid off as the '72 Dolphins remain the ONLY undefeated NFL in the Super Bowl era.resnor likes this. -
"If I don't get what I want or need 'here', I can get it with another team once I'm a free agent".
Now there have been some quarterbacks that have restructured their contracts to free money against the salary cap and in that regard, there's an example of selflessness but when you look at some of the great players in the league...take Frank Gore for example; a GREAT sunning back, but how many different teams has he been with?
Going back to the '72 Dolphins, there was indeed selflessness...until the WFL was formed. That league saw the defection of 3 of the Dolphins' greatest players; Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield leave the Dolphins for lucrative financial deals with WFL. -
Tell me you aren't giving everything you got for that team at that point.