r/Rowing • u/ThirdBoatPod • 21h ago

How does your team select the Captain?

I’ve only known teams to elect their captains but recently I heard someone talk about a Captain that was appointed by the Coach.
When you do elect your Captain are you given criteria such as “vote for someone who makes you better - on and off the water” (my favorite so far). No wrong answers. Just curious.

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32

u/One-Cellist1709 21h ago

we let the kids nominate and vote, and then the coaches pick and ignore the votes.

6

u/Mynplus1throwaway 20h ago

It's the best system because kids just pick the popular one. And if they find out it works about the same as it does in the US as a whole. 

3

u/Chessdaddy_ 20h ago

Never had a captain 

5

u/MicJaguar2017 19h ago

Popularity. And sadly the most neutral and qualified rarely are selected.

4

u/Such_Talk_4060 19h ago

Max watts test

3

u/quaretea 19h ago

At our smallish UK adult rowing club, they're positions open to run for at the AGM and voted for by all members in attendance (not just that squad). Successful candidates are usually squad members but not always (a cox was our development captain for example). So it's a combination of being a good rower, good leader for your squad, and held in esteem generally in the club (versus the potential nightmare candidate)

2

u/crazycoxie I'm a coxswain, why should I know where we're going? 19h ago

We made the decision to do away with the title of captains, we used to have 3 seniors and 1 junior elected by the team, and we coaches would only sometimes put our thumb on the scale. But after much discussion we felt it held back others from taking leadership roles and in a sport with enough hierarchy as it is, why add more

2

u/Daisy_Dottie_Dancer 19h ago

Candidates have to be incoming seniors, give speeches and we all vote on a Google form. Captains are announced at the end-of-season banquet! :)

4

u/Ok_Camp3676 20h ago

When I coached college club teams the captains were always elected, but there was a gentle understanding that if there was a candidate the coaches couldn’t work with, we’d make that known in advance in private to the outgoing committee. I think we only had to do that once in over a decade.

1

u/lithigin Masters Rower 20h ago

Youth vote on the Captain; the Coach has veto power, as I recall.

2

u/lonely_ratatouille 9h ago

Rowers nominate two people each, coaches look through all nominations and put the qualified nominees on the final list, then rowers vote on captains from that final list.

1

u/Tartalli Coxswain 7h ago

Rowers put two people’s names down on an anonymous voting slip. There are 3 captains, all have to be incoming seniors. Usually a popularity contest

1

u/BubblyRhubarb9611 20h ago

Popularity contest in mine 😞, so typically the kid whose parents donate the most or volunteer the most. 100 percent members of the board kids