I agree with everyone on a lot of what has been said, but I think one important thing not necessarily mentioned is to make everything seem attainable. I know personally when I would watch videos of the best teams on the circuit killing sets, it was in ways discouraging because we were so far from that. It was tough to put myself in those shoes because I was a new dancer. I saw it more as watching an NBA team as opposed to watching my peers. So what was helpful for me, and what I continue to do with newer dancers, is show team alumni who are now dancing on other teams. Show people who hadn't danced before joining YOUR team. It becomes much more attainable - "You will get there if you buy into our system because X person and Y person did."
Starting out practice, it's important not to make it seem too daunting. Having tough 4 hour practices where no jokes are allowed is tough to get people excited. Last year, we made a team trip to a trampoline place where we just screwed around for 2 hours in place of practice. It helped more than any two hour cleaning practice could be.
Efficiency is appreciated and rewarded. As captain, you must be on top of your shit at every possible moment. Choreo and formations must be done in advance, but more than that, speakers should be there on time, you should never be one minute late to an event. That's when leading by example really makes a big difference. People will buy in, only if they see you doing it.
Find clever ways to get things done and enforce rules. People began showing up late to practice one semester while I was captain. We implemented the policy that for every minute you're late, the entire team has to do one bhatak. So if 5 people came 10 minutes late each, we would have to do 50. It was began as a joking way to punish people, but by the end of the semester, stamina was definitely up, form on batkhe was definitely better, and people showed up on time more frequently.
Perform on campus. Perform randomly in the quad or on a main walkway. Dress up. Get a crowd of 100 people who just stop and watch you on their way to class. That's the easiest way to: 1. Get everyone on your team to do a full all-energy run; 2. Get dancers to feel like celebrities on campus and get more excited to continue to grow as dancers.
There are tons of little things you can do as captain. Just keep your mind open to crazy ideas that could work with your particular group. I personally sheltered my team from the "circuit" to some extent, because often new or rebuilding college teams who post videos get called out to an unhealthy extent (which can be discouraging for new dancers). But that was just my way of keeping morale high.
