Team Management

Roster Hierarchy:

  • Captain
  • Assistant Captain
  • Player

 

It is required that each team have a captain and at least one assistant captain.  The purpose of having two players with similar roles is to ensure that there always is a backup for team leadership.  If the captain cannot make it to league, then the assistant knows what to do and the overall experience for all players involved in the match will be enjoyable.

Examples of things Assistants can do (captain present or absent):

  1. Keep Score
  2. Manage Practice Table list – ensure everyone is getting adequate practice time
  3. Remind Captain to post next match early and inform the players – if the players know who is playing then these two players can get more practice time.

 

NOTE:  Players are NOT captains (nor the assistant) and shouldn’t speak up (peanut gallery).  Only the players in the match, and captains of the two teams, are to be involved in any discussion regarding the match in progress.

 

 

Team Management – Practice time / Match Postings:  

Captains know their player schedules so that the practice table can be managed well in order for everyone to come and go and get enough practice to have a successful match.  Post people based on their preferences – if someone cannot stay late as they get up early the next day one shouldn’t post them in the last slot.  Considering strategy to win, and, balancing not being up all night, are key factors to consider with match postings.  Know your players, recruit different people with different time slot availability so you have roster and posting flexibility.

 

The success of a team often parallels the strength of the captain. 
A good captain:
  • Recruits the right PLAYER SKILL MIX for the league they play in (RACE GRID vs PERFORMANCE for example)
  • ROSTER DEPTH – has enough players to rotate weekly play so no one has to be there every week.
  • Roster PROFILE – roster has 3-5 ‘regular players’ and the rest part-timers (various degrees of part-time) so you have the right ‘profile’ so everyone on a team of 10 can ‘fit’ together.  With 10 players the captain always has ‘options’ and player fatigue doesn’t set in.  Everyone can play ‘when they want to’ versus ‘I have to be there.’
  • Roster PLANNING for each match (assuming 8-10 players per roster, only 5 play per week, thus ‘planning’ who plays each week).  Communication to all players so they can plan their lives.
  • POSTING STRATEGY is also key to success.  This plays off ‘roster planning for the week.’  This plays off ‘depth’ (enough roster options for posting options).
  • PLAYER VARIETY IN POSTINGS – sometimes it is the right match-up, however the player has played that person multiple times before but hasn’t played other players on the team.  If a player plays ‘different people’ on the other team they have ‘good variety’ in who they play at it is more enjoyable overall and they last ‘long-term.’

These lead a team towards achieving success.  Generally successful teams stay together for a long time as they enjoy the success.

On the flip side, the opposite can occur………  Without a strong captain team frustration sets in and the team roster shrinks one person at a time.  Often players ask to move them to another team because of the lack of team organization.  —- Or — a captain leaves the team and didn’t have an assistant captain trained in their place – and the transition is annoying to people and they change teams looking for someone ‘who knows what they are doing.’  A captain, and a well-trained assistant captain, collectively lead the team to success, and the opposite happens without strong team leadership as the roster erodes one person at a time until there isn’t a ‘team’ anymore.  Thus it becomes time to change the captain, or, find a new one as they didn’t have an assistant waiting for their opportunity.

In addition to team leadership, Recruiting is a key ingredient too!  Example – we all know that players leave for natural reasons – moving away, new job with different hours, marriage, new baby, etc  A captain needs to recruit to replace people.  Recruiting is easy !!!  All you have to do is be social, play with strangers, talk with them, discuss league, softly ‘recruit’ them by telling benefits (competition, cash, vegas).  On other league nights, hang out and talk to them.  Tell them the benefits of ACS and most realize ‘ACS pays more cash’ and they run to ACS – they just have to be told !  Just talk to strangers and they generally are excited to join.  When captains don’t even ‘try’ to recruit the team goes the wrong direction.  When they don’t try to recruit the existing players are forced to play every week (versus nights off) which leads to fatigue and then a ‘long break’ which doesn’t help the team (if the captain still hasn’t recruited – now they are short 2 people and so on – going the wrong direction).  Also, with less recruiting a team has less posting options which often leads to poor results and more player frustration and more roster shrinking.  These players often ‘take breaks’ and then come back to ‘a different team’ as this is a diplomatic way of saying ‘I didn’t enjoy the experience on the other team but I didn’t want to tell them.’  A captain has to be able to recruit in order to have players to manage to success.   They have to ‘try’ to recruit and it naturally happens the way we need the process to flow.  People want to play pool !  They want to make cash !  They love the idea of vegas.  Recruiting is easy.  All we have to do is ‘try.’

After recruiting, which again is really easy, the captain can keep a team together if they understand ‘depth,’ ‘profile,’ ‘roster planning, ‘ etc.  A captain can be trained and all captains can be successful overall.  No doubt.  Easy stuff.  One has to ‘try’ instead of ‘showing up and wondering who is coming tonight’ and then ‘wondering why it didn’t work out when they didn’t have the right match-ups for that night.’  Team management.  Depth. Profile Etc.  Basic stuff – who does it better is the difference.   A motivated captain, with training, can be successful if they want to.  There are many great examples of successful captains and they all have the common characteristics that help their teams do well.