Captain Class

Walker, Sam

£12.99

‘The Captain Class’ draws on a lifetime of sports spectatorship and two decades of sports reporting to tell the surprising story of what makes teams exceptional. Sam Walker had been searching for the sporting holy grail, a unifying theory of what makes teams win when he discovered certain similarities in cases of sustained greatness in teams across a number of sports. They were all lead by a certain type of captain, but not one with the characteristics you might expect. They were unorthodox outliers – disagreeable, marginally skilled, hot-headed, occasionally unhinged, athletically sub-par, poor verbal communicators, while off the field they were private loners who avoided the limelight.

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Publish Date: 17/04/2018
ISBN: 9781785030291 Category: Tag:

Description

The secret to winning is not what you think it is.
It’s not the coach. It’s not the star.
It’s not money. It’s not a strategy.
It’s something else entirely.

The founding editor of The Wall Street Journal‘s sports section profiles the greatest teams in history and identifies the counterintuitive leadership qualities of the unconventional men and women who drove them to succeed. Fuelled by a lifetime of sports spectating, twenty years of reporting, and a decade of painstaking research, The Captain Class is not just a book on sports; it is the key to how successful teams are built and how transformative leadership is born.

Several years ago, Sam Walker set out to answer the most hotly debated sports question: what are the greatest teams of all time? He devised a formula, applied it to thousands of teams and listed the 16 most dominant teams ever across all sports, from the English Premiere League to the NFL. But what did these freak teams have in common?

As Walker dug deeper, a pattern emerged: all teams were driven by a singular type of leader, a captain, but not one you might expect. They were unorthodox outliers – awkward and disagreeable, marginally skilled, poor communicators, rule breaking and rather than pursuing fame, hid in the shadows. Captains, in short, who challenge your assumption of what inspired leadership looks like.

Covering world renowned teams like Barcelona, Brazil, the All Blacks and the New York Yankees to lesser known successes of Soviet ice hockey or French handball, The Captain Class unveils the seven key qualities that make an exceptional leader. Drawing on original interviews with athletes, coaches and managers from two dozen countries, Walker questions if great captains are made or born, why teams pick the wrong captain and how the value of the captain can be revived.

Additional information

Weight 239 g
Dimensions 200 × 128 × 23 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

xvii, 332

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

796.01 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K